Ranked #3618

Digital Devil Monogatari Megami Tensei

Digital Devil Monogatari is a clear example of adaptation gone terribly wrong.

Based off a series of RPG games, the plot haphazardly tries to follow the storyline set in the game. Teenage Akemi who is a reclusive, unfriendly computer whiz dabbles in the digital world, forming bonds with powerful creatures and demons through computer programming. The story also follows a transfer student named Yumiko, who feels oddly bonded to Akemi after their first gruff meeting in school. The secrets to their relationship and their True Purpose in life is revealed when Akemi unwittingly releases demons into the real world after getting the stuffing kicked out of him by some bullies. This event causes Akemi to subject his fellow students to computerised mind-control in which they avenge him as he is incapable of standing up for himself. Mostly this anime is a failure in terms of reproducing the story from game to anime.

Now, this story is terribly flawed and filled with numerous inconsistencies and plot holes. First off, how are we to even comprehend the logistics behind a boy using digital data to summon magical creatures from the demon world? Not only that, they materialise throughout the computer and attack people. So, if they were indeed able to reach the real world through the net, then they should be able to appear anywhere since the internet is not tangible. Unless of course computers are ports from the demon world to the real world, but this is never mentioned or explained. They certainly don't explain how typing 'Kill, kill, kill.' on a computer screen can cause legions of brainwashed students to exact Akemi's revenge. To top it off, the second half of this short OAV seemed to have taken storyline cyanide, as you watch the plot become so ridiculous and pretty much terrible, throwing out any sort of characterisation and turning Akemi into some sword-wielding action hero.

Digital Devil Monogatari is not the prettiest anime out there. Made a few decades ago, it lost any sort of artistic appeal and looks terribly dated. The animation is downright terrible at points, and the only fight scenes that looked decent is when Akemi was being pulverised and when the bullies get their comeuppance. Other than that, the art for this anime look like masses of grainy colour and splashes of heinously pink tones.

Sound is just plain bad as well. There were a few instances in which it was actually quite suspenseful and interesting to the ear, but most of the anime sounds like this: bleep bleep bloop. Sound effects were pretty much a bust. The background music, whenever it was present, sounded like music made from a synthesizer that was running on its last legs.

Digital Devil Monogatari has a pretty weak cast, mostly because of character and personality inconsistency. Akemi starts off as aloof, broody and selfish. But he completely changes and starts acting considerate and emotional about halfway into the anime. And then in the last stretch, he turns into a brave action hero type. It doesn't make sense that he goes through three different changes with no transition from one to the other. How does one go from being pathetic and letting themselves be humiliated by bullies to then taking on demons and soaring through the air and kicking ass and taking names? I suspect that happens when given a big overcompensating sword. Yumiko is devoid of personality. She spent most of the anime screaming. Terrible character.

This OAV is a sad, sad adaptation. It does not explain any situation whatsoever, so if you have no prior knowledge of Digital Devil Monogatari, then the beginning, middle and ending of this anime would make very little sense. In terms of any warnings, it is violent and there are some potentially graphic scenes. No nudity, no cursing, but there is a twisted sense of sexuality and sensuality within this anime.

It pretty much ended up looking like a half-rate hentai that did not get the greenlight to add any nudity or full-blown sex. Stupid pointless protagonist? Check. Girl with no personality? Check. Unbelievably crappy storyline? Check. Creepy, tentacle-like monsters? Check. Demons having physical relations with humans? Check. Nakedness? Darn it!

Watching Digital Devil Monogatari is like watching a dying creature crawling over gravel, hurting itself. You just want to put the poor thing out of its misery by shooting it. Or yourself. read more

Story: A girl named Yumiko transfers to Juusei Academy and finds very accepting people except for one guy, Nakajima, who treats here like dirt and seems to have a large amount of power, given the students and even teachers scrape and bow to him. Later that night, Yumiko spies on Nakajima and finds, to her horror, Nakajima is trying to summon a demon by the name of Loki through his computer. Eventually Loki is able to be fully summoned out of the computer and turns on Nakajima, almost killing him and Yumiko. Through a brief series of events, Yumiko and Nakajima break free and eventually end up killing Loki.

The story seems very easy to follow, but the anime makes it difficult to understand what is happening and why. Throughout the story, Nakajima constantly shifts between dreams and real life and when Yumiko is almost killed, a woman speaks inside her head and she gains the ability to shoot lasers from her eyes. This is just a sample of the crazy things that happen through to the end and it is very hard to understand how any of this has a connection to the main story. The only reason the story did not receive a lower score was because there was a basic story that moves from point A to point B and the usage of computers for demon summoning is a really neat idea, but even then, it was hard not to give this a worse score.

Animation: This OVA is from 1987, so the animation is not expected to be on the level of the animations of today, but this was one of the better aspects of this anime. There is a bit of gore in this and it was done pretty well, but that is about the only part. For the majority of this anime, the color scheme uses just about three colors almost the whole way through, green and black with a bit of red. There are a few times when other colors are used, but by the end, it is easy to forget about them. At one point, Nakajima is looking out across some mountainous land and the art for it was actually really good, but is quickly gone. Overall, the animation was about mediocre, and barely.

Sound: The voice actors did their job, but it is nothing to brag about. They conveyed the appropriate emotions at the right times, but that is about it. The music was just horrible 80's synthetic music, if that is what you could call it. It did not fit the anime at all, when there was music, considering there was just a lot of silence throughout the majority of it. Some of the sound effects were not bad, though, so it saved the OVA a little.

Characters: There were characters in this? On a serious note, the characters in this were just horribly done. There was no background to them, except Yumiko is a transfer student and Nakajima is a computer whiz who is trying to summon demons. There are incidents that happen to the characters throughout, but there is no knowledge of why or what they have to do with anything pertaining to the rest of the story. These characters really are nothing but just lumps of flesh running around doing something that is supposed to be important.

Overall: Being a huge Shin Megami Tensei fan, this OVA looked like it would have been pretty good, but the shock of how horrible this turned out to be was just incredible. Even for major fans of this series, this will be a major disappointment to most, if not all viewers. The bad animations, bad music, and horrible characters are just a few of the turn-offs of this anime. Unless you have nothing better to do, you would have a more enjoyable time playing with the neighbor's rabid dog. read more

I like old school anime a lot. Since I hadn't seen this one I decided to watch it.

The RPG was great fun, so I wanted to check out the OVA. I shouldn't have done that >_<

It's one VERY cheesy OVA even if you consider how old it is.
Still it's entertaining in a quaint and WTF kinda way. Has loads of action and hack and slash, BUT the story is filled with so many inconsistencies that it's both confusing and annoying.

The plot is pretty bad, and the horror effects are medicore.

Sad sad adaptation. If you want to get some cheap laughs, or your really bored, go watch it. If not, stay far away from this one.

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Basically, I enjoyed this anime because it fleshed out the background of the megaten series a bit. It is more directly based on the DDM book than the Famicom game that followed it, leading eventually to the "two men in black" splitting off from NAMCO to form Atlus.

However, in general, it is fairly pathetic, even by old-fashioned standards.

Taken as a compliment to the light novel, though, it works fairly well, so overall, I rated it as "good", or 7/10... however, for most people, I would recommend watching something else... leave this for diehard megatenist, or fans of the DDM light novel (which is still not officially in English, but there is a fan-translation).

Hope this helps.
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