He’s the New Devilman!: Devilman Crybaby
Greetings, fabulous peoples of the
Internet! After a week of traveling I’m
back with part two for my Devilman themed
Flashback February! And I have to admit,
I’m pretty excited about this week’s review because I’ve wanted to do it for a
while. It certainly did not disappoint
(for the most part), and I can’t wait to talk about it. So without further adieu, let’s talk about Devilman Crybaby!
Taking a hint from the original
manga series, Akira Fuda is a scrawny teen who is often known for bursting into
tears at the littlest of things. One
day, his childhood friend, Ryo, comes in out of nowhere and tells Akira that he
needs his help with something that admittedly is not all that explained at
first. He then takes Akira to an
underground party called a sabbat where partygoers do drugs and alcohol and
have sex pretty much all over the place, and oh yeah, a lot of the people there
are either half-dressed or completely nude.
As the party starts to become more violent thanks to Ryo, demons start
to appear, take over the bodies of partygoers, and kill everyone. One of those people turns out to be
Akira. However, his being possessed by
the demon Amon plays out differently in that while he takes on the physical
appearance of the demon, Akira still maintains his human consciousness and
feelings. This balance results in him
becoming a devilman. The series from
there shows Akira working with Ryo to not only combat the demons that wreak
havoc, but also to learn a little more about demons themselves. That is until the ending where everything
quite literally goes to hell. And yes,
that’s the only spoiler you’re going to get about the ending in this review.
Where do I begin with Devilman Crybaby? Well first, I give the show an 8.5 out of ten
overall. Yeah, for a relatively new
show, that’s pretty high. But compared
to the 1972 show, Crybaby got one
thing right that I think is by far the show’s strongest aspect: the story. It’s dark, and violent, and gritty, and even
erotic at sometimes. But that’s how it’s
supposed to be. Doing some research on
the original manga, I learned that this was meant to be a dark and violent
story. And that’s exactly what this show
got right. Plus, on a lighter note, I
did like how the demons were actually called demons rather than devils. Still, and maybe I’m nitpicking a little too
much, it would have made Akira’s name Devilman seem a little strange. But again, I think I’m just nitpicking. Now I will admit, I think the show did too
good a job at following the manga, but in the end, I think it did the overall
story justice.
So yeah, while I was pretty blown
away by the show, there were a couple of problems with it. I’ll straight up admit that I was not a fan
of the animation style. Now this is more
of a personal preference, but I like the more detailed animation style than the
vivid minimalistic approach. However, I
will give the series credit in that the style of animation used did help
lighten up a lot of the content in the series.
That is a lot of the violence and sexual content were a lot more
digestible than if the animation went a more detailed route. And speaking of sexual content, one of the
biggest problems I had with the numerous sex scenes (you heard me right) was
how they were balanced out. Aside from
the first episode, it was pretty obvious that the creators were trying to
balance out the intense sex scenes with sexual content that was pretty
laughable. Episode five had some of the
stupidest instances of this-although episode two had a weird moment where a
girl masturbates while braying like a donkey.
I could go into more detail about this, but I’ll wait till next week’s
post to talk about that. Also as a
personal preference, I seriously thought that the remix to the original ’72
theme song should have been in the title sequence. Yeah, there’s a remix of the original theme,
and yet it’s only heard once throughout the entire series. The soundtrack wasn’t bad by any means, but I
think it would have been a very nice hat’s off to the original 1972 series if
the if opened with that remixed theme. Oh,
and before I forget, what’s with Akira’s crying? I know the show is called Devilman Crybaby, but some of the
moments where he does cry are just out of place. It made sense in the first episode before
he’s possessed by Amon when he would cry at some tragedy or being bullied
because he is a weak, scrawny kid and in fact- for lack of a better word- a
crybaby. But afterwards it just seems
out of place. Now sometimes, it works
and those moments where he does cry actually work, but other times, it’s so
awkward. So while there are some
stylistic problems to the show, it will not disappoint! It’ll make you sad and cry, but certainly not
disappoint!
I don’t know what else I can really
say about Devilman Crybaby but this was what the original Devilman should have been! The entire series is available on Netflix for
free if you already have a subscription.
And so, that wraps up part two of my Devilman-themed
Flashback February. Tune in next week
when I do the first Vs. post in a long time where I see which series was
better!
-Hanime
on Anime
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