Devilman: Crybaby

Yuasa Masaaki’s adaptation of Devilman was a disgrace. I felt that I should discuss what I had problems with, since I’m a self-proclaimed Devilman fan and I’ve been posting about how excited I was about it since its announcement and I subsequently, fanatically, binge-watched it on Netflixーonly to feel sad because the Devilman that I had grown to love was turned into a shit show.
 
· One of the most bothersome aspects of Devilman Crybaby, in my opinion, was the gratuitous sexual content. I know someone is probably going to say, “Well, what do you expect? It’s Go Nagai!” And while I am aware of ... Nagai’s pants off approach to his stories, Crybaby made the original manga look like it was made by Walt Disney. It was so vulgar that it detracted from the story, and with the ONA only being ten episodesーnot the wisest thing to waste time on. This series was more like Devilman Lady than the original comic, which every Go Nagai or Devilman fan will know is just pointless smut.
 
· Another complaint was the additional characters, who didn’t do anything for the story. There’s a graphic rape scene of one of Miki’s classmates, then she masturbates, and then later in the series, she willingly has sex with a hobo. There’s really no point to her character, not to mention that she transforms from looking like a typical Japanese girl to Sasorina from Heartcatch Precure? Why? There’s also the addition of a homosexual track star, who serves no purpose in the story, other than to slaughter a stadium full of people, become a good guy, and then betray Akira’s group.
 
· There is nothing to be gleaned from the constant references to track and passing the baton. There was a reference to Akira (metaphorically) trying to catch up to his workaholic parents by joining the track team, but I found it exceedingly tasteless when the same metaphor is used before Miki is beheaded and killed.
 
· Akira’s character is not very well-written, he’s pretty much transforms from a wimpy porn-addicted loser to an athletic porn-addict who every girl at school wants to bang, who rapes Sirene while battling her in the air. No, that’s not a joke. With the exception of the last scene between Sirene and Kaim, Sirene was delegated to nothing but a sex object. I felt that it was an insult to her character. I mean it makes sense, seeing as she’s the most sultry woman in the Devilman franchise and is crazily obsessed with Amon, but anyone who’s read the original manga or the spin-off, knows that there’s more to her character. Like the overzealous pride that she harbors her strength in her demonic strength, which Crybaby only states in a single sentence of exposition.

· I disliked that they ACTUALLY made Ryou and Asuka childhood friends, where in the manga, it was implied that Psycho Jenny altered Akira’s memories to enable Ryou to get close to him. I think there could have been some interesting dialogue between Akira and Miki regarding that, if Akira was the only one with altered memories.

· With Yuasa Masaaki being the creator of Tatami Galaxy, I thought that there would at least be one reference to Satan having to kill Akira over and over again because of his falling out with God, but Crybaby doesn’t even mention that Ryou had feelings for him, so the ending was confusing and moot. I browsed Reddit afterwards and people new to Devilman seemed to be confused about that, which is understandable because I did not see Crybaby as a an entry level series, or a series for the fans.
 
· The best parts of this god awful, doujinshi of a series were Ryou Asuka and Psycho Jenny. I think their personalities weren’t horribly debased like the others. Sadly enough, the Amon Apocalypse OVA (which was full of cringey, edgelord crap and numerous plot holes) was better than this series. I feel like the theme of humanity being the true devils was overshadowed with random shocking events and Masaaki choosing to be artsy, rather than a tasteful director.
 
· I wasn’t going to mention much about the visuals, because you know what to expect with Yuasa Masaaki, if you’ve ever seen anything else that he’s done. The character designs are really, really ugly. I don’t know who green-lit them, but Ryou with bowl-cut hair, Akira with a bulging cleft chin that looks like a pair of testicles, and Miki having a tan-line similar to Azusa’s from K-On and looking like she stepped straight off the set of Digimon Tri was not aesthetically pleasing to me.
 
· The music sounds terrible, with the exception of the Devilman no Uta cover, but everything else sounds cheap, like what you would hear at the end of a Hallmark movie. Not to mention that nearly every episode, we are bombarded with freestyle rap that is completely unnecessary and seems to be trying too hard to be racially inclusive, producing unbearably moronic results, and failing at making the Devilman franchise appeal to a Western audience.
 
· The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth and I don’t even connect the name of Devilman, a manga that had a big impact on me (along with the OVAs), with this monstrous, lewd fanfiction of an adaptation. Much like that terrible Neo Devilman anthology, but worse, because this is an officially released Netflix seriesーnot just a bunch of mangaka drawing interpretive one-shots. I am really disappointed in this series and hope that anyone new to Devilman will skip it and go back to the source material. I haven’t been a fan of Yuasa Masaaki’s works since Tatami Galaxy, so this will probably ensure that I never watch something that he directs ever again. I give Devilman Crybaby a 3/10.

If you just want a short version without spoilers it's right there at the very bottom.

I don't remember the last time an anime disappointed me as much as Devilman Crybaby. When it was announced I was excited about one of the best anime directors potentially making a candy out of what is mostly a schlocky action horror manga with a simple anti-war message and some really ballsy plot choices. My friends and a lot of people in general were expressing how the show touched them and I thought this time around the characters will be fleshed out and I'd care about what happens to them ... but it all fell apart.

I'll be referencing manga throughout the review. Original material in my opinion serves as a good point of reference because while Crybaby brings over almost entirety of manga's material it also adds and removes things that muddy the elements of original story that made it work.

One thing that will become noticeable right off the bat is this isn't going to be a straightforward adaptation, instead of prologue explaining that demons used to inhabit the world and how their fusion mechanic works we get a few shots of flying through space and Ryo saying how since love doesn't exist then neither does sadness, or so he thought. My problem with this is that manga's opening is a strong introduction to the world of Devilman, it captures you with the unusual premise while simultaneously providing information that's relevant throughout the story. Anime instead tries to lure you in with mystery of why Earth just got bombed, it could've easily been coupled with the aforementioned info but instead it's fed to the viewer at the very end when it doesn't really expand their knowledge and won't be relevant any further because the show is about to end.

Manga shares with us the perspective and mindset of demons right away, understanding it makes the conflict a lot more interesting because instead of it just being good guys against of bad guys it makes you think whether or not demons have a point.It's better than the anime framing it as evil doing evil things which makes people turn evil and good guys have to serve as the last outpost of hope.

Second problem is the addition of Ryo and Akira being friends since childhood and it's a problem with many layers to it.
One is that it's clearly there only to try and make the viewer invested into the their relationship, make the betrayal at the end feel more dramatic, establish Akira as a deeply empathetic character and set up Ryo as a... psychopath? It sounds good on paper but in reality it's one of the things that adds to why Crybaby comes off as manipulative instead of genuine, you know nothing about these characters and you won't by the end of the show. Their relationship is not fleshed out and it starts off at a point that immediately makes Ryo unlikable so what weight does the betrayal have?

Two is that it made more sense in the original that Satan only planted himself in the human world for a few years to get grasp of human culture and set his plans into action. It makes more sense than being sent down to Peru where some villagers worshiped him as some idol while some special operatives kept trying to come and kill him with guns and explosives for god knows how long.

Another reason why I think this is that Crybaby is a clear shift from original in terms of mood while also repeating all the elements that set the mood of the original, resulting in a pretty idiotic clash. Original Devilman story was bold partly because it didn't have humans be the good guys, the story is told from the perspective of a devilman, someone who's no longer human and not entirely a demon, he doesn't have place on either side yet Akira agrees to abandon his own humanity as it is the only way to save it. In the anime he just kinda does it cause Ryo tricks him into a sex demon drug party but the result is the same, if anything anime Akira is even more passionate about saving the human race because he's such a deeply empathetic character. Either way, as I mentioned, devilman is in a way a third party separate from humans and demons.As the story went on Akira got more and more aggravated at the actions of humans who through their own pride, greed and conceit helped manufacture circumstances brought about their own undoing. Near the end, before he snaps, he is already close to the edge which was expressed in a scene where he's faced with the scientists who killed people precious to him precisely because they were close to him and as such, to demons. The scientists plead for their life and tell him that they never harmed any of his kind, they only killed other humans. That's when Akira tells them that even though he's got a demon's body, his heart is still human and these scientists while human in appearance, are just as bad as the demons. In the anime Akira tolerate everything... including his best friend creating the circumstances for people to murder each other based on false information. But who actually cares, right? Because anime completely throws out the explanation of what is required for demons to possess humans and what happens when requirements aren't met yet it still uses the original mechanic of strong human heart being able to control demonic nature.

Original Devilman is a lot more bleak and hopeless, it hammered its themes home by not sugar-coating them or favoring one side over the other which a lot of fiction concerning the atrocities of war forgets to do, thereby obscuring the whole point it tries to make. Yuasa doesn't have many works under his belt that would carry the similar mood, I've only seen Mind Games, Tatami Galaxy, Kaiba and Ping-Pong and in all of them, despite difficult times the characters have to go through there's usually an overall positive mood and a promise of better tomorrow, it's partly why his other works are actually incredibly touching and personal. I feel like he attempted to do the same thing here but you can't just do the original story and add few sentimental moments and expect it to work.

As anime continues, more people might have a problem with how much sex there is, there's a relatively long scene of people using drugs and just boobs and butts and vaginas which culminates in a lot of stylish over the top violence. I personally found Sabbath scene to be incredibly impressive in accurately capturing the purpose of the whole gathering with no limits. In the original manga, before Ryo and Akira enter a hippy rave with drugs and alcohol Ryo explains that in order for a demon to possess a human he needs to abandon all sense and become a mindless animal. That's why they start off by doing drugs and Ryo then goes into a violent frenzy that gets them both beat up. In anime I guess his violence is just straight up senseless. Either way, the way it was done in anime is almost perfect and I still enjoy it but it also sets a trend for a lot of horny shit happening later on at pretty much random for no reason. Anime version of Serene seems to only think about having sex with Amon and masturbating, why was that there I do not know. Akira also has two scenes where he has wet dreams which make him turn into devilman, which one time leads to his ceiling being comically splashed in cum. You might have guessed it, it's another problem I will eventually mention when talking about tone. Aside from this there's also an original character whose job is to make erotic photos of teenagers, one of them is Miko who is nothing like her manga counterpart and is a different character altogether, anyway, she and Miki are implied to have done some photo shoots with the perv and while Miki probably haven't done anything out of the ordinary, Miko is shown masturbating while getting photographed, later on memories of it and Akira's huge dong make her so horny she starts masturbating again while making donkey noises.

I think you get the point, there is A LOT of sex in this and the best reason I can come up with it to justify it is that Yuasa for some reason wanted to show how demons are really horny like it's a thing they basically have to do, cause Akira spends a lot of the time prior to Sirene fight just being incredibly horny, after the fight though it slowly but surely phases out of the story. If this is why he decided to add it then it's still bad cause he never elaborates on it and there's no logical arc to it or anything in general so it's just senseless schlock sex. I just think it's one of those cases where they add it to be cool and edgy like a lot of old OVAs tried to do. It also contributes to difficulty of taking the show seriously when you have a somewhat serious scene of characters talking but one of them has ridiculously huge tits just hanging out there like it's nothing. I'm no prude, I like boobs as much as everyone but this is just obnoxious.

Chronologically next issue I had with the anime is tone, it's all over the place. In one moment it's comedic, next shot it's tragic, next shot it's badass over the top violence. Tone is extremely important when it comes to guiding the viewer, getting your message across and making sure the scene makes people feel they way you want them to feel. Using the frame composition, music, sound effects, visual effects, dialogue etc. the director can make you either laugh or be afraid of the same scene and when all of this is randomly mixed together the viewer won't know how they're supposed to feel or what was the scene supposed to convey. The sequence that felt the worst in this aspect to me was the colosseum event where one of the runners is forced to turn into a monster and starts murdering people. When he does so a cool synth soundtrack kicks in and you see a cool monster rampage around killing everybody but then to the tune of same synths you watch a crowd of people desperately try to get out, all crying and moaning and begging for someone to save them, it's supposed to be tragic, I guess? There's nothing badass about that scene but it's set to the cheesy synthwave music, so it seems rather inappropriate and it does switch to a more dramatic orchestral track later on for no reason but it's also interrupted by some dude just sitting there on the field and listening to [RELAXING MUSIC] until he gets suddenly stomped with perfect comedic timing. Was that supposed to be funny? I don't know but it certainly seemed funny to me because of how absurd it was, why was that cut even there? Anyway, later on we switch to Akira turning into a badass Devilman and watch him carry away the huge bull demon cause it's actually just another confused devilman who murdered a bunch of people cause he doesn't understand how to control his demon body. There are other silly scenes towards the end where a plane cutout goes woosh over the scene to crash into a low-res gradient sphere and people kill themselves by jumping from high building with a very nice, crunchy and comedic sploosh and a mad preacher who shouts bible verses and then whips out two uzis and starts shooting everywhere. At that point it's clear that Yuasa wants you to see how crazy and paranoid people have gotten but it comes across batshit stupid and hamfisted.

I didn't exactly have much positive to say about characters so far, that's because there are no good characters in Crybaby. Not every show [needs] developed characters, something like One Piece can get away just by giving them a few quirks and attributes to make their interactions entertaining, it doesn't take away from the adventure that none of them have much depth to them. However Crybaby wants you to be invested in the characters and care about what happens to them, it wants you to be sad and cry when they die and you don't achieve that by doing nothing. If someone shows you a drawing of anime girl dying you might feel bad depending on the way it's depicted but I doubt you will be devastated or shocked cause it's just a random drawing with nothing else to it. That's how I felt watching Crybaby cause the show didn't give me a reason to care. The rap thugs are pretty charming and charismatic but that's mostly cause they came in with some sick ass freestyle now and then and I enjoyed seeing them on the screen, it was a bit of a shame to see them go but that's about it. They don't have personality and their traits are that they're poor and they rhyme. Miki's parents appear now and then with no real input on the story and you know basically nothing about them either, when the family members died one after another I once again didn't feel anything but it's worth mentioning that it also gave us a great piece of character acting when Miki's father discovers his son turned into a demon and is devouring his wife. You can see him slowly die on the inside and agonize as his life being torn apart by this tragic turn of events even though as a character they are nothing the way the father acts makes you feel sympathy because it's human, while the situation is completely fantastical you can still imagine how terrible facing it would be. It's something that was lacking in episode 4 when similar problem happened to Akira's parents. I complained a lot about original manga introducing a little girl character just to kill her few pages later while asking you to care about it and was disappointed when anime did the same damn thing. You know that Akira's parents are doctors and that they are nice, now please care about one of them turning into a demon and killing their spouse and Akira having to end their existence. It's terrible as it is and it's not helped by the absolutely terrible acting on the part of Akira's mom and other people trapped inside demon's body. The demon itself is Jinmen and his thing is that he's a turtle who kills people and after consuming them, their consciousness remains and their face appears on the demon's back. Now Akira's mom, who was just recently devoured by her loved one after he turned into a demon and violently murdered a bus full of people, is faced with her son, who is also kind of a demon but best she can mange is looking and sounding somewhat inconvenienced. I know the whole thing is entirely fictional but I don't believe that all these people would just be kind of sad and complain how much of a bummer it is that they've been murdered instead of screaming in terror and agony while crying their eyes out.
The scene with Miki's father is so well done you feel for him without even knowing much about him because of how human it was. The scene with Jinmen on the other hand is so stilted that it doesn't even come close to being as emotionally impactful.

It also leads into my point about the show being manipulative because despite spending no time or effort on fleshing out the characters, developing them into something and familiarizing the viewer with them so that the death and other tragedies carry more impact, Yuasa resorts to showing you flashbacks set to sad piano music. Music in itself is not bad but the way it's used it extremely important. The way it's used in Crybaby is more akin to a laugh track in an unfunny sitcom, there's no content there to make me sad but the sad music is playing so that's how I'm supposed to feel. It beats the viewer over the head with emotionally charged the music to hide the lack of aforementioned effort in the writing department that's supposed to make you care. It succeeded in making some people sad but the lack of subtlety is rather clear nonetheless.
As for flashbacks, the worst thing about them is that they usually come right before some tragedy is about to occur so it comes off as a very sloppy way give you a reason to once again feel an emotion before the emotional scene happens. There's no build up, no tension, just a flashback to juxtapose happy past with current tragedy. Akira's memory of his parents can be seen as touching due to the innocence of a childhood memory at least but I can't say that for other flashbacks, like the one where you just see Miki running on the track, an activity that has a neutral tone throughout. There were no scenes in show for you to form a bond with the characters so this is what the viewer sees in the compilation of good old times.

I heard a lot of people, even those who liked Crybaby, say that it butchered Ryo's character. That's because Crybaby's Ryo is straight up a crazy sociopath who carries guns on him, murders people, tries to murder animals, tricks Akira into accomplishing his plans and is ultimately at fault for mass hysteria that brings the human downfall. Originally I thought "oh, maybe Yuasa wants Ryo to be more of a character than he was in the manga, where he pretty much disappears at some point until becoming relevant again right before the end, I could see Ryo being aware of his real role from the start being interesting" but that's not the case at all. You see, in the manga Ryo is not a good guy either but most of his actions are driven by trying to help humans, the end justifies the means. He asked Akira to become a devilman to help save humanity, he stabbed hippies because that was the only way to fulfill the requirements for the possession and he tried to keep Akira from fighting because he was afraid for his life if he went out during the initial wave of conflict, which was later proven to be a reasonable concern. You also see his more human side when he's traumatized by the death of his father and when he's scared for his life when demons start fusing with humans even knowing that it will kill both of them when the requirements are not met, he's afraid that, unlike Akira, he can just randomly die a pathetic death. He only starts doing things that help the demons when he learns of his true identity. In the anime I thought for the longest time that they will reveal Ryo was consciously helping the demons all along and his human body is just a disguise but then we get a scene similar to the manga where Ryo finds out that the man who studied demons is not real and when he's in Peru he finds a wooden idol of himself as a baby Satan, yeah I know, sound great. Then we get a Pyscho Jennie reveal again and that's that, Ryo is Satan and he goes on TV to show the tape of Akira turning into a demon. That's pretty much inline with the manga but it doesn't make sense for Ryo to be evil up to that point. The one who claimed that anyone could become a demon in the original manga was a random scientist, he did it because he wanted to reveal his research, it's not much better in terms of writing writing but it makes more sense. It makes none that Akira, who snapped after people turned on each other would tolerate Ryo causing precisely that while also cheering him on to dissuade people from acting paranoid over false info that Ryo himself spread around. You can't even claim that he isn't technically lying cause we weren't told the fusion mechanics cause he clearly understands them when they come a sabbath. The whole invasion of demons and the way they fuse made so much more sense than what Crybaby tries to pass off as reasonable.

Another situational complaint I had is tied to the Serene fight and how terribly executed it was. The whole thing takes place in some black void, Devilman gets battered by a flying white smudge later revealed to be the claw of Serene she can remote control, then Devilman tricks her by stepping out of the way at the last moment and then rips off half of her dome which prompts Kaim to offer her a fusion so they do just that and make a big inside Devilman and die. It looks extremely dull visually and there's no creativity to choreography whatsoever, it's just a copy of the fight in the manga but worse. It also fails to forge emotional connection between the viewer than Serene/Kaim because all they did prior to that is either masturbate in case of Serene or be a generic evil guy in case of Kaim. I was appalled that Yuasa gave all these characters extra screen presence but ended up doing jack shit with it.

When it comes to art I have zero complaints. Backgrounds fit nicely, the framing is interesting and you always have something to look at. Character and monster designs are appealing and creative. Color palette is for the most part extremely pleasant and overall package is overall quite memorable visually. I heard people criticize the show for looking flat which might be the result of one tone shading but those people fail to consider that for most of the show the color contrast between the characters and the background is what keeps it from looking flat, not shading. The decision to go with flat characters is nothing new for Yuasa and while in terms of color Crybaby is not as outlandish as Tatami Galaxy or Kaiba, it's still important to pay attention to his use of color direction.

Short version: Crybaby is a show with an extremely good visuals but the characters are bland, the show tries to be emotionally manipulative without being well written and major parts of the story don't make a lick of sense. Tone is all over the place and the closer it gets to the end the more rushed the pacing feels. It also has a lot senseless sex and nudity that doesn't add anything to the story.

This is such a fantastic anime. All the way around. Words aren’t enough as far as i’m concerned. I had written a breakdown for each episode but that wasnt adequate enough to describe it all. I needed more emotional feelings to describe this one. As Devilman Crybaby itself is a very emotional story.

The characters are some of the most well written characters ive ever seen. They are well rounded, smart, and human. The animation is simply is vibrant and fantastic and so aesthetically pleasing its crazy how much i loved the animation its stretches the standard for what an anime can do with its visuals ... for sure. The dub was amazing and really well done. Burns, McCarley, Vee, Leigh, Bosch, and Papenbrook all delivered some of their best work here.

I really feel like im not selling this enough, but please, please watch it.

**FULL SPOILERS THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH ONLY**

Akira’s struggle with his demon side is really interesting to see. Ryo’s descendant into being a non human and learning he’s actually Satan!!! That was crazy and i totally didnt see that coming. The metaphor that the track team represents is really good as it symbolizes humanity having to rely on each other and how we should help each other in this “relay race” we call life. Miki’s speech in episode 8 hit me so hard. Her saying to everyone that Akira has a big heart and how him crying is him crying for other people and not himself. How him crying is him shouldering that burden for others. That hit me really hard. Miko’s struggle to set herself apart from Miki and how she always felt inadequate in comparison is crazy relatable.

**SPOILERS DONE**

This anime…….this anime…….this is one i’ll never forget. This is one i’ll think about for a long time and will reference for even longer still. Its themes of “What does it mean to be human?”, “What is justice?”, and “What is the right thing to do?” are so amazing really. I think this one just cracked my top 3 ever.

Devilman Crybaby is so damn good. You really cant afford to miss it. Now go! Run! Watch it!!

"Dear Enemy, all that makeup that you wear... will never hide, there's a devil under there." - Night Club, "Dear Enemy"

Devilman Crybaby- it's a difficult piece of work to truly encompass when you look at its legacy, and the inextricable legacy of its creator, Go Nagai. I could probably spend 10 hours talking about what all anime, creators, writers, and directors have been directly influenced by Nagai, Nagai's works, and creations, but I'm going to try and do it in 9.

A little background on Nagai before we get started: Go Nagai is to anime/manga what Ozzy Osbourne and King Diamond are to rock music. ... Go Nagai is to anime/manga what Gilgamesh is to literature. Go Nagai is to anime/manga what Metropolis is to film, and particularly scifi/special effects.
The guy has a career spanning five decades, many genres, and is credited for pioneering the Giant Robot genre with Mazinger Z, and also credited with creating the progenitor to modern hentai with Harenchi Gakuen, or "shameless school" in English. He would also later codify the magical girl genre with Cutie Honey, and singlehandedly launched the Shonen Jump magazine into popularity with the scandalous (at the time) Harenchi Gakuen. Literally millions of the fledgling Shonen Jump magazines jumped out of the nest of bookstores in Japan at the time to be flown through by readers of the day.

All of this before 1972, mind you. (Yes, i know Mazinger Z and Devilman were concurrent publications, hush.)

Cue June 11, 1972. Devilman Hits the shelf. Japan is wowed by the ultraviolence that Nagai becomes known for- but all is not senseless beatdowns and buckets of blood- for Devilman has a plot! And no, the plot wasn't just to sell a lot of comic books and make Nagai a rich man and household name, though those were unexpected positive externalities!

Skip to today, Devilman as an intellectual property has sold over 50 million copies, has nine novels, multiple anime and manga iterations, and a number of crossover appearances, not to mention its direct influence on the shonen genre as a whole, which we'll jump into now. Hideaki Anno has even cited Devilman as influence for Evangelion. That's how influential it is.

In 2018- Devilman is certainly a breath of fresh air. The landscape of anime is largely square, prefab, calculated risks created by corporations protecting their investments. Anime is an advertising machine, trying to get people to buy the producers' and publishers' newest manga acquisitions with "read the manga to find out what happens next!!!" endings. Anime is a niche market, we know this- but anime has seemingly stagnated in terms of creativity- lots of magical high schools, put upon protagonists with shaggy hair and no parents, etc. Rarely do you see studios or production companies take risks licensing old names like Devilman. This manga is from 1972, it's old enough to be any given manga artist today's dad!

Devilman was certainly a risk. Netflix fronted studio "Science Saru" the funds to create a 10 episode series based on the manga, and probably spent half the budget getting Masaaki Yuasa of Tatami Galaxy fame to direct the thing. Does it help that this anime was produced outside the normal avenues of production? Absolutely. I doubt this anime would have been made any other way.

For one- the best, and probably only way to adapt any of Go Nagai's works (remember that I said he's known for ultraviolence, as well has heavily sexual themes and content) is to do it AWAY from TV. Nagai himself has stated that when he wrote Devilman, he wrote it for adults, 18+, and so the controversy surrounding its depiction of violence, blood, guts, and sex didn't bother him, because it was always intended for adults to read, and not children. As anyone who's ever played an M rated video game online, we know that this is not necessarily the case, that only adults consume media made for adults, but in this case, Devilman got made because Netflix's producers aren't children.

So, we've got a lot of highly stylized sex, violence, and machspeed thanks to Yuasa's frenetic directing style, but where's the substance? Enter hero Akira Fudo, a put upon teen with shaggy hair. He does actually have parents, even if they're away, and amazingly, he doesn't attend a high school where everyone has magical powers. In fact, everyone seems refreshingly normal, except for his bsupremely intelligent, rich, scandinavian beaut of a best friend, Ryo. His powers are more like Batman, however.

Again with the shonen influences, you'd be hard-pressed to find more of (what are now) shonen tropes in a single show. Devilman was the progenitor to supernatural and religious horror in manga, introduced duality of man issues, inner struggles with literal demons, absorption of souls/powers, etc etc. I haven't seen every shonen series ever made, but I'd be willing to bet you could find some example of a shonen trope that was initiated by Devilman.


It's not a spoiler to say that Akira becomes possessed by a demon- otherwise how else would he become Debiruman? However, it would be criminal of me to disturb the plot for anyone else beyond this initial possession. Akira learns of other demons possessing people, and as a half man, half devil, he takes it upon himself to put and end to the malevolent presence.

The series really takes a turn just past halfway through, and though this adaptation certainly skips a lot of the manga in its pithy 10 episode run, I feel like the major points all hit home amid a sexy, violent, blood filled romp. Everything is highly stylized, but graphic and disturbing at points to where it doesn't become overplayed and complacent. As a viewer, I never felt like I expected XY outcomes, and at certain points, it subverts many expectations I had from watching countless other anime play out, turning them right on its head. Nietzsche himself would be impressed with this one, I think.

While the plot itself is breakneck in pace, and has some issues (such as Akira being given a phone early in the show, and his mother calls him, yet she would have had no way of knowing that he even had a phone, let alone the number to call), I think that many of these are caused by pure omission of manga details (cut for time), and by creating a modern day adaptation of a 45 year old manga, in a time when the internet and cell phones didn't exist. The importance of these creature comforts and connectivity we take for granted today are integral to the plot, and I assume were not present in the manga, because social media is an advent of the new age. The show also features some great dark, pulsating electronic music that fits the tone exceptionally well. Top marks for sound design.

Once you get to the end though, like an episode of Arrested Development or Seinfeld, those little plot points from the beginning that didn't make much sense, or that side character that seemed unimportant come into focus and suddenly gain a lot of meaning. Things people say, actions people take, they all have a character and a role to play, and I would go so far as to say that no one in this show has a sweeping 180 of character for no reason, something that can't be said for anime. It all stays tightly wound until the ending, and what a shock it is.

As you can see, I dropped this anime after watching the 4th episode, and I'll try to explain the reasons why I can't recommend watching Devilman : Crybaby.


I'll go straight to the point, if I had to describe this anime with two adjectives, I'd choose shallow and edgy.


Why does it feel shallow :

The rhythm isn't good at all, and you'll understand that directly by watching the first episode. This anime is about the story of a boy that transforms into a devil, but it's so weird that this transformation happens litteraly after the first 10 minutes of the first episode. The problem ... is that it makes it impossible for the viewer to care about the "weak" person the mc used to be, since we see/learn so little about him, except the fact that he's apparently a crybaby. ( It's even more absurd since the show is trying to make it somewhat important that this dude used to be sensitive lmao )

And keep in mind that this is about the MAIN CHARACTER, so you can imagine how are the other characters' development considering how rushed is the main's one. It's a shame because this trope of a character "becoming" evil/fusing with an evil thing can work pretty well, as it's the case in other animes like Tokyo ghoul or Parasyte, but it works in those because there's a build up for the transformation.

The scenario felt random like the world building, many things were not logical/convenient, and I suppose it's once again because the story goes too fast, but the result simply doesn't work.


Why does it feel edgy :

I'll reckon that not watching the whole season makes my following argument less pertinent, but after reading other reviews, I think that my doubts were confirmed.

There is a lot of violence and sexual scenes in this anime. Alright, is it wrong to depict such things ? Well no, not necessarily, both violence & sex can enhance a show if used wisely. However, that's not the case for Devilman Crybaby. It felt more like a production specification rather than a smart way of establishing things, worldbuilding etc... Those scenes are too blunt, and that also describes the mc's friend, the edgelord himself.

The amount of those pointless scenes is even crazier when you remember how rushed is the story, maybe they should have spent more time on character development rather than showing 10-15 edgy scenes by episode.


All in all, watcing the first episodes of this anime wasn't an enjoyable experience. The scenario isn't developed enough to make us care about the events nor the characters, whose developments are close to zero. Instead, you'll see the so called adventure of 2 random guys in a random world interrupted every 3 or 5 minutes by a sex or violence scene. To qualify a bit, I'd say that the visuals aren't as bad as you can read in other reviews, it's different from the "norm", but it's not bad looking, or at least, it's clearly not the worst aspect of this anime.

*Disclamer* English is not my native language and I apologies for any grammar errors in this review.

Just finished binge the entire show on Netflix and thought it was very engaging and powerful.

I never read the manga or saw any of the original anime but did a quick search what it was about and have heard great things about the source material. Also I heard that Miura's Berserk had taking influence from the manga which made me even more interested.

The first few episodes was to me utter madness, there was a lot of gore, nudity and bright colors. It left me in shock but captivated ... me at the same time, reminiscent of the first time I read Berserk or like watching the music video Mihonichi Me! Me! Me! for the first time. I could not stop watching and jumped right to next episode as the previous ended.

Now to the rating.

Story: 8/10

The story spaning through the series is very interesting and engaging. It caught my interest right away and kept me engaged to the very end even with some hiccups along the way which was all based on pacing errors. The pacing was throughout a bit to fast for my taste and it seemed to me that the story would have felt less rushed with a couple of more episodes in there. But as I don't know the source material I can't say if there wasn't anymore material to work with. If that is the case it still isn't an excuse as this series still needs to stay on it's own two legs even if it has to deviate from the source material in doing so. That is the reason the story gets an 8 instead of a 9 or 10. The premiss and philosophical ideas and the ending would get a 10 from me if it weren't for the pacing.

Art: 9/10

The art felt a bit dated but I actually think they did that on purpose as the animations are really smooth and good overall. The design of the characters and locations where overall very good and pleasing to the eye, especially the demons. The work with extreme colors was really striking and made the more intense scenes even more engaging and fun to watch.

Sound: 8/10

The ost was outstanding and I really loved it. It had that 80ies feel to it and I caught myself thinking about Carpenter Brut. The only downside is that there weren't enough of it. The opening and closing was both also very enjoyable but got a bit old after a few episodes when you binged so I skipped them after a while. There was also a bit of rapping which I really enjoyed. When it comes to sound effects it didn't really stand out but it didn't annoy either so I guess they were decent. The voice actors did all a very good job (Japanese) and fit the characters to a tea.

Characters: 8/10

I don't want to go into the characters or the story too much as I feel like you'll enjoy it more if you know less. Overall the characters was all introduced in a good way but had some problems with more in depth development. This also boils down to the extremely fast pace the show had which hurt both the story and character development. Even though the show had this problem they showed enough and made me feel like I had a sense of everyone's purpose and values. It made me care for pretty much all the characters that were showed even the demons.

Enjoyment: 10/10

I for one could ignore the flaws I mentioned and I loved this anime. It's the in my opinion the best one I've seen in a long time. If it had a better pacing and more fleshed out story and characters it would easily be a 10/10 all around. It needed some more episodes!

Overall: 9/10

At first fresh out of finishing it I was very close to give this show a 10/10 disregarding it's faults. But after typing this review I've thought about it some more and feel like the pacing still is to big of a problem to give it a 10. It's an amazing anime with an amazing premiss but rushed. They still make it work wonderfully but not perfectly. I would still recommend it to everyone, especially to people that likes Parasyte: The Maxim and Berserk.

I really wish they would give Berserk to the guy's that made this one. I'd love a Black swordsman arc in this style (not as rushed though obviously).

Now I will go to bed and listen to Annihilation by A Perfect Circle on repeat while I cry myself to sleep. (You will understand after you finish the anime, cheers)

The soundtrack is great, thats about it tho.

The animation is god awful, looks very cheap, very unrefined, lacking in good coloration, like something an 12 year old who discovered the paint bucket in ms paint would send in.

So is the plot, which feels like someone tried very hard to write a bad story. Many logic and plotholes. Especially the humans react very unlike what would be a reasonable assumption. And I'm not sure if these demons should be terrifying or make me laugh.

The subplot with the dad was actually good! I had hoped it would go more in that direction of someone actually ... showing emotions that don't feel super overdrawn an cliché.

All of the sexuality/nudity/gore feels like it was just added to create a schock effect to get people to watch it and looked quite disgusting at times.

And the ending is very very rushed and just bad, as if the author just one day said," ok, **** it, thats it."

This is a quick and short review about devilman..i had the urge to put it down as soon as i finished the series.
I watched the anime completely blind so didn t know anything about the manga or the 70' version or other things so i m going to give you an advice about THIS adaptation= it s a complete waste of time.
A lot of Free and unnecessary violence, too much that you feel disgusted, really, mindless empty characters, blood and gore everywhere.. that was the part that actually teased me to watch the series but since the high scores i was expecting something better .. ... i was wrong .-.
I almost forgot the strongest point of the series.. IT S RUSHED AS HELL ..i mean..how can you watch a series that has a low pacing in like 7-8 episodes and the last two blow your mind and throw up everything in it.. well if you like this kind of anime then it s your thing.. if you' re seeking a good story with a good Writing and pacing then go away..this anime does NOT deserve such a high score.. im really disgusted..
The animation art is good but the fight scenes.. oh my god no..you won't understand anything of what is happening.. too dark and confusing ..low budget.. clear as the sky
One thing that instead i m really surprised is the sound, amazing and really fitting.. for the rest, well a complete mess! Do yourself a favour and don't watch this..

Devilman Crybaby is a truly brilliant anime that should be viewed by anyone as it is truly a work of art and a shining example of wonderful storytelling. The series is available on Netflix right now and deserves your full attention as potentially the best anime of this winter 2018 season, had this been released last year this would have easily been my anime of the year. Written by Ichiro Okouchi and directed by Masaaki Yuasa based on the legendary and influential source material of Go Nagai, Devilman easily meets and exceeds the expectations that one would have for an anime with such talented individuals ... involved. This show is not for the faint of heart as it has very graphic violent and sexual content that is used to tell the very tragic story. Devilman is meticulously well crafted in every aspect that allows it to stand out above the rest of the anime this season as a true masterpiece that excels at what it does.

Devilman pulls the viewer in by the neck and doesn’t let go as it sprints to the finish line while somehow ever feeling rushed. The pacing of the show is one of its strongest points as Devilman only has 10 perfectly and energetically paced episodes that never fell as though they are dragging and have a solid momentum that increases and never lets up as the show progresses. Every episode feels like a necessary progression to the story with no filler whatsoever as all side stories and subplots are substantial to the main plot of the anime and each episode fits seamlessly with one another because of how well the pacing is. The spirited pace of Devilman Crybaby encourages binge viewing as the anime feels like a wonderful four-hour movie that is well focused on telling its story. The incredibly deliberate pace allows the wonderful story of Devilman Crybaby to truly shine.

The story telling is spectacular in Devilman Crybaby as the anime is very well focused with an appropriate scale to allow its story to excel and flourish. The story is relatively simple but wonderfully told with incredible direction, animation, voice acting, music, and writing that all allow the anime to engage the viewer in the vivid world and story of Devilman Crybaby. The anime takes bold risks with its source material, such as its modernization, while keeping the core iconic story and tragedy intact. Every minute of this anime felt satisfying and necessary and the conclusion to the anime is a cut above most others as it appropriately ties up all character and story arcs in a way that is true to the themes of Devilman and is sure to satisfy viewers. The final two episodes of Devilman Crybaby are some of the best anime I have ever seen with how well it concludes the story and how well the main characters and their motivations are explored. Tone and atmosphere are used well throughout the anime to enhance the storytelling. Overall the story of Devilman Crybaby takes the viewer for a ride on an emotional rollercoaster that only increases in speed right to the last second as the tragic story unfolds. The anime expertly executes its emotional gut punches incredibly and precisely with the thoughtful use of stylish animation and music to complement the wonderful writing.

The animation and music in Devilman Crybaby is stellar and breathtaking as the visuals are stylishly vivid and the energetic and hyped music complements the pacing and art style perfectly. The music for Devilman Crybaby is a blend of techno synths, pop, and electronic tracks that are wonderfully appropriate for the tone of the anime and help elevate the scenes with the amazing soundtrack. The breathtaking visuals for the anime truly stand out as the demon designs looks very unique and awe inspiring. The visuals of the anime are incredibly stylishly animated and each frame looks stunning. The anime is made hypnotic by the energetic pace, soundtrack, and animation that all combine to give the anime a unique hypnotic style that instantly grabs your attention from start to finish. In my opinion the soundtrack and how well it’s implemented into the storytelling of Devilman Crybaby is some of the best that I have heard in any anime and truly enhances the viewing experience of the anime.

The characters and writing in Devilman Crybaby are very well done and every character is well written and has a character arc that progresses with the anime and each character’s arc is satisfactorily tied up by the end of the anime. The main character is Akira Fudo, the writing for his character is very well done and his character arc and motivations are dealt with and tied up very well in the anime. The other main character is Akira’s childhood friend Ryou, an incredibly complex and well defined character whose initially confusing character arc reveals itself as the story progresses and intricate character motivations make his character truly stand out. Ryou’s character is perhaps the most intriguing and complex character in the anime and his tragic arc is very well executed. The side characters such as Akira’s surrogate family, the Makimuras, and the other side characters such as the rappers all have their own character arcs and motivations that are tied up in a satisfactory way by the anime’s conclusion. All characters are very well voiced. Each character feels unique and are driven by differing and sometimes conflicting motivations that tie into the main story and theme of Devilman Crybaby.

Overall, Devilman Crybaby is a worthy contender for anime of the year despite the year only just beginning and is most certainly worthy of your time and attention. The story, characters, animation and music are all exceptional and complement each other to make Devilman Crybaby a truly great anime that I believe is deserving of a 10/10 as it does what it sets out to do remarkably and precisely. The entire anime is only ten episodes and on Netflix so please give the anime a shot as I believe that it deserves it, once you start watching the four hours will fly by before you know it. 2018 is already proving to be a great year for anime and anime fans. Thank you for reading this far and thank you very much for your time.

Just five days into 2018 and Masaaki Yuasa sets the tone for anime discussion for the rest of the goddamned year. Shine on you crazy, unfettered diamond.

I had no knowledge of Devilman going in. I knew nothing of the story, the characters, or its now-obvious impact on manga and anime. All I knew was this was a Yuasa joint, and that was enough to get me on board. For the first few episodes, I was wondering what drew someone like him to this Biblical-themed superhero/antihero story - boy, did that become clear later on.

On the tin, this is the story of an innocent, kind-hearted young ... man who fuses with a demon to become Devilman - the world's sole protector against a secret demonic horde. From the get-go, however, the show asks us to wonder if this is a world worth protecting - a place already corrupted by rampant poverty, discrimination, and hedonism. What starts as a battle between a good bad-guy and badder bad-guys ramps up to the ultimate battle of good and evil. There are revelations, if you catch my drift.

While some of these may be nothing new (even when Devilman was first published), the presentation of Crybaby gives it a very distinct personality. I can only imagine Yuasa fought back a raging art-boner when given Netflix's carte-blanche on content - this is a show that doesn't know the meaning of "holding back." On display: Tits, dicks, breasts, semen, vaginas, sex, gay and straight, drugs, blood orgies, bloodshed, massacres, and some of the most gruesome body horror this side of John Carpenter's The Thing. If you are squeamish, there is no censor to save you. The show revels in debauchery as much as its villainous demons.

However, given the themes and subject matter, this all feels entirely appropriate. Crybaby is still very focused on its characters, and this graphic content informs the world and the events that beset them. The show also (mostly) knows where and when to pull back; it doesn't need blood or sex to keep the viewer's attention. Track and field is a surprisingly prominent element, and a girl's envy-fueled determination to become the best mixed-relay runner manages to be one of the most compelling storylines.

The show makes you care about the characters and makes each of the tragedies that befall them hit like a motherfucker. Some scenes are damn near heartwrenching, aided by Yuasa's distinctly expressive animation. Even the villain's end is rather tragic - and perfectly fitting.

Crybaby is pretty openly cynical regarding human nature, but it doesn't descend into wallowing in nihilism. There's actually some heart, and maybe a few hints at hope here and there. The show makes an effort to be timely, and while we'll have to wait to see how many of these efforts hold up over the years, from where I stand it seems well done. It doesn't descend into partisan bickering or blame-naming, but current events weigh heavy on the setting and the overall message. Everyone has some guilt in our sad state of affairs - and everyone has a moral obligation to turn the other cheek. (This from a show where a guy wet dreams so hard he paints his ceiling with spunk.)

Enough gushing. Crybaby is rather messy, and not just in its art style/animation (which can be rather inconsistent, and requires the viewer to be on board). The pacing is relentless, carrying the viewer through at breakneck speed. So much is jam packed into 10 episodes, and some story elements feel a little glossed over or undeveloped as a result. Sometimes events just HAPPEN; for example, a certain character's home explodes, and then in the next episode he is totally fine and the culprit is explained away with a single line. Without having read the manga, I assume some of these things made more sense there and just weren't given enough time to breathe here. Crybaby seems like it could've benefited from another episode or two.

Also, while I am all for gore and violence and whatnot in my anime, Crybaby sometimes rides a line between what's appropriate and what's gratuitous in its more dramatic scenes. Major character deaths are sometimes over the top in presentation, which almost undermines their impact. It mostly didn't bother me, but I could imagine other viewers not being so charitable.

For a more granular point, the rules of this setting are, at times, unclear. How exactly does one become possessed by a demon? There's an answer given, but it's obviously dubious and there's nothing else for us to go on. It doesn't break the plot or anything, but it's still a bit confusing.

Finally, one character's arc stands as an exception to my general gushing. I don't want to spoil anything, but his defection to the ranks of the bad guys feels random, and he is dispatched so quickly that there's no impact. I guess I lost what the arc of his character was going for; his sudden change of heart muddies the water. Maybe it was there for some allegorical purpose, or it's better explained in the manga, but it ultimately underwhelmed me, especially when so many of the other characters' arcs are so captivating.

These flaws are mostly surface blemishes. Despite my ignorance regarding the manga, Crybaby feels like this manages the delicate balance of honoring the original while doing its own thing. This is a Yuasa work through and through, but his passion for the material shines. It's not my favorite Yuasa show, but it's one I very much enjoyed.

Netflix should also be applauded for funding something so bold and uncompromising. It's an experiment I sincerely hope pays off for them - and, perhaps, encourages other studios to branch out.

Or maybe they'll learn the wrong lesson and pump out a vile, sex-laden version of Astro Boy. Either way, we win.

I've really struggled to finish this series. I could see a lot of American angles in the animation and to be really honest. It's a complete waste of time. Worst anime I've seen in months. The story is shit, the characters are weird and there's just a lot of gore and sex going on. If that's your jam, fine. But I was hoping for more of a story than just a few gory scenes.

Overall, I'd say. Watch something that has gore but a story too. Death note has some pretty cruel deaths but they have meaning. They develop the story. Here I just had ... the feeling that the makers went like 'we are Netflix. We have a budget. F*ck my shit up. '

I had never seen anything related to Devilman prior to this anime but when I saw the trailers and the fact that Yuasa was directing it, I was already on board. So I actually watched the entirety of it in one sitting, it was that good, I couldn't stop until I had finished all of it.
So, let's get into the other segments of the review.

The premise of the show essentially boils down to Akira Fudo - a shy boy with a kind heart becoming Devilman with the guidance of his friend Ryou Asuka, to protect humanity from the rise of the demons

The overall execution is ... fantastic, Devilman: Crybaby does it's share of social criticism, the humans' cowardly nature of being unable to accept anything different from them because they don't feel safe from the unknown and always resorting to hostility in result and the recurring theme of keeping your love/faith in humanity despite their flawed nature to eventually get your existence across to them.
The main portion of the themes it covers was handled with superb quality but some of the
more non-essential tid bits were skimmed over.

The show also really likes to play with your heart strings, especially at the latter half of the story.

The story's pacing is fast but it doesn't feel rushed at all through out the majority of the show's run., it never stops for a single second to waste your time with pointless dialogue, it always gets straight to the point, making it more enjoyable to binge.

The characters are all enjoyable, mainly due to their over exaggerated behavior and interesting personality. Essentially the only character with any semblance of a ''journey'' was Akira and to an extent Miko, the other characters all served as cogs that move Akira forward.

Of course, the art is fantastic, it's Yuasa we're talking about here.
He brought his usual style into Devilman, which made it a blast to watch.
The extremely vibrant use of colors that's actually used to portray a dark gritty setting is
aesthetically pleasing and makes for some really unique scenery.

It's largely debated whether this is Yuasa's best or worst looking show to date (kinda funny seeing as how Devilman itself is extremely divisive in it's contents as well)
but for me it worked, way too well in fact.

The characters all look iconic, mainly due to the fact that they're just modern redesigns of already iconic characters and because the art style sets them apart from any other character no matter what.

So what kind of soundtrack does this extremely gritty, gory, violent anime have? Metal? Rock?
Nope.
SYNTHWAVE!!!!! (A modernization of the 80s Neon synthesized disco songs)
And it works great with every single scene, the aesthetic meshes so well with the OST that the chances you will be bobbing your head to the music while watching through out the whole anime are extremely high.

It does also have some really touching and hype inducing orchestrated tracks like "Crybaby" and "D.V.M.N" which do not feel out of place with the synthwave that's present in so many scenes and only add up to the many emotions the show's soundtrack will make you go through.


As a whole, Devilman: Crybaby is a fanastic anime and proves that a great concept is timeless with it's straightforward dive into the issues of the social construct and other themes, all complimented by it's amazing and unique art style and schlocky nature.

I came into this show without much knowledge of the source material, but I had an idea of the level of depravity I was going to be in for. I don't mind dark and gritty shows like this one having sex and gore in them, though it was definitely way too indulgent beyond what could be argued as necessary.. but I digress. That wasn't what hurt my rating much in the end. There were a lot of things I loved about this show, just so many more things that weren't simply mediocre but absolutely terrible.

Story 2/10
-
There was so much squandered potential in the story. It ... does make me wonder at the source material, and I won't write that off yet, but in this anime the plot was extremely rushed. I was holding out the whole way through the series waiting for everything to be explained, and while it was by the end, so many things didn't add up still. The ending was also a massive disappointment.


Art 1/10
-
.. Okay, I genuinely don't see how anyone can compliment this show's art. Creative liberty in style is one thing, sure. However, my only retort is this: https://i.imgur.com/nqRTJMU.png


Sound 8/10
-
Definitely one of the best parts about this show. The OP is very good, and the first 4 episodes have distinct rap verses from a group of characters in the show, and it's actually very well done. There was at least one more rap later in the show, but the ones at the start were definitely the best. I had no complaints about any of the sound effects or voice acting either.


Characters 5/10
-
This overall number is a skewed average. Miki was a solid 8 or 9, and Akira was around a 7 or 8 too, but all the other characters were 2s except for one who was a 1. A couple characters improved slightly after a while and raised that average only slightly.


Enjoyment 2/10
-
For most of the show I wasn't enjoying it especially, but I stuck with it, because there was some potential, and I was hoping for a solid ending to redeem it some. So when the actual end was even worse than my imagined 'bad' ending,.. well, you can see my score.


Overall 3/10
-
This is the first show in a long time to actively anger me. Akira had a ton of potential in his character. Miki was excellent. The music was very well done. The plot COULD have been good! But all of it was squandered in this mess of a show with its terrible art and animation, obscene amount of unnecessary sex and gore, a lot of very bland characters, and a rushed illogical story with a terrible ending.

So this is what the anime community or I should say the crunchyroll community considers the best anime of 2018?

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Oh my where do I even begin to say that is one of the worst crap I have ever watched? I feel I will copy and paste my review of Parasyte because it is kinda the same problems I have with Parasyte are present here as well in DevilMan CryBaby but some things are better. Some spoilers ahead because are required for me to express how much I don't like this thing.

Story = 2

So the story of DM CryBaby is about the tragic story of ... Akira who transform himself into a demon or are as he calls himself a Devilman and all thanks to his "GOOD" friend Ryou and how he must survive and deal with this life of being a hybrid between human and demon.

Honestly the concept is not bad again, I always love to see how something out of the ordinary is mixed with a mundane and real setting with no superpowers established at all. But then the show just gives you a little inside of those superpowers but doesn't fully explains them to the viewer.

The prime example being that Akira goes to this satanic ritual called Sabbath with his friend Ryou, where everybody there could become a demon, but he becomes a different kind of demon, a Devilman, because he is pure of heart. But then you get to the end and you get that the little brother from our protagonist's classmate, Taro, becomes a demon out of the blue. Like how the hell you do not explain that plot point? Did he go to a club to join the Sabbtath? Did he do a satanic ritual all because of the internet rumors? I mean they were even trying? They throw these ideas of the blue just because convenience. Also the ammount of scenes to make you feel pain and sadness are simply laughable. I mean they throw here and there the past of Akira's parent and just that and when the worst happens to them, they try so hard to get an emotional contact and the only thing we know is that they are doctors helping in foreign land. Just that that's the whole arc they present to us.

Also the ammount of porn is so excessive to the plot, sometimes it doesn't need it. It is just there to kill minutes of run time with boobs, sex scenes, twerking, masturbation. It is too distracting to ignore and doesn't add too much to the series.

The only good scene that I found on this one was the speech given almost at the end of the series. I don't want to describe because I felt that the show could at least be a 7 with that but the ending had to ruin it.

Characters= 4

Akira is the best character out of all. I mean he tries to maintain his private life and the Devilman part apart and to don't interfere with each other. He gets a lot of development and even if many call him a coward and a crybaby and he does the job done of not wanting to live a life like that.

Miki is also a really good character, although she is perfect in every sense, I don't feel that it ruins the show at all. I like her how she tries to understand Akira and his relation with Ryou and also her track and field teamates with all that is going on but one field she is kinda of airhead is by how Akira runs. Yeah I could maybe understand that in the canon of the series, someone would not have all those drastic changes like changing hairstyle or even growing a bit, but looking at the way they run, that doesn't change from one day to another like that and even no normal human being would run like that. Try it and your freaking chin will hit the floor in less than 5 seconds woman.

Ryou simply is the blandest character out of all of this. He is the evil mastermind for this plan but it is so idiotic. He is the Bad Guy Bruce Wayne, he has a lot of money, he knows everything since he is a child and yes everything on why is he like that is reveal at the ending, but honestly his plan is so idiotic and more on the end when has a change of heart for some reason when everything is going nuts around him.

One aspect that I really liked from the humanity, here they act as they suppose to something out of the ordinary with superpowers. They go to a state like Fallout games and I simply loved it. I loved how the humans fear and attacks to others because all the state of panic when it is revealed those creatures exist.

Art = 5

The animation and character designs are ok. At first I thought Mamoru Hosoda was behind all of this but to my surprise it was Masaaki Yuasa and it's his worst work by far. Some scenes don't make a lot of sense artistic wise, it looks like he went with all the budget to the porn part. Sometimes it is desproportional to the body and even the backgrounds.

Sound = 9

This is where DMCB excells the most. All those electronic music tracks and emotional tracks are simply well put together, just in few occasions it feels out of place like in government meetings. But besides that it is a well solid soundtrack and even on my favorites.

Overall = 3

This is a poor attempt that just because of shock factor and sex and they attract people like even the same show says. The plot is all over the place, they don't define what makes devilmen and demons different from each other at all. The animation is sometimes ok and sometimes bad and has a good soundtrack. Maybe
check it out to see the comparison between the old series or if you want watch Parasyte 2.0 but honestly the ammount of hype this thing had and to be called anime of the year does not deserve it at all.

Question of the day: "how can we make a porn series but make it passable as an anime?"

That's what this show attempts to answer.

1. Nudity, nudity, and more (completely unnecessary) nudity

I completely understand showing the bare human body as an art form. It can be done very tastefully, both in the art world and in anime. I think a great example of tasteful nudity in anime is in Elfen Lied, where the nudity of the main characters shows to dehumanize them - to show viewers that these girls are nothing more than test subjects and don't have clothes because they don't deserve them.

However, in ... this show, there it's just overbearing. I would almost call it gaudy. Very bright, neon colored titties all over the place. One scene in particular stands out to me: Miko and Miki talking to each other before they race, and they show Miko's bare chest and massive flopping tits while they change into their athletic clothing. For why?? The whole show is like that. Even when they run their tits are just bouncing all over the place. There's another scene where apparently devilman can just see right through miki's clothes????????? It makes no sense at all.

I understand that some parts were added just to showcase the sheer orgy-ness of the parties, but geez.

2. Nonexistent story

The episodes of this show are so disjointed that it felt episodic. Almost like I was watching cowboy bebop except much less entertaining. The entire concept of the demons is barely explained, and it's very rushed. The show goes from 0 to 100 in what feels like a single episode. Chaos ensues and you're still trying to figure out what's even going on.

But hey, almost every episode has some titties in it. So if that's what you're watching anime for then enjoy. Don't let me ruin this for you.

3. Character development

~This section has intentionally been left blank~

I think I've made my point.

4. Audio/Visuals

I gotta give this show some props here - the art style is unique and colorful. I really enjoyed seeing some (party) scenes in particular because it was just so well drawn (despite all the goddamn NUDITY).

Mediocre opening/ending, didn't really stick out to me.

They showed this one painting I like by John Martin called the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah so that's pretty cool. Not often you see 18th century English romantic paintings in an anime.

5. Rapping

The rapping was the best part of the whole show lmao. They were pretty fun to listen to!

6. Speaking english in the show?

It wasn't good, not sure why they did it, but I mean I understood it. It was way better than the english in Zankyou no Terror.

7. Overall theme of the show:

Bad. There wasn't enough story development or explanation to warrant such an erratic ending. It all just comes out of nowhere.

I give this show a 3 overall. It was not enjoyable, I want my time back. I liked the rapping though. Other reviews will just talk about how random it is - I don't care. I liked it.

I don't normally ever review things but after watching this show today i just felt like it was so bad i needed to say something.

The art is the only thing that is sorta good in the show but its not amazing. At its best it looks like aeon flux fan art, and at its worse it looks rick and morty fan art.

The characters were all pretty much pointless and idiotic. Everyone was completely clueless to every aspect of the story until it was right in their face, and then would end up reacting with really disproportionate emotional break downs when they are finally clued into ... something. The MC especially seems to have no ability for long term memory, and would go in the same circle shocked and upset at how awful his best friend is over and over.

The overall plot was one of the most pointless and meaningless things I've ever bothered to finish. Nothing builds on anything this series is actually the exact opposite of a developed plot where every episode(or sometimes while still in the same episodes) everyone just dies or things escalate more and nothing in the previous episodes matters anymore.

I'm not really sure what the appeal of a show like this could be. Maybe people are just looking for some kind of depravity pron or something? I highly recommend not watching this show. Like literally anything else you could do with your time would be better then watching this.

Easily the worst anime of 2018 and probably in the top 5 worst of all time. Outstanding job netflix.

-DISCLAIMER-
I'm really sorry if this review turns into a rant, but I'm just pissed that I wasted my five hours on this thing.
This is my first encounter with Devilman so I'm not too familiar with the source material, but after seeing the Netflix special i had to get this off my chest.
Also before I get into this, just a reminder that this is subjective and you can take my opinion with a grain of salt

----------------------

Art [6]
The animation was quite honestly the only DECENT category. Many of the action sequences at least were well executed (for the most part), but the character designs were pretty average. ... One thing I will applaud them for was consistency with the animation, where it never really took a large dip in quality throughout the albeit short run time.

Character [1]
Most of the character problems stem from the lack of cohesiveness from the plot, which left ALL of the characters underdeveloped and unrelatable. The story tries to take itself very seriously, by killing off a bunch of potentially crucial characters and expects a reaction from the audience despite knowing LITERALLY NOTHING about the character

[SPOILER SECTION]
The case I'm talking about is with whats his face's mother. I believe she was introduced in episode 5 or something and they killed her off in the same episode. I really pity her character, seeing if she was developed correctly, and wasn't given a short flashback in the same episode, it could've led to a great character arc and development for the main character.

Story [2]
Im not even going to bother providing a synopsis, mostly because of how in-cohesive and sloppy it was conceived. Most of my issues with the story lie with the PACING, EXPOSITION, and ENDING, all of which were poorly executed.
The nice part of me wants to say that most of these pacing issues stem from the somewhat short run time (10 full length episodes), but really I believe the fault lies with the production staff for forcing loads of shitty exposition. Somehow the exposition made me more confused instead of being able to explain what was happening. They threw plot cohesiveness out the window towards the end, especially with the last 2-3 episodes which were a complete and utter train wreck.

[SPOILER SECTION]

Plain and simple, the last 2-3 episodes were complete garbage. Now I can understand if you took insipration from NGE, BUT THE COMPLETELY RIPPED OFF THE MOTHERFUCKING END OF EVANGELION WITH THEIR EVEN SHITTIER ENDING. They even added the red ocean FOR NO TYPE REASON and even COPIED the beach scene and replaced Asuka and Shinji with a lesbian and his abused body pillow.

(Edit: I was really ignorant when I wrote this and didn't bother to do any research about the source material [It was like 3 in the morning], but I'm now aware that Devilman did indeed come before all this other edgy shit so now I feel stupid. However, I'm leaving this next part in only b/c this is truly what I felt at the time, even though factually it was incorrect. The main difference between Devilman's ending and EoE's ending is the degree to which either was executed and how well it was. I had read the manga just recently b/c the show had put me onto it, and it was a much more enjoyable experience than the anime. However, my opnion on the last 2 episodes doesn't change, they were complete garbage, and I wish they could've strayed from the source material at the end in order to make a truly unique adaptation, mostly b/c nothing can change the fact that I hated the ending. Feel free to comment @ me if you want to argue, I'm open to it!)

Conclusion:
If you like edgy shit and like wasting 5hours of your precious time on earth, go get invested in this show and let it shove its meaningless imagery and symbolism down your throat until you actually gauge your eyes out.

That's my first review, so i hope it will be helpfull and not too clumsy.

If you are searching for a cute, light-hearted anime, go for something else, than come back when you're satisfied, and watch this piece of art.
It's really good surprise overall. I didn't watch the original Devilman, but i have to say that this one is pretty amazing. I discovered it when it ended, because it doesn't have a lot of visibility on this site, being a Netflix anime.

Story : 8
An original story, pretty enjoyable. It gets a really deep meaning towards the end, which can make you think, but it's really well ... made, so it doesn't break the immersion.

Art : 10
Probably one of the greatest forces of this anime, the artstyle is very refreshing, and realy matches with the psychologial side of the plot. The psychedelic artstyle isn't here all the time, but if you like that kind of drawing, then you're going to love this.

Sound : 10
A really nice soundtrack. The type of music present here goes really well with the different scenes, and it's really well made overall, and highly enjoyable.

Character : 9
The characters are great, i found every single one of them interesting, and you become attached to all of them during the anime. They all have their story, and all of those stories are interesting, and kinda deep. There is no annoying characters, and the MC is really well done, especially with all the changes he must endure.

Enjoyment : 9
I realy liked this anime, there's nothing much to say about this. I didn't have anything to do at the moment, so i watched it all in a day, and i really enjoyed it.

Overall : 9
Great anime, go for it, even if you haven't heard of it, it will be a good suprise, as it was for me.

As a big fan of the original manga I was glad to see how much of a great adaptation Crybaby is of the original story, it has all the core themes and elements of the devilman story and it adapts most of them in a way that hasn't been seen before in the devilman franchise while being really faitful to the original manga.

You can feel the despair, the love, the violence, the cruelty, it's all there, it's Devilman on it's purest essence.

Not to mention Yuasa's beautiful directing and the excellent OST this adaptation has, overall it's a very enjoyable take on the original manga that ... manages to make an excellent unique and modern take on the message the original manga presented

As far as characters go i think most of them are great, specially Miki, seeing how little of a character she had in the original manga while here in Crybaby she's easily the most likeable character, i really loved her role here and it makes the post credit scene in episode 9 brutally sad, Ryo and Akira are pretty accurate to their manga selves, tho i felt Akira wasn't as heroic as he was in the manga, however it works and you can truly feel he's the heroic demon with a human heart he's meant to be.
There were some characters i didn't like, those being Miko and Koda, Koda was a dumb pointless character that i literally could never care about no matter how much i tried, this anime original fellow always felt like he didn't belong there, Miko was sorta similar, however she was a much more interesting character, yet her character never really went anywhere, she felt like wasted potential, i wish we had gotten to see more interactions with this character but they just didn't happen, even if i liked her scene at the end of episode 9 i didn't enjoy this character at all.

When it comes to changes to the story i enjoyed most of it as it stays faithful to the events in the original manga, some events happen in different order and some events change location and context whoever they mantain the original message.
But there were some changes i didn't enjoy: i didn't like the way demons finally came into contact with humans in this adaptation with the whole marathon competition thing, it felt kinda rushed, i didn't like the Jinmen fight either, the context was better with it involving Akira's parents, but the fight itself was really bad, and i think that's pretty much it.
I loved a lot of scenes they added, like Akira defending the humans in episode 9 and the entire final episode which is a masterpiece on it's own showing us a fight that was skipped in the manga and i'm really amazed to have seen in this adaptation.

Crybaby is really a beautiful adaptation and a strong contender for AOTY being only 1 week into this year, it's THAT good, really worth checking out, it gets a strong 9 from me.

Dove into this series without knowing anything about it. So let's just say the heavy sexual themes did stun me a bit. But letting the sex and the gore aside, I got to see a very very convincing, touching and heartwarming message come through. The plot for Devilman:Crybaby encompasses the trope I love in shows -- two sides; two perspectives, each with their own reasons, their own "justice" and the conflict. How the main character slowly learns more about both sides, and then trying to end it all by urging people to have more humanity, through the power of love. Sounds cliche, but the symbolism ... in the show, truly ties everything together well and delivers the message in a strong, convincing way.

Next, the animation. Honestly, you can see the director's style, but, not the best animation. Lots of scenes the characters looked floppy, but well that was entertaining to watch. Still, the unique style made it pretty refreshing to watch. As for the music, while I'm upset that "Devilman no Uta" wasn't the official OP, the opening was very "Netflix", and the animation visuals aren't that bad, I have no problem. Definitely would check out the OSTs when released.

This show has made me curious in Nagai Go's other works, and if time allows it, I will be reading Devilman or even watching the older series.