OVA
Description
Kei Annō is the central protagonist of the three-part original video animation De:vadasy. He is a teenage boy characterized by his short black hair and blue eyes. His life changes drastically when he is recruited into the international organization Spirits, which has been formed to combat an alien invasion threatening Earth.
Kei’s personality is defined by a blend of adolescent apathy and a pronounced lack of self-discipline. His initial motivation for joining Spirits is notably mundane, driven more by a desire to skip schoolwork than by any sense of heroic duty. He often comes across as flippant, perverted, and largely unpleasant, treating those around him, particularly his childhood friend Naoki Matsudo, with a casual disregard. Unlike some mecha protagonists who are defined by their angst or insecurity, Kei is depicted as being ruled by his hormones and an aggressive impulse that only intensifies as the story progresses.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Kei is not a typical recruit. His grandfather led an expedition that discovered the giant mecha Devadasy and the mysterious girl Amara in a Tibetan temple twenty years prior to the series' main events. This connection to the past is tied to Kei’s present, as he is psychically linked to Amara, experiencing erotic dreams about her even before they physically meet. This link deepens when he is chosen to pilot the Devadasy, a machine that requires a male pilot and a female co-pilot, whose sexual energy is used as its unconventional power source. His role in the story is therefore twofold: he is the designated pilot of humanity’s ultimate weapon, and he is a crucial, if unwitting, participant in a strange, reproductive cycle orchestrated by the alien forces and the mecha itself.
Kei’s key relationships are fraught with manipulation and dark undercurrents. His connection with Naoki is that of a strained childhood friendship, where her obvious concern and romantic feelings for him are met with his harshness and, in a pivotal and disturbing moment, a violent attempted sexual assault. His relationship with Misako Takashina, a senior officer within Spirits, is entirely transactional and clinical; she seduces him not out of affection, but to obtain his sperm for analysis, as the nanomachines within the Devadasy begin to alter his biology. The most significant relationship is with Amara, the mysterious co-pilot. She is the object of his psychic and physical desires, but their union is part of a larger, ancient plan. It is strongly implied that Amara, who appears to be a teenager but was discovered two decades earlier, used Kei to gestate a new form of life, effectively making her the source of his creation and his partner in a bizarre form of procreation.
Kei Annō undergoes a dark and disturbing development throughout the series, exhibiting little of the positive growth often seen in protagonists. As he continues to pilot the Devadasy, the mecha's nanomachines and the drugs administered at the Spirits facility exacerbate his aggressive tendencies, causing severe headaches and altered behavior. This culminates in his traumatic assault on Naoki and his increasingly vicious behavior in battle, where he attacks the enemy with a disturbing eagerness. By the end of the OVA, his physical and psychological transformation is nearly complete. He is left traumatized by his own actions, only to be revealed as being "pregnant," on the verge of giving birth to a new mecha, a process initiated by his union with Amara and the alien entity. This final narrative twist completes his arc from a lazy, hormonal teenager to an unwilling vessel for a new, cosmic cycle of life.
As the pilot of the Devadasy, Kei’s most notable ability is his capacity to operate the giant humanoid robot. However, piloting the machine is not a simple matter of skill; it requires a symbiotic, psychosomatic connection with his female co-pilot. Their combined sexual energy serves as the mecha's power source, a process that physically and mentally affects both of them. The Devadasy is an organic machine that can bleed and transfer damage to its pilot, and Kei’s growing instability is directly linked to his exposure to the nanomachines within it. Beyond simple piloting, Kei is unwittingly the subject of a grander design: his body is the medium through which the alien power seeks to create a new future, demonstrating his ultimate "ability" is not one he controls, but one that is used by forces beyond his comprehension.
Kei’s personality is defined by a blend of adolescent apathy and a pronounced lack of self-discipline. His initial motivation for joining Spirits is notably mundane, driven more by a desire to skip schoolwork than by any sense of heroic duty. He often comes across as flippant, perverted, and largely unpleasant, treating those around him, particularly his childhood friend Naoki Matsudo, with a casual disregard. Unlike some mecha protagonists who are defined by their angst or insecurity, Kei is depicted as being ruled by his hormones and an aggressive impulse that only intensifies as the story progresses.
As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Kei is not a typical recruit. His grandfather led an expedition that discovered the giant mecha Devadasy and the mysterious girl Amara in a Tibetan temple twenty years prior to the series' main events. This connection to the past is tied to Kei’s present, as he is psychically linked to Amara, experiencing erotic dreams about her even before they physically meet. This link deepens when he is chosen to pilot the Devadasy, a machine that requires a male pilot and a female co-pilot, whose sexual energy is used as its unconventional power source. His role in the story is therefore twofold: he is the designated pilot of humanity’s ultimate weapon, and he is a crucial, if unwitting, participant in a strange, reproductive cycle orchestrated by the alien forces and the mecha itself.
Kei’s key relationships are fraught with manipulation and dark undercurrents. His connection with Naoki is that of a strained childhood friendship, where her obvious concern and romantic feelings for him are met with his harshness and, in a pivotal and disturbing moment, a violent attempted sexual assault. His relationship with Misako Takashina, a senior officer within Spirits, is entirely transactional and clinical; she seduces him not out of affection, but to obtain his sperm for analysis, as the nanomachines within the Devadasy begin to alter his biology. The most significant relationship is with Amara, the mysterious co-pilot. She is the object of his psychic and physical desires, but their union is part of a larger, ancient plan. It is strongly implied that Amara, who appears to be a teenager but was discovered two decades earlier, used Kei to gestate a new form of life, effectively making her the source of his creation and his partner in a bizarre form of procreation.
Kei Annō undergoes a dark and disturbing development throughout the series, exhibiting little of the positive growth often seen in protagonists. As he continues to pilot the Devadasy, the mecha's nanomachines and the drugs administered at the Spirits facility exacerbate his aggressive tendencies, causing severe headaches and altered behavior. This culminates in his traumatic assault on Naoki and his increasingly vicious behavior in battle, where he attacks the enemy with a disturbing eagerness. By the end of the OVA, his physical and psychological transformation is nearly complete. He is left traumatized by his own actions, only to be revealed as being "pregnant," on the verge of giving birth to a new mecha, a process initiated by his union with Amara and the alien entity. This final narrative twist completes his arc from a lazy, hormonal teenager to an unwilling vessel for a new, cosmic cycle of life.
As the pilot of the Devadasy, Kei’s most notable ability is his capacity to operate the giant humanoid robot. However, piloting the machine is not a simple matter of skill; it requires a symbiotic, psychosomatic connection with his female co-pilot. Their combined sexual energy serves as the mecha's power source, a process that physically and mentally affects both of them. The Devadasy is an organic machine that can bleed and transfer damage to its pilot, and Kei’s growing instability is directly linked to his exposure to the nanomachines within it. Beyond simple piloting, Kei is unwittingly the subject of a grander design: his body is the medium through which the alien power seeks to create a new future, demonstrating his ultimate "ability" is not one he controls, but one that is used by forces beyond his comprehension.