Anime 35120 Devilman Crybaby Reviews Filter Check 2

Going into this series, I had zero background information on any of its details. Didn't know that it was a manga adaptation, that it contained adult content (so. much. boobs.), or that it was directed by THE Maasaki Yuusa (Tatami Galaxy, that one episode in Adventure Time) until I decided to do a little research halfway through the series. So there was little to no expectations in my part, other than my friend suggesting I watch it. And I have to say... I was kinda disappointed by the end. Started promisingly but faltered way down as it rushed to its finish line. Let's break it ... down, shall we?

Story: 5
- First episode was definitely intriguing, establishing the world and its themes, but felt a bit rushed and jumbled at times
- Pacing was odd, to say the least
- Themes of humanity and the good/evil that comes with it, not the most original idea (granted, the manga was written way back in the 70's)
- The second half is where it reaaaaally dovetails
- Plot development feels unnatural

Art: 8
- Greatest asset, even with the occasional flaws
- Eclectic and unique camerawork
- Character design is lush and defined
- An ecstatic and colorful palette that transitions late in the series to darker and muted tones
- Animation in the mid-episodes sometimes felt stilted, and just plain bad in a few scenes

Sound: 6
- Nothing really noteworthy, music and sound design is solid, even inventive on occasion
- Plenty of electro beats, and wood percussions
- OP song is quite good (not really a factor for critiquing)

Character: 5
- No character is downright hateable, so that's good
- Most likable is definitely Miki, the bright and hopeful girl next door
- Contrasting of Ryo and Akira is obvious, but not memorable
- Supporting characters have confusing arcs and inconsistent internal logic

Enjoyment: 4
- Admittedly enjoyable at first, with its melange of colors and overzealousness in presentation, but becomes downright depressing by the end, minus any form of catharsis or larger talking point
- Can't imagine anyone willing to re-watch all of this for the sake of entertainment

Overall: NO THANKS, I'LL PASS (or watch once and regret losing 5 hours of bountiful sleeping time and writing a review after, 6am in the morning...)


#Thanks2018

It looks beautiful, the OST is remarkable in and of itself and these two things you can easily verify yourself with a quick google. However, the story is a complete mess. I'd argue it's still a fine anime if you like action, ultraviolence and sex, or just want to enjoy some top tier directing.

The main character becomes a human-monster and he does change because of that, but his "what have I become?" moment is really tame and rather expeditiously dealt with. We don't know how he gets past it, but there's really no time because when his inner demons pop up the plot requires him ... to fight some more and brush over the problem. Being a "crybaby" may be linked to this. He's so empathetic that he cries the tears that others don't dare to, but this characteristic seems to only show up when it's dramatically convenient, rather than him actually being that considerate. Else he'd be torn by what is happening and take an active role in the story, rather than just reactive. Similarly, he can help others beat the devils that took over them, but there's no rhyme nor reason for why they can do that, he just tells them "you will become a devilman" (i.e. a man that controls the devil) and they do.

Humans are monsters and they go on massive witch hunts for devils once they become public knowledge. Everything devolves into random killing and world war for, really, no real reason, but it serves the plot and the forced drama. Some characters that were friendly for some time and seemed to fight against discrimination suddenly turn coats and go crazy too. It breaks the suspension of disbelief and that's when you don't care anymore, however in the case you don't notice the flaws this anime will appear to be the best and most dramatic thing you've ever seen.

There are some good parts, some good micro-stories that get played well and are consistent, mainly concerning humans who turn into devils and can't control their impulses and eat their friends only to wallow in pain and want to die later on.

There seems to be a group of organized smart demons that control things from the shadows but their origins are left unclear and rather quickly forgotten, this part lacks closure.

Ryo, the childhood friend who gets the main character in this whole mess is shrouded in mystery and acts completely inconsistently too. He's the main force that drives the plot so that makes things even worse.

SPOILER IN THIS PARAGRAPH
There's also some side story about some high school (or whatever grade they are in) colleagues trying to best each other and the "gambatte" (do your best, be the best) attitude is not a problem until it interferes with the death of an important character that in their last moment only have the thought of "passing the baton" to the main character (they are track both runners). I mean, when I die, I sure as hell won't think about who gets to inherit the code I've written.

So yeah, without getting into the actual ending, I'd say that the themes barely get explored, are contrived for the purpose of providing forced drama, and the characters are inconsistent too because they are subservient to this purpose as well.

Is Devilman Crybaby bad?
If you want something that doesn't insult one's intelligence, yeah, it's pretty bad. Still, there are parts which are genuinely awesome, but they are harder to notice, mostly micro-stories that hold some truth and feeling.
If you can get past the stupidity of the plot this anime is actually really worth it thanks to how amazing it is on an aesthetics level. This also means that you need to pay attention to the screen, watching this anime on a 2nd screen while doing something else is a complete waste of time and will ruin your experience.

I'm rather torn about what rating to give this anime, on one hand I want to give it a 10 for the amazing work the animators, director and sound people have done on it, on the other hand I want to give it a 1 for the plot. I expect that once the hype dies this anime will be rather polarizing. I hope that this review can shed better light on it.

English version

Quite disappointing and more if you saw the manga but as a single adaptation also has consistency problems the script of the series.

Story .. 4/10
90% original and 10% manga This would not be a problem if the script of this would have been good as an adaptation, but if we add that they rewrote the relationship that Ryo and Akira have, making it dull and without the explosive dynamics that both had and with the double of Yaoi bait of the one who had in the manga, the excessive amounts of unnecessary sex when it is only functional and required for the Sabatt (This ... already looks like Devil Lady), the secondary characters have an unnatural development of motivations after they have become devilman and are inconsistent in their personalities and what they proposed first to what they end up being, from then on it seems a fanfic of what the original devilman was.

Art. 6/10
Yuasa has failed me, this time the direction has not taken a course as creative as in his previous works and even feels uninspired, it is only functional

Sound 7/10
The electronic style is quite good to Devilman's soundtrack but it is not always and I would like to comment that the music of the opening is bad.

Character..5 / 10
As I said above, they rewrote a lot of the characters and making their characters quite flat and especially in Ryo, Miki and Akira are the most rescatable cast, the other secondary devilman who joined the story in the second half are forgettable and a weight dead to the plot of what their motivations are.

Enjoyment .. 6/10
I liked the series but they took away everything that made Devilman shine in the beginning, he has enough good moments in the series but it does not take away his problems that are loaded

Overall 5/10
Mediocre and quite disappointing coming from Yuasa in charge of this project

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

Version en Español

Bastante decepcionante y mas si viste el manga pero como adaptación sola también tiene problemas de consistencia el guion de la serie.

Story.. 4/10
90% original y 10% manga Esto no seria un problema si el guion de este hubiera sido bueno como adaptación, pero si sumamos que reescribieron la relación que tiene Ryo y Akira volviendola sosa y sin la dinámica tan explosiva que tenían ambos y con el doble de Yaoi bait del que tenia en el manga, las excesivas cantidades de sexo innecesario cuando únicamente es funcional y requerido para el Sabatt (Esto ya parece Devil Lady), los personajes secundarios tienen un desarrollo antinatural de motivaciones luego de haberse convertido en devilman y son inconsistentes en sus personalidades y lo que se proponían primero a lo que después terminan siendo, de ahí en mas parece un fanfic de lo que el original devilman era.

Art. 6/10
Yuasa me ha fallado, esta vez la dirección no ha tomado un curso tan creativo como en sus trabajos anteriores e incluso se siente poco inspirado, solo es funcional

Sound 7/10
El estilo electrónico le quedo bastante bien al soundtrack de devilman pero no queda siempre y de paso me gustaría comentar que la música del opening es mala.

Character..5/10
Como había dicho arriba, reescribieron mucho de los personajes y volviendo sus personajes bastante planos y sobretodo en Ryo, Miki y Akira son lo mas rescatable del cast, los otros devilman secundarios que se unieron a la historia en la segunda mitad son olvidables y un peso muerto para la trama de lo que sus motivaciones son.

Enjoyment.. 6/10
Me gusto la serie pero le quitaron todo lo que hacia brillar a devilman en un principio, tiene bastantes momentos buenos la serie pero no quita sus problemas que se carga

Overall. 5/10
Mediocre y es bastante decepcionante viniendo de Yuasa encargado de este proyecto

Warning: Big boy words are used in this review, so if you can't handle mature language, go watch Clannad or something

People need to understand that sex, violence, death and other similar content is very prevalent in this show and for good reason.

Devilman: Crybaby depicts what would happen if humans ever had to face a more powerful species; we'd get fucked! The human race has a lot of dark themes hidden from the public eye: drug abuse, group sex, stabbings, murder, etc. and the fact that this show doesn't shy away from this is certainly commendable. It has been a long time since an anime has ... had the balls to push the envelope this far, yet never entirely promote satanic affairs like in other previous anime. It's refreshing for a guy like me who wants more adult cartoons that aren't comedy crapfest to see a show that rids itself of PC culture to tell a powerful story that will affect anyone that chooses to watch.

Not to say the anime is great in every way. The sound is unremarkable, the pacing is erratic and Yuasa still shows his incompetency to design actual human beings, but this is a step in the right direction. Overall I recommend Devilman Crybaby.

6.0/10

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exploitation done right, Devilman: Crybaby is what I endlessly want the over-abundance of overly-pulpy overly-rediculous anime to be like. One of the only redeeming factors of Devilman, adapted by the venerable Masaaki Yuasa, is the astounding soundtrack. Everything else really doesn't shine as bright as I'd hoped, but what I got instead was a thoroughly unhealthy meal. A massive dollop of cheese mixed in with a hard-to-swallow cacophony and exploitation-era brutality that was endlessly easy to indulge in.

That's what a plethora of anime is missing. A medium which is often bathing in pulp, you'd expect these kinds of elements to really shine in many ... of the anime of this nature. However, leave it to the America-based company, Netflix, to do what I wish a lot of anime had the uncensored cojones to do. Indulge in ludicrousness. In the spirit of the 70s, Devilman really just is. It isn't a specific thing, either, it just is. Period.

With Yuasa-infused visuals lies a barrage of sex, violence, and rock and roll, or should I say synth-electronic dubstep-esq fusion. Quintessential marks of a long-gone era when the censors in Japan seemed lighter and the possibilities seemed tainted in grimdark nihilism. With sexualization that is as exploitatively hilarious as it is absurdly indulgent, you would never expect to see something like this in an anime nowadays. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find any nudity in television anime that isn't confined to the expensive blue-rays, and even then the nudity is often there for titillation and pandering fanservice. Censorship is a bitch, and if I were to praise Netflix for anything it is their willingness to go raw. And raw do they go with Devilman.

Guts spray across walls and skulls get crushed and viscera flies across white floors. The squishing sound-effects ripped from soundboards that sound a decade old are present, as well, which is as welcome as it is fun. There is so much present in Devilman that I wish a series like, for example, Re:Zero would have indulged in. A series that I heavily criticized for its blatant cornball storyline with an emphasis on death without the masochistic eye needed to make that kind of cheesiness engaging. Yuasa, with the backing of the uncensored Netflix, proves that the pulp that I often can't stand in anime can be put to good use. Every silly event piles onto the next, becoming a project that is messy in every regard, both in storytelling, characters, blood, and even seminal fluid on more than one occasion. And if anything, it's fun.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[The Meat]

Not everything is twitching fingers and rolling intestines, though, as Devilman's absurdity doesn't stop with its exploitation-era-esq violence and sex. The story is utter and complete nonsense. That may be unfair. It is comprehensible if you try to look past the total and complete inanities and lack of anything resembling verisimilitude, but that doesn't mean it is even remotely palatable. I found myself scratching my head as much as I found myself groaning at how utterly haphazardly everything seems to be laid in place.

Character motivations struggle to mean anything. Hell, no character even has remotely realistic reactions to any situation. If their family dies, they may cry about it for a moment only to move on the next. Only to have another character break down in a prolonged sequence of tears at the death of someone else. Things often don't make sense, or at least lack any cohesion between written characters. This messiness drifts towards the pacing, as well. When I say pacing I use that term lightly. There is not pacing that I can see. The entire series is confusing. Some scenes drag endlessly to end up with no reward, other scenes simply slide by in a few moments yet end up playing a big role in the series.

Characters are introduced that lead you to believe they'll be important figures within the series arc, however, their episodes of introduction end in an ultimately minor role that does virtually nothing to move the story ahead. The last four episodes of the series are truly off-the-rails and can be classified as "so bad it's hilarious," but that's positive in its own right. I watched Devilman : Crybaby with my friends and we had a blast laughing at the multiple moments of really, really bad phonetic English reading from Japanese voice actors. Then, to our surprise, actual, legitimate Russian voice acting. The lack of any cohesion is seriously baffling and astounding at the same time.

There is a fairly large cast in this short, ten-episode anime and they end up somewhat blending into one another. This is due to the lack of characterization of a lot of characters. Deaths mean virtually nothing when everyone is expendable and no one is remotely fleshed out enough to be someone I saw myself becoming attached to. I do like the fact that Devilman didn't shy away from the nihilistic character-death. I found myself happy that these banal characters got fittingly violent ends, however, I feel like that isn't the response this series wanted to enchant me with.

My enjoyment stemmed from this unbelievable pulp more so than it did a compelling narrative, characters, or anything of that nature. Instead, a character I believe we were meant to like gets brutally murdered and yet I can't help but laugh because it is so over-the-top in every sense of the word. You know what? I'm not complaining. This grimdark edge-fest is fine as it is as a product of its time, and seemingly faithfully adapted from the original manga which, from what I've seen, was quite controversial for its time.

Which is why I can't help but applaud the audacious efforts of the series even if I can't necessarily enjoy all of them. Don't get me wrong, the absurdity in every episode got great laughs from me. The ridiculous moments are fully enjoyable. However, the show isn't anything but a collection of ludicrous moments highlighted by a signature art style from a great director. Everything else, apart from the previously mentioned amazing soundtrack, is virtually non-existent or honestly, bad.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Conclusion]

To keep this short, Devilman isn't good or anything I expected it to be. From a name like Masaaki Yuasa, I expected something less pulpy and stupid and more intense, exhilarating, and well-realized. Yuasa, after all, has made my favourite anime series ever, Tatami Galaxy. His style here isn't anything impressive, in my opinion. While certain sequences certainly look spectacular, they all pale in comparison to something like Tatami Galaxy's incredibly well-realized directing. I find that his style simply may not fit the product, or at least didn't feel naturally placed within a story like this.

The majority of the action scenes are either under-animated, silly, both, or just flat-out too dark, as in, lighting wise, making everything a chore to see or experience viscerally. If it weren't for how the series' reminds me of 70s and early 80s exploitation flicks I wouldn't be praising the positives as much. It has an almost refreshing amount of sex in it when compared to Japan-airing anime, where nudity is non-existent and sexuality is often childish or perverse. This, while far from mature, is at least so hyper-indulgent that it becomes entertaining. The sexual content here is just laughable, yet entertaining because of that. The same can be said for the brutally charming gore, as well, which doesn't always translate to compelling action, unfortunately.

The story and characters are the series at its lowest. While the story is at least somewhat entertaining due to its absurdity, the characters are far from fleshed out enough to be anything but walking cutouts, and while I'm sure it is different than in the manga in some ways, I can't say that the manga's approach, whatever it may have been, equal or not, matters to me in context of reviewing this series as it is. As it is, Devilman : Crybaby is is a completely entertaining mess that I'll gladly recommend to fans of heavy pulp and violence, which I feel should coexist with one another more frequently in the sterile, safe landscape of modern anime television.

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..

First-time reviewing :3
Devilman Crybaby is overall to me 3/10 or so.

The story has a good beginning and a decent plot. Just a confusing beginning.

The art is what really allowed me to keep watching the anime. I really disliked the fact that the creators definitely relied on sex and blood. Which bothers me very much the plot slowly changes over time and the main character has a different objective every other episode.

The dub actors did a pretty good job doing the voices for the characters. The sound was a little off but gave good sound effects. To show the response to the action.

I'm very disappointed, some of my friends recommended me this anime saying that is was amazing super sad bla bla.

Usually I never write reviews of bad shows because its not worth the effort, but now I'm really angry for some reason and I need to write this, for my own sanity.

The Good things: the sound is pretty cool, the animation looks different but not bad, and they even have a better version of the original song. The opening has cool visuals it's boring AF but I've seen worse.

BUT....
*spoilers ahead*

I'm going to list my problems with the anime in not particular order
...
- First the story started fine, but then it didn't make sense in some parts, that guy Ryou for some reason is unstoppable when it come to controlling Japan, the government lets him do whatever he wants with no questions asked, they let him do his weird broadcasts, he can hack national and international tv stations with no problem, and has a powerful app that can find everybody like a FBI thing.

-The incident with Akira's parents was a complete mess, when he kills everyone in the bus the driver does nothing to stop it, he doesn't open the doors, he doesn't stop the bus, he doesn't notify the situation, he did nothing, just stood there and dove like nothing happened and only showed a reaction at the very and when the mother was the only passenger alive.
Also a complete bus of passengers disappeared and the authorities of the airport reacted incredibly slow, I'm sure that the family of the other passengers already called they relatives like a thousand times but they showed no reaction at all, then in 3 seconds Ryou found the cellphone of Akira's mother but decided not to tell anybody else, and somehow fooled all the security and got inside a restricted area.

-That girl Miko its cool and everything but why the f did she make weird donkey sounds? that was so bizarre and for some reason the sound was very loud but nobody noticed, just that glasses guy.
Also I couldn't understand her story at all. First she is really nice, she is jealous of Miku but still loves her some much, then she fucks the camera guy, then she is sad and finds a friend in glasses guy, the demon thing happens, then she kills glasses guy and she is proud abut it, at the end she became a badass and was finally happy, but no, she needs to die.

-Who cleans all the demons incidents? is not Ryou because he was unaware of everything, is not the government either, if they did it would mean that they knew demons existed but did nothing to stop them. Did the demons did it? it doesn't make sense because they where looking for Amon, so they must have known that Amon killed all those demons, or maybe I'm wrong idk.
Whoever cleaned that must have done something to the bodies, and if they did, why tf nobody complained about it, a bunch of people went missing the same day and no one investigated or did something about it.

-This may be something dumb , but please can somebody give food to that cat, we get the same video of the cat scratching its plate like 5 times, what was the point of that??
-This may not be a problem for some people but for me the sex scenes were excessive, do we really need to see all of that at the party, was it necesary for Akira to watch porn in front of the entire school and not get punisshed, why did Miku had to take a bath at the cameras man place? knowing very well that he was weird, idk just my opinion.

-When Taro and his mother went missing why did Akira wait so much to tell Ryou to help him, the father was searching everywhere and risking his life and Akira was like: Oh I remember now. Ryou can help us, let me send him a message after god knows how many hours of searching.

- And at last my biggest complain with the whole thing: Why did Akira keep acting like Ryou did nothing wrong? He attacked a bunch of people at the party wanting to attract the demons, making him the main reason everybody died, he killed the camera guy even though he told him everything he knew, he killed the camera guy's mother and she did nothing wrong, he wanted to kill Miku just because she "maybe" knows Akira's secret, he planed all the fucking war, he literately told Akira that we was the reason he became a demon, he modified the footage to make it look like Akira killed humans, etc. And after all that Akira still acted like nothing happened, getting angry just for a little while, and forgiving him in a day. OMG that makes no friking sense .

After all that I still have things that I would like to complain about but this is too long already, and It didn't help that the ending was not satisfying at all, God should have kill everybody when this anime started.
Now send me your hate

Well... that ending was kinda shitty. Deserving on Ryo's part, but still. Not sure what more I can say about this that hasn't already been said repeatedly. Blah blah too much sex blah gore blah horrible animation blah boobies blah. I can't say anything about it in comparison to the manga considering I haven't read it, but this anime... was trash. I loved the hype music during fight scenes, and it was badass seeing the world fall apart, but it's nothing that hasn't already been done before. If you want to see shit fall apart, just watch Neon Genesis Evangelion.

I came into this anime entirely blind having no background in the source manga or even rough familiarity with the story/artist. My overall opinion has me split square down the middle.

Devilman Crybaby's strengths lie within its incredible unique and surreal art style and animation. I found myself enraptured by the color palettes, unique character design, and overall animation techniques. As a visual work, it makes me hope for more from this animation studio and artist collaboration. I also did enjoy the more graphic animation, but think it became too relied-on as a trope for shock value as the series went on. (Though the final ... hyper-graphic scenes in episode 9 were quite eliciting of a guttural reaction that in retrospect I appreciate).

That being said, I found the story hopelessly disappointing and weak. The plot was weak; the themes have been done a thousand times and in far superior ways. The characters did not experience any growth and the plot direction was lackluster at best. The monster-of-the-week format for the initial 8 or so episodes was contrived and offered nothing stimulating save for the animation and art style. The final explanation at the end felt cheesy and unimaginative.

I wish I could like this more, but the overall plot fails to captivate any uniqueness or intrigue. It's poorly constructed with inarticulate growth and execution. It's saving grace is, quite honestly, the animation and art design, but I couldn't give a solid recommendation beyond watching it simply for the aesthetics.

The moment I heard that there would be a new Devilman anime directed by my long-time favorite animator in the industry, I was more excited than I think I'd been in my entire life. The night of its release, I remember sitting and watching the clock like it'd skitter away from me the second I took my eyes off it. I had to see it the second it came out. It was going to be the best thing I'd ever seen.

It took me three or four episodes to admit that I was disappointed, and all 10 to admit I didn't like it.

I've spent a long ... time stewing in my thoughts about this show. In my heart I still really want to think of it positively, but the only real emotion I associate with it now is embarrassment. I know that the people who worked on it pumped their blood sweat and tears into it, but I also know that if those same people had been allowed to work around a more coherent structure it would have been a masterpiece instead of a pretty disaster. So, really, that line of rationalization just makes me more irritated.

There is just no way I can justify the existence of the anime original characters they constructed to pad this show. They're tissues in a push-up bra, and the bra is an A cup. I did not enjoy myself when Miki Mk. II was on screen. I don't even know the name of the gay track star, and I can't recall why he looked like the butterflies guy. Things kept right on happening to these guys with little significance and no regard to pacing. I didn't care about them. Why should I? They run track and they're real mad about some personal stuff. Personal stuff that would have been better suited to the monster of the week than a permanent fixture of the cast. There ya go. That's them!

And Regular Miki. I know people love her, but... She's so very average. I didn't feel that way about Manga Miki, but I do about Anime Miki. There's not a spoken line of hers that I don't think I could find a million other anime dream girls reciting in a million other shows. I wish her speech would've touched me on some personal level, but it didn't. It was washed-out, generic positivity, and it rang hollow in my ears.

There's no way I can give this show any lower than a 6 just from the production quality alone. There's too much soul in it to insult it that way. But it rates lower than that in my heart of hearts, under the brutal scrutiny of my pitiful little fanboy feelin's. This show was meant to be a statement on humanity. This franchise has always been a statement on humanity. I wouldn't have minded if they wanted to present us with something more optimistic than the manga. If they could have handled that optimism well, I would have been happy for it. But it wasn't handled well. It could have been, but it wasn't. If only there were fewer mediocre raps, fewer pointless characters with irrelevant problems, and a little more introspection. Maybe then. But not in this world, not in this time.

I'm crying, too.

I like the animation. It's a simple art style that allows for a lot of easy and expressive movement, particularly in the last episode. Fight scenes are full of blood and viscera, often coming in literal fountains, and I love it for that. It's not always perfect, since scenes that are still don't benefit from that expressiveness and everything is so damn dark at times that it's hard to make anything out, but for the most part, the animation is a big win.

As for the sex and nudity, I thought it was gratuitous. There's a sense throughout, and this is true of the violence (at ... least for the last several episodes) that the goal is just to show that humanity is too far gone. I wouldn't say I have an optimistic view of humanity myself, but this just seemed like too much. I get that this is a world infested with demons and that they affect behavior, but regular humans were among the worst participants and there was just a sense that nearly everyone is awful. As a take-home message, it's pretty basic.

The characters are interesting in places. I grew to like Miko as one of the more interesting characters. Miki is a shining beacon throughout the series. Having a minor character like Kukun and Gabi be so endearing is a substantial feat as well. I found myself appreciating Akira and Ryo as a study of contrasts rather than as individuals, though Akira certainly had his moments and Ryo at least had one.

Most of the other characters, particularly the demons or those in the Miki's or Akira's family, just didn't get enough depth to really work. There are some exceptional scenes for them, particularly one with Miki's father that was just heartrending, but most of these characters lack enough time or just general character exploration to be all that interesting.

As for the story, I may have given it away with my thoughts on Ryo since he drives much of the plot, but since we were following Akira through much of the plot, it just felt... reactive. He didn't direct much until the last couple of episodes, largely just responding to what came his way. There are some exceptional moments where he bucks that trend, but the series as a whole can feel a bit defeatist. I think there's some nice stuff that happens along the way, enough to elevate the series a bit, but it's hard to enjoy a series that has a take-away this dark. And, to be clear, I like tragedy. When a story really makes me feel for its characters, their loss or harm becomes a really great focal point for me. But so many of the characters die in this that the series just makes me numb to their outcomes with only a couple of exceptions. When there's a real clash between Akira's and Ryo's worldviews, this series soars. When it's more of an examination of the world and the people in it, not so much.

Overall, it's not a negative experience by any means, but not quite the one I was hoping for, either. If the gratuitous nature of this show's sex and violence don't get to you and you're good with the dark themes and mass character deaths, this may be more for you than it was for me.

Devilman: Crybaby has some pretty good things going for it. The story stays interesting, dealing with the emergence of demons in the the modern world. An empathetic teenager and his genius friend try to investigate a solution. The story gets more complicated which each episode, but it never gets too hard to follow.

Because its a Netflix series, each episode ends on a cliffhanger and makes it easy to want binge the whole 10 eps. relatively quick. The art work is unique and all over the place, but in a good way. The sound is pretty unnoticeable, except for some good rap numbers.

There's actually ... a ton of characters outside the main two. The voice acting direction is pretty bad. I watched the dub and the delivery that some of the VAs give on some lines are underwhelming to laughably bad. Every time the Main character yells "I'M DEVILMAAAAAN" it is just cringe worthy and that is just one example.

Overall, I would say that the show has too many ideas that it tries to cram into its short 10 episode run. The timing and pacing of the last episode alone fluctuates rapidly from scene to scene and really could have done with being split up into two episode. However, the show was a very easy watch and you might get more enjoyment out of the story than I did.

this is my first review so be with me
(Spoiler)

I rate the anime 5/10 I did not enjoy it, the animation is not great. The story was good. The character development is poor and I couldn’t feel anything to their death. Op is unique but not good. I know the ending means deep and relatable to humanity but overall its nothing special for me, probably because I don’t know the studio and the director of the show but I couldn’t care less. I rate the show not the director nor the studio it came from.


I bet if an unknown director and studio made this anime ... it will probably a 6 in avg.

So please don’t be bias in reviewing!
(Sorry for bad english)

This review contains indirect small spoilers that are used to explain my reasoning behind the rating. The spoilers shouldn't have an effect on your experience as you watch it and you won't be able to predict events based on solely this review. If you wish to remain 100% spoiler free then please do ignore this review <3.

This show has an extremely interesting build-up with a very underwhelming climax that combines elements from Berserk season 1 with Akame ga Kill. The not so nice elements.

It is a show that heavily relies on gore and oversexualized scenes with characters and nudity where it isn't necessary, but ... more to reach the quota of a 23 minute long episode.

Devilman: Crybaby starts out fairly interesting about young boys from which one is a sadist and the other one is always crying. Those little boys grow up and due to time they each go their own path until they are at the age of high school students. The sadist has made it pretty far due to being a genius at young age with a lot authority while the crybaby is trying to live his life as a normal student. He still cries every time someone is feeling sad.

Now this sounds pretty interesting right? That is what I thought as well. As the story continues the two of them meet up in a rather odd way where crybaby suddenly must go with genius sadist. And this is where the world of devils unfolds full of sex and gore, not that I mind, but it is pointless gore. Tearing up devils in half in a rampage and clearing out hordes of "enemies".

Everything in this show is fairly not logical apart from the choices the characters make. For example if you saw outside your house a weird creature you would freak out and if you had a gun you would shoot at it otherwise you would be terrified and run away making noise in order to get attention from other people. But in the setting of the show the logical choices don't fit the actual story and plot. As a matter of fact they degrade the quality. In the given example a more fitting response would be for you to be pumped with adrenaline and trying to pull a full Rambo and that creature. But everyone suddenly gets realistic and terrified or decide to follow the masses.

As the story progresses with loads of events a lot core characters get eliminated for no valid reason. In terms of logic they should've been easily able to survive. But the logic only is at the mindset of the people in the way they make choices.

This anime is like an over dramatic high school project made by students that had to emphasize on drama and other elements that don't fit together the way they went with it. The story could be told in 2 episodes. The character development from all characters in another 2 episodes. Add sex and gore to that and you have suddenly a full anime.

I did enjoy the sound effects and music though, compared to your average anime they were simply outstanding. But I wish those points would go to the story, which was terrible.

This is one of the type of anime that leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. You feel demotivated and don't understand why you even bothered to waste time in this. I have seen far worse, but honestly I hope I won't encounter trash like this ever again. If they at least focused on a good story instead of sex and gore then this could be really good! It had so much potential. It could be really interesting it had plenty of unique combinations of elements, but it was all progressed in a bad way.

It is like going a night out to a casino and after playing 100 games you will have lost every single game. Not 1 small victory in between. Just a whopping 100% loss.

But I am an honest man. They did something at least decent and at some points they tried. That's why I didn't give this a 1 but the points they deserved at certain aspects.

There are plenty of people that enjoyed this show and I fail to understand how and why. I would've watched it earlier but I was extremely skeptic about this. My feelings were on point. But if you are in this kind of thing then perhaps for you it might just be the perfect show. Keep in mind that my opinion doesn't necessarily need to be yours as well.

Those who are weak die. That is a saying among villains and other less-than-desirable characters in many forms of entertainment. That is, until they are presented the error in their ways and are defeated once and for all. When it comes to Devilman Crybaby, the closest thing I can say while avoiding any spoilers is... not so fast. This review focuses solely on Devilman Crybaby. I have not seen any other Devilman titles.

Devilman Crybaby is an interesting take on a complicated war between humans and demons. I can appreciate the fact that it takes a dramatic turn rather quickly, so it was easy to ... get hooked on the show early. The animation is certainly not good, but it is still passable and I eventually came to appreciate it. The music is great and stayed that way.

Ultimately what makes the show good is how it develops about halfway into the 10-episode series. On the surface it makes you think: Devils are bad. Guy becomes half-devil. Guy kills devils and wins. But it's nice to see that things actually get pretty complicated. The existence of devils shoves the entire planet into a hyper-intensified version of the red scare, where mass hysteria turns the entire population into Philadelphia Eagles fans. From this it became hard to identify what is right, and what motivates different groups at play. What made this enjoyable was there was no telling what was going to happen except a firm belief that it wasn't going to end well.

That being said, I think the story took too long to develop. The first and second halves feel like two completely different shows. My least favorite part of it all is I think it became so violent to the point that it was senseless gore porn. Some of the fights were critical to the story and I understand that it gives the gritty feel that a show like Devilman should have, but I will reiterate that I think they just went too far with it. I also think their excessive use of nudity, especially in the first few episodes, was unnecessary. There is an entire genre of TNA for people who want that, but I don't like it in shows that focus on a dark and serious story. Did I mention that the show is violent?

Overall, 6/10 is a fitting score for me when it comes to Devilman Crybaby. I certainly enjoyed it but I also have my issues with it. Reboots or re-imagined stories have a difficult time surviving in the anime world, and even though I never saw the originals I believe Crybaby was a good one. I would have liked to have seen it be maybe a little longer with a more satisfying ending, but for what it is it fits the 6/10 title of "fine". Not bad, but not particularly great, either.

What I took away from Devilman: Crybaby was not the funny scenes, or the christian imagery or the raw eccentric and frenetic nature of Go Nagai's vision. But rather a case study of the old adage "the leopard can never change its spots". Masaaki Yuasa, beloved director, Masaaki Yuasa has reared his head yet again to direct an anime based on an old and beloved character, the Devilman. Yuasa previously won my respect with the Tatami Galaxy it demonstrated good directorial choices, a nice overall concept, and charisma and personality in spades. Moreover, it feels that he garnered even more respect with Ping Pong: The ... Animation, which, although not my cup of tea, I could understand why it would speak to people. Devilman: Crybaby feels less like an evolution from Yuasa's more recent projects and rather a regression to his earliest tv-anime project, Kaiba.

In more detail Devilman Crybaby's premise follows as such. Two high school boys, Akari Fudou: a meek and archetypical male anime protagonist who is a little too naive and aggreable to a fault; and his best friend Ryou. Who is more capable and headstrong, but is also portrayed to be more sociopathic.

Now it is important to point out that although Akari is the protagonist it is Ryou who is a more driving force in the narrative, especially early on. Ryou has been doing research on the existence of an alternate being called Devils(in the very literal Judeo Christian sense) and wants to summon them for his own purpose. Things more or less go his way, Akari gets possesed and subsequently merges with a powerful demon named Amon. He dubs himself the Devilman, because y'know he is a devil and a man... get it, do you get it.

So already we are off to a good start. The premise has already been established by episode 1 so now the remaining 9 episodes can get into meatier elements that copmrise Devilman.

Stylistically, Yuuasa plays loose and fast with conventional storytelling. I love that about him frankly. It never feels like he is fumbling around with plot progression and he just goes for it. Furthermore he is confident in those directorial choices which makes the pay-off that more enjoyable and rewarding. Never before have a seen a full, uninterrupted, rap verse in an anime that manages to be awkward and at the same time serve as a perfect and endearing character moment. It's amazing.

Yuuasa's usual tendencies appear here as well. As always his visual storytelling abilites are unmatched, and he uses repetitive imagery to really try to cue in the audience on more subtle characterization. For example, Akari's tendency to cry and flashbacks of his youth involving his parents are both used repetitively and to an effective end. This is great narrative work and Yuasa uses it masterfully.

More or less that is where my praise for the show ends, because post episode 6, Devilman: Crybaby noticeably shifts in direction to wrap up the existing story.

Pre episode 6, and even during episode 6 to a degree. I was really impressed because I felt that although it routinely stumbled over it's own feet at times that it had a great vision. Go Nagai's material has the reputation for being disturbingly violent and sexual in nature and Yuasa was able to keep that vision intact without it feeling forced. I mean this is high school, these characters are sexual beings and Yuasa never shys away from that. My problem comes in the form that this show really has no idea what it wants to be. It is thematically complicated in the worst way possible. You have Akari and Ryo who have this strained relationship, the monster-of-the-week style adventure for about five episodes, then you have a side plot about Miki and her jealous friend, all the while you have another subplot with other Devilman appearing. All of that is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, jeez, it's too much. It's all just too much.


Functionally Devilman: Crybaby has two elements. A highschool seinen, and a hyperviolent gorefest. Which can work, unfortunately it just didn't work here because the staff did not know how to make these both fit cohesively together, therefore this show shifts between feeling like two entirely different series within the same episode.

This production needed two things for it to be better. One it may have needed a more conventional director. Yuasa never really gives the audience a chance to breathe. There is a scene where a character literally, not figuratively, gets his brains blown out. A two second scene that was a pretty serious moment. I think, and this is purely conjecture, that most directors would say "this is the first major character death of the story, maybe we should hold this scene for a minute". In the world of Devilman: Crybaby, this feels like an afterthough, and this character is never spoken of again. Very odd choice, especially given the fact that said character played a sort of integral role in the story up to that point.

I can't really put all the blame on Yuuasa(even though it may seem like I am) insofar as he didn't write the script. That credit goes to Ichiro Okouchi. As an outsider I only have limitied information on exactly who was responsible for what, but as is. I personally would lean torwards putting more fault on Yuasa, watching this feels like watching Kaiba 2.0

Underwhelming. For all the praises I see regarding this series, it simply doesn’t live up to the hype. Although it isn’t exactly a mindless gore galore, I can’t exactly say this has a “good” story either.

In this anime, we have this protagonist, Akira Fudo, who’s a huge crybaby, and I mean it, he gets extremely sentimental especially for those who he cares about, and has been like this for his entire life. He has this friend, Ryo Asuka, who one day decides to take him to some sort of demon party orgy with the goals of transforming his friend into a devil, and succeeded. Although ... Akira has obtained new powers along with a new body, he still retains a part of his personality and begins to refer himself as a “Devilman” and uses this power in order to protect the people he cares about the most. Although I’m aware of how influential this story is to the anime and manga industry in general, in terms of the actual story itself, it’s not that good. While it does have its fair share of intense and terrifying moments, a lot of the actual dark moments just ends up being unintentionally funny due to how overly edgy it is. Look, I love media that’s not afraid of portraying violent themes but unfortunately for this series, it was poorly portrayed. Often times it relies on too much gore to the point of being extremely repetitive and annoying, and as an unfortunate result, the brutal and violent scenes feel mindless. Also regarding the themes such as who exactly qualifies as a devil in the moral sense, I felt like some of the arcs in the story were kind of pointless as it didn’t really serve any purpose with portraying the themes that’s shown in the series.

The characters in this series is a mixed bag for me. Obviously our main stars, Akira Fudo and Ryo Asuka are the most well developed characters in this series and although Akira’s character was interesting to watch, I don’t feel the same for the other characters. I won’t go too in depth with Ryo for spoilers reason but I have mixed feelings about him as I find his motives and goals to be rather, weird. And by weird I mean in the sense that his motives aren’t very clear. Although I’m aware that some motives don’t always have a clear purpose in it, the way Ryo’s motives were presented was just out of place. And as for the side characters, asides from Miki Makimura, I honestly didn’t care for any of them. They felt like they were just, there for the sake of the story and don’t really feel like actual characters but rather tools used to progress the story itself. I’m aware the story is suppose to focus on the main characters but it wouldn’t hurt to develop the other characters more, y’know? Characterize them more than just their surface level personalities.

The art was, interesting. Masaaki Yuasa’s directing style was definitely unique for a series like this and although I do like his directing style, I wasn’t a fan of the directing style in this particular series. Although the action sequences looked very cool with its trippy and psychedelic feel to it, I feel like the whole dark and brooding atmosphere wasn’t there due to the wacky directing style Yuasa’s known for, and there are certain times where I felt like certain scenes didn’t need the wacky directing style because it ruined the mood and atmosphere for that scene’s intentions. In general, I felt like this anime didn’t need a wacky directing style like this as it didn’t really add anything meaningful to the series asides from it looking cool and that had it been directed like a standard anime series, some of the scenes would at least feel more frightening.

The music is likely my favorite aspect of this series. Kensuke Ushio’s style of music has always been a personal favorite of mine due to how he incorporates electronic instruments into the OSTs he creates, and for a series like this one, the music really enhanced an otherwise mediocre story from thrilling fight scenes to sentimental moments the characters have from time to time. The sound effects were top notch, too as it was very satisfying to hear since it also helps enhance certain scenes.

Overall, this entire anime was a mixed bag for me. There were a lot of aspects to like about this anime, but other aspects such as a poorly executed story and a weak character cast really dragged it down. If you’re looking for an action series with a trippy feel in it, this is definitely right up your alley but for those who wants an engaging story with thought provoking themes, this series isn’t exactly my go to recommendation.

I was recommended Devilman: Crybaby by a friend who warned me that it would be a little "intense" (not the right word for this series AT ALL), but other than that I went into the show completely blind, binged it in two or so nights, and I came out as much of a crybaby as the main character himself. This was not my ideal genre but I still found it quite enjoyable (if you could even call it enjoyable when you're sobbing on the floor by the finale)

On with the review:

Story: 5.5
♤ Story was interesting, albeit quite rushed. Many of my questions regarding the nature ... and existence of demons and the Devilman himself were never answered.
♤ There was a great deal of effort put into world-building
♤ Pacing flowed strangely, was slow at times and then incredibly fast

Art: 7
♤ I was told that the art would be kind of weird since it didn't have that mainstream anime look but I had no trouble getting adjusted to the flat colors or unnatural anatomy of the characters, as it was part of the allure of the series.

Sound: 4
♤ I wasn't exactly blown away by the music but the techno music is nice and the OP is quite a banger

Characters: 5.5
♤ This one's a mixed bag. On one hand the character design itself was good, and it was definitely easier to differentiate people after certain events occurred (not quite a spoiler unless you've started to watch).
♤ On the other hand, the actual characters. We have the main characters Akira, Miki, the other Miki, and Ryo, and the supporting characters.
♤ The main characters, for the most part, were very linear with their personalities and behavior. Only one of the main characters underwent real character development and it was far too rushed. I won't exactly spoil but it was coming to terms with who they were, but they went about this in a rather competitive manner. I liked this aspect but it was done too quickly.
♤ The supporting characters weren't very fleshed out. There was no real reason that they acted the way that they did at times, and I wish we'd seen them (mainly the rapping crew and Miki's family) develop more before the end of the series.

♤ Enjoyment: 3
Despite what I said earlier in my review, I personally did not enjoy this anime because of the effect it had on me. I was sobbing from around episode 8 to the last episode. I would love to do a deeper analysis of the characters but will probably never rewatch this series unless I'm looking to start an existential crisis.

Watch time: Roughly 7 hours (not binging)
Crying time: 5 hours

So, this is my first review. But I'm trying my best to put all my ideas together. Yes, I'm a bit late to write this review since the anime got released on January but hey, intention it's what matters.

First of all, I enjoyed this series, didn't know Go Nagai's work until now, but got the hype when discovered that Masaaki Yuasa was the director of Devilman Crybaby. Really wanted to see that magic touch that Yuasa have, but instead i got this rushed proyect that had so much potential, nothing but wasted. Don't get me wrong, as I said it was really entertaining, but I ... felt it empty, like it was pointless.

Story. As I said before, it feels like the proyect was rushed, the story have a lot of holes, which were filled with crude scenes and secondary stories that are forgettable. 5/10.

Art. The best thing this anime have, definitively the art. Really clean, really dynamic, visually pleasing. The animation was sloppy in some scenes but didn't dissapoint me. Edgy, but obviously for the nuances of the series. 9/10.

Sound. It really have synergy with the theme of the story. 6/10.

Characters. Flat, simple, forgettable. Not to talk about the secondaries. And the characters who shows some potential, are wasted. 1/10.

Enjoyment. 7/10. Regardless everything bad about it, I really enjoyed it. It's not the best anime i've ever seen, but neither it's the worst. Overall 5/10.