It’s easy to find compilations online of all of the best moments from these OVAs, but trust us when we say that it’s absolutely worth it to experience the entire thing for yourself. The events covered in this adaptation are pretty intense in the manga, but fall fantastically flat here since none of the characters sound like they have any idea what they’re saying.

Akira is soft-spoken before his initial transformation, but still swears like a sailor (“No fuckin’ way Ryo, I’m outta here!”) and reacts with bland dispassion at Ryo’s story of his possessed father (“Your father tried to kill you? ...Incredible!”). Ryo himself is overly dismissive of everyone (“I don’t give a shit, this is very important.”) and even slips into a New England accent every now and then (“Let’s get da fuck outta heah!”).

There’s also a section near the end of The Birth that reeks of half-assed dialogue written to fit lip flaps. While cradling Ryo’s possibly dead body, Akira screams in anguish “WHY GOOOOOOOODDD!!” twice, in almost the exact same tone of voice each time. The awkwardness goes on and on, with hardly a minute passing between moments that will have you howling with laughter. Step aside, Sailor Moon SuperS – the Devilman OVAs are the true apotheosis of bad anime dubs.

So how did this side-splitting dub come to be? Needless to say, foreign anime dubbing wasn’t a full-fledged industry in 1994, and tools like lip flap editing weren’t available. On top of that, anime wasn’t seen as a viable medium for Western audiences yet. AKIRA helped bring it into the spotlight, but its original dub was of questionable quality. Simply put, nobody could really be asked to make faithful adaptations of anime in the ‘90s – much less adult-oriented shows like Devilman.

So with the amount of care put into this dub, it’s no surprise that most of the actors weren’t exactly experienced. Alan Marriot (Akira) and Larissa Murray (Miki) were newbies who had few credits to their name at the time, and Adam Matalon (Ryo) wasn’t really an actor at all. Today, he’s better known for being a producer for Sesame Street. The dialogue writer George Roubicek had no other writing credits before this (and only one after it), and English may or may not have been his first language. We’re spoiled today by actors and script writers who have the experience and passion to do the job just right, but the dubbing scene of two decades ago was sorely lacking in both.