From 72' to 18'

"Why are you crying? You knew it was going to die" - Devilman Crybaby

In the early 1970s Go Nagai, a manga author delivered a punch to the anime world. Entitled 'Devilman', it was a challenge to the super hero trope that was expounding in the west during that same time period. The manga thematically asks some questions like, what is it to be human? What is the culmination of man's hatred? Do the ends justify the means? Considered now by many to be a classic staple of early manga history. It painted the story with lines of edginess, emotion, and adult themes - certainly filling a hole that existed in the angst of that generation of readers.

Flash forward to 2018, Netflix with science SARU deliver a uniqueish* story board and produce a 10 episode original net animation (ONA), or anime. The animation pays homage to the original in adult themes, edginess, and even animation style.

*Unique-ish because they do bring in new elements and characters

So should you watch it? Is this your next anime Netflix binge? Let's talk about it:

I break down my anime reviews into four categories: Music, Animation, Characters, and Plot.

Music

Okay, yeah. Let's talk about the music, Kensuke Ushio is responsible for the themes and background music in this show. The actual theme song is actually a remix of the original airing back from 1972. The original sound track (OST) blends a mix of pitch and shrill with bass lines that ground the overall pieces. The result is a pseudo-creepy eclectic thrill ride. I'll say this, I'm not really a fan of the music myself, but being a fan has nothing to do with it being well composed. It's a little reminiscent of late 80s X-men cartoons with some of the themes, of opera-esque voices combining with heavy wooden drums and orchestral string instruments.

Paired with the Noir style of the show, it's honestly a perfect fit. It would be strange to have a stylistically modern sound track on this anime because again the animation lends itself to a darker, edgier time.

Worth mentioning that some of the themes are techno pieces, fitted together to aggregate a certain sense of being in that 80s scene, similar vibes and feelings to that of oldschool Akira or Neon Genesis. I think Mr. Ushio did a brilliant job mixing old and new in order to match the theme of the show as a whole. Note: There are light hearted pieces for the more slice of life style scenes.

We CANNOT talk about the music in this anime without talking about the rap. There are several episodes throughout the series that take place while a group of rappers is having a jam session. Lyrically these little inserts are incredible, but it's the style and heart of them that draws you in. It would be one thing if they were static characters that remained in the background. That would make it cool. They are characters that have active parts in the story and the raps are coincidentally a reflection of the time which the characters are facing. That makes it awesome.

The rappers are Ken 390, Young Dais with AFRA as the beatboxer and rhythm.

Music: 5/5

Animation

We've talked about me being an animation snob before. I still am, and for me, the animation isn't my favorite style. I can however appreciate what the artist director Masaaki Yuasa is trying to do, blending the 70s/80s anime art style with modern lines and action sequences, using sparse coloring and unusual angles.

I can say that it rarely falls short. The fight scenes are cool and flashy, with some decent choreography when they exist. Unfortunately they often occur off screen and sometimes are just boiled down to a single punch or rip apart*

*A rip apart is simply where Devilman just rips a monster into two nearly even pieces.

The opening sequence also kind of leaves a little bit to be desired. If this were a marvel comic book adaptation or a regular show I'd cut some slack on the opening, but openings and credits are one of the places for animators to shine, and I do feel like it falls short of even the aesthetic the artist is going for.

Additionally, there are certain scenes and places that are animated extremely well, there are excellent renderings and as a whole it's not bad, but it's also not untainted with a few scenes of terrible proportions and just strange shots. This may have been the intention from the artist, and if that's the case so be it, but it made the animation feel a little choppier than it needed to be.

Animation 3.5/5

Characters

This is one of the areas that a lot of critics and reviewers have said there is much to be desired. I'm not going to disagree with them completely but I also want to bare in mind that this series is 10 episodes long with 18-25 minutes an episode. I think given the time frame (which sometimes isn't dictated by the animation or production studio) the characters weren't unfairly developed.

It is hard to talk about all of the characters in one review because it's hard to say that there is any core group. All of the characters feel both important and sacrificial. I'll focus on what I consider to be the main few.

Spoiler alert next paragraphs:

Akira Fudo and Ryo Asuka are easily the two main characters. From the very first few scenes this is depicted, and they contrast each other at nearly every turn.

Akira doesn't really have a development arc aside from him turning into devilman. It affects him marginally throughout various stages of the show, but internal conflict only surfaced a few times throughout the episodes. I don't know that this detracts from the show or development of others though, for the show he works as a constant.

Ryo on the other hand goes through the most dramatic of character developments, from friend to frienemy, to counseler, to guardian, to antagonist, to evil incarnate, to friend.

It could be said that Ryo and Akira represent the duality of man, and I won't disagree on that, but I'm also not a philosopher, so I just think as the two main characters they balance each other out.

Miki Makamura and Miki Kuroda are a similar pair. Both compete in track and field events, the latter having an identity crisis by having to change her her name to Miko.

I've seen reviews that complain that Miki Kuroda and Miki Makamura don't have much of a character development. I think I disagree a little with that opinion. Miki Makamura sure, she doesn't change all that much from beginning to end. In that way she's like Akira, she's a constant. Miki Kuroda however goes through significant changes, not only physically, but mentally. She goes from friend, to enemy, to bitter rival, and back to friend, and eventually savior*

*it's a short lived salvation.

Still spoiling stuff so...

Lastly I want to talk about the pawns. This is everyone that wasn't one of the aforementioned peoples. The rap group, the parents and siblings of Miki Makamura and Akira Fudo. Every single one of them is in some way or another brutally murdered. That's why I call them the pawns. Now some will say that all of these characters lacked development, and I want to call to attention that there are 10 episodes and like 14 plus pawns. It would be impossible to give them all the time necessary to develop them fully.

However, I think they all stand for something a little different. Sanity, normalcy, love, patience, innocence, to name a few. Systematically all of those things are destroyed in the heat of human greed and hatred. Once again I'm not a philosopher and so this may not have been the intention at all and I could be reading into it, but for a short series I think that the character development was alright.

I maintain that it was just alright for a few reasons. The first being the enemies. The enemies of an anime can be some of the most intriguing psychologically and these villains fell flat (minus Ryo) they were mostly static pieces of art for Akira to rip into two parts.

Miki Kuroda I feel is also slighted in the regard that they rarely delve into her heart break and loss at losing one of the only people that meant anything to her. It was alluded to, but barely.

Overall though, I don't think the character development is as terrible as other reviewers make it out to be

Characters: 4/5

Plot

It is somewhat a trend of older animes to ask really big questions and leave the audience with possible explanations or answers. I don't hate the plot of this show, but even for me it left a lot to be desired.

This is the one point that I'm not really willing to flex on 'just because it had 10 episodes' to work with. It's the job of the production company to fit important story pieces in there. And here's the thing... there was space!

The reason that I'm inflexible is for the first few episodes of the show it feels very monster of the week, it's very slow and it almost drones off into slice of life at some portions. Which is fine if you're a slice of life anime, but for a dramatic edgy nightmare psychodrama then you can't afford to let the first few episodes bleed so slow.

They spent entire minutes on interactions that don't make a whole lot of sense, traveling sequences that could be trimmed down and on 'pawns' that don't need all that much screen time.

By the time you get to episode five, things start really picking up, but it's too late, and then everything feels rushed. Cut to the last episode and you have a war for humankind happening in the last like 10 minutes. The pacing is off is what I'm saying. Consistency is key when it comes to plot and the consistency of this anime is just a little off.

Pepper in the fact that some elements of the story just don't make any damn sense: Akira beating Xenon after getting mollywopped the first time with no explainable power up, that earring of not protection, the fact that Ryo gets boobs when he transforms?, the baton pass to Ryo because he didn't run track ( I get the artistry behind it, but something else may have been better) and honestly the entire Sirene mini arc.

For those reasons, the plot in this review is going to take the biggest hit. Not that it doesn't exist, but it could've done much better with proper trimming of redundant elements and a stronger, and faster pace at the beginning.

Plot: 2/5

Overall

I don't think it's all that, but it's only 10 episodes and a decent homage to the 70s and 80s style anime. If you like edgy phsycodramas this is right up your alley.

My Final Score 3.5/5 - A Decent Watch