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Devilman Crybaby: An underwhelming adaptation of an old classic;

As a long time fan of Go Nagai's Devilman, I was excited, but cautious, when this new adaptation was announced. Having been a long time fan, I am wary of adaptations, specially if they are Netflix Originals, as their track record is not very good.

Then, on January 5th, It came out. During the first month or so, all I heard were praises. People where calling it Anime of the Year, modern classic and "groundbreaking". I was surprised and decided to watch it after the Hype had died down, so to not be very influenced.

So I started. And ... let me tell you, finishing it was an arduous task.

As soon as episode 1 began, I really didn't like the art style. It may work for something like Ping Pong, but in my opinion it does not fit Devilman, at all. The animation is wonky and every shot is really ugly.

The art also completely removed me from any scene of tension or emotional moment. It was very distracting, to the detriment of the show as a whole.

The music was nothing memorable either. The only thing I remember is the OP and the Devilman no Uta, but that's it. During the show I didn't even realize songs were playing, they just tuned out in the background.

However, I could get past all that, specially because I love the manga, If it delivered a great story with a modern take on this beloved classic.

That was not the case, the story tries to modernize itself but oversimplifies stuff to the point of making it boring. There is zero subtlety on, everything feels like a teenager tumblr post.

The changes also don't make much sense. I am not going to spoil anything, but the changes to Ryo to me are the worst, as it makes his character very different and, for me, worse off.

However, the worst part s the over sexualization. Sex doesn't mean adult or mature, and Devilman surely didn't need it.

Why do we need to see Akira's bulging penis?
Why do we need to see him cum on the ceiling? What purpose does it serve?

Even with Sirene, the whole point was that he saw her as a beautiful creature, not as a sex object for his desire.

It felt forced, as if they just added this extra sexualization to pander to western audiences.


Devilman Crybaby is bad, completely ruins most aspects of the original and completely misses the point.

But hey, at least it gave us a new edition of the manga.

The manga starts as a fun read, with a creative premise and situation. Since neither the reader or the characters knew anything about what was going on, it felt eerie and weird, as in, “what the fuck is going on?”, I’d say this was a good start.

But that’s it, after the initial beach chapters, the manga starts showing it’s terribleness.

Unlike most of Ito’s manga, Gyo, doesn’t have that creepy atmosphere always looming in the background, normally represented by the visuals, be it the dreadful backgrounds or the sheer expression of terror on the character’s faces. One of my main gripes with this manga is that ... it focuses too much on the premise, dead sea creatures with legs and walking among earth are scary at first, but a strong premise isn’t nearly enough to hold an entire manga on it’s own, it needs more than that to keep the reader engaged and entertained.

Gyo is a gore fest, it’s obviously trying it’s hardest to shock you and show off the nastiest images possible, but it doesn’t do that very well. Drawings of gore aren’t that disgusting, specially when it’s so ridiculous and over the top.

The “story”, if you can call it that, is simple and very cliché, another “save your girlfriend, save the world” kinda story, where the main character gets involved in all this and has to save his love, eventually discovering what really happened and the truth to these horrible creatures, despite being a completely average person. To make matters worse, he’s nothing new and hardly developed, if at all. it’s also incredibly hard to feel anything for the girlfriend when she’s just a damsel in distress.

The explanation of the mystery and events tries to be very scientific and realistic, but fails miserably, in actuality it is terribly lazy and weak, with a bunch of science mumbo-jumbo sprinkled in the middle.

Junji Ito wasn’t at his best when writing this, at least his other most popular work, Uzumaki, being as average as it was, had a stronger premise and also was an enjoyable, interesting read, the characters were realistic and had amusing reactions to their world and what was happening, you won’t find anything like that here.

Most manga by Ito has interesting visuals and presents something new and scary every chapter, a smart move by the author. It’s hard to be sacred by something you are familiar with. By keeping it fresh and introducing new horrors, he keeps that feeling of uneasiness and dread, the feeling of not knowing what’s to come. This is evident in that most of his work are one-shots or very short manga in general. Gyo, however, barely introduces new horrors or monsters at all, it escalates things, sure, but you can only be so terrorized by a shark with legs after you’ve seen it many times.

It’s become clear that Ito wanted to creep you out with the “monsters” on this manga, and that’s fine, but on this work, were the monsters are almost all fish, they get old fast, losing the impact along with it.


It’s easy to get a shark, put some legs on it and call it a monster.

The best I can say about it is, besides the beautiful art, that the ending doesn’t have any sequel-bait and just ends things quickly.

Don’t read this.

If you are interested in Junji Ito’s works, go read Uzumaki, Junji Ito’s Horror Collection or, better yet, The Enigma on Amigara’s Fault, a short tale on the end of this book, great fun and by far the best thing to come out of Gyo.

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