Okay, let me just get this out of the way, right now. The Devilman run is one of the silliest things I think I've ever seen. I can't handle looking at this without laughing. It's the stupidest thing ever and I love it. But, that aside, let us discuss the Netflix original anime, Devilman: Crybaby, and why people have gotten so excited when talking about it.
Devilman: Crybaby is a ten episode Netflix original anime. Now, there haven't been much Netflix original animes. Including this one, there's about... three.... One of them being Neo Yokio. Oh, now that's true terror. Anyway, Devilman: Crybaby is based on the manga by Go Nagai, a famous manga artist who's manga for Devilman started back in 1972... Yes, really. It is that old. Now, there have been a few anime adaptions to the original manga, and do they all follow the story completely. Eh..... kinda? Sorta. Crybaby is also no exception. Granted, it's as faithful as it gets to the story, but let's talk about it for now, shall we. Devilman: Crybaby follows the story of Akira Fudo, a quiet high schooler who always cries when something unfortunate happens to someone else. He lives in the Makimura household with his... cousin... I think?... It's not specified. He lives with Miki, her younger brother, their parents, and their pet cat. Shut up, the pet cats important. One day, Akira runs into his childhood friend, the so anti-social, I think he may be a serial killer Ryo Asuka, who informs him that there are demons in the world and that, the only way to kill the demons, one must become one. During a night of partying gone horribly, horribly wrong, the demon Amon attempts to posses Akira, but due to his heart being in the right place or something, he manages to control the demon inside him, thus turning him into Devilman. And from here, violent battles occur all over the place, before things go terribly, terribly wrong. So, let's talk about just how bad things get, shall we?
First off, I just want to say that I love the first episode of this ten part series. I'm one for a series wanting to show you the worst of the worst slowly and subtly. It's why I love a majority of horror games I talk about. But I can assure you, there was no way for Devilman to be subtle with it's horror. So, the best thing to do instead is to crank it up to full blast and just show you everything this show has got in the first episode. The party I mentioned, a place called Sabbath, was filled with nothing but rough sex and violent beatings. Even shankings and I think even murders occured there, and not by the demons. This show does not shy away from any of it. You get full frontal nudity and complete violence thrown at you from the get go. And it doesn't just act as a way to get you set up for what's to come in future episodes, but it also acts as a warning to those who can't handle it. If you don't want to sit here and watch these next few episodes, it's best to get out of there right then and there. Because I can promise you, things do not get better. They only get worse... Much, much worse. But another thing you will notice about this show is the animation and how it looks... off in some places. Characters move in such a stiff manner sometimes, some are completely void of expressions, and there are some scenes that just looked unfinished. Thankfully, you do get used to it after a while. And trust me, when the show starts to show you the utter insanity with the sex and violence, the animation goes out of it's way to be flashy, colorful, and completely insane. The style changes to something that looks kind of ugly to have a sort of uniqueness to it that makes you feel both disturbed yet fascinated and just can't look away from the screen. It's actually really good to look at these people transform into the demons that they get possessed by, even if some of the demons look kind of laughable. Some of them can be pretty creepy, like the one that attacks the bus in that one episode that I can't describe because spoilers. That was freaky. But then some look pretty goofy at times, really. But, again, you get used to it.
Sadly, as much praise as this anime has gotten, I don't think it's perfect. There is a lot of anime out there that are in the category that, I have decided to put in, as the, "We Did Nothing Wrong" category. A category of anime where the protagonist is fucked up on sight by everyone except for the few friends they have because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time or are just different. Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Parasyte, and, of course, Devilman fall into this category. But of all the protagonists in this, Akira is probably the dumbest of the bunch. Akira, look, I get it. You've been friends with Ryo for a long time. I can understand you can let a few things slide... But can you let him shooting a machine gun near the feet of your classmates slide? Can you let him stabbing people with a broken bottle slide? Can you even let him pointing a gun at your friend slide? Yes, he can. He never gets angry with Ryo, he rarely tells him off, and he never asks questions. It's only when things have gone too far that he realises that, maybe, probably, Ryo may be in the wrong here. Eren Yeager wasn't smart, but he was competent. Shinichi was emotional, but he knew what to do and how to think. Even Kaneki, Edgelord Jesus, knew when to question things. Akira, come on. Thankfully, though, the side characters more than make up for it. Miko's jealousy towards Miki being more popular. Koda trying to find out if he is a Devil or a human. And then you got the best side characters in, probably any anime ever, the loveable Japanese rappers, Wam, Gabi, Kukun, Babo, and Hei. These guys are just a joy to see them go around Tokyo just rapping about what to expect in today's episode. Truly, they were the best characters of the show.
Another thing that should be noted is the... oddness of this show. I'm all for strange stuff happening in shows. Hell, I applaud anyone who makes something real weird. But Devilman did not prepare me for the weird stuff. I thought I could handle it... And then it got real bizarre. The Devilman Run, which is weird on it's one, aside for a moment, there's Araki's massive bulge that shouldn't look like the way it does, there's an entire ceiling drenched in semen, and who could forget the lovely sounds of a girl making donkey noises as she touches herself... No, I'm not kidding. You think you've seen it all, but then you get a load of this shit! All the Jojo I've watched couldn't prepare me for the insanity. There is even a realistic painting of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper. I get what they were going for, they wanted to make it symbolic, and I get that the family was a little religious, but there are other ways to do it. It's also not good to have a panning shot of the painting and to ignore everything else as you do so. It just looks distracting and strange. Speaking of strange, the shift in tone. One minute, it's a raunchy comedy, then it becomes full suspense, and then it becomes "Fuck your feelings" marathon. Let's talk about the third part.
Despite all of the stuff I talked about, the violence, the trippy visuals, the Devilman Runs, there doesn't seem to be a lot of horror in this part. And there isn't... Until you get to the second half. It is here where things start to become a horror, after the demons are revealed to the humans. And this is where things get bad and where you see just what the anime and manga of Devilman was trying to pertrey. People turn on each other in a heartbeat, kill each other out of fear of demons, and the world is trying to finish each other off before they are killed. And, I won't say what happens, but there is a character who just keeps the world plundering harder into warfare that it makes everything seem so hopeless. And it is. This is what Devilman is telling a story of. Of humans self-destructive nature. When people are afraid, they will do what they can to help themselves, and maybe those close to them, in order to survive. It is been proven that fiction is mostly filled with stories of how humans are horrible, awful, and selfish creatures. And Devilman takes that idea and runs with it. It doesn't hesitate to show you the worst that humans can do. You will probably think to yourself, "There's no way they would do something like that. They wouldn't". Yeah, don't test this anime. You think it won't do something, it will. It will, because it's got an agenda, and that agenda is to make you feel shit both for the characters and for the fact that you were born human. I love the last few episodes of Devilman for it's perfect pacing and writing... Until the final episode.
I won't go into detail about what goes on in the final episode, but Ryo says some shit, then there is a big war, a lot of exposition and such. It just makes you think to yourself, what happened? Did the studio run out of time? Where did all of this go? They probably could have just expanded this all into, maybe, a second season. I don't see why they couldn't. Though, they probably did this because, after the ninth episode right before the final episode, you aren't thinking about what's going on and how it got to this point. You're probably thinking to yourself what the fuck you just witnessed in the last episode or you're crying in the corner because of how miserable this anime makes people feel. It seems to have a habit of doing that. Let me tell you right now, I usually don't cry for fictional characters. I always tell myself that they are not real, and they simply only died to move the plot along or give a character motivation. Other than that, I don't cry for fictional characters. Call it heartless, but that's just me. But I can assure you, that the ninth episode nearly drove me there. I didn't cry, but I was close. I felt a little dead inside. So, yeah, if you thought stuff like Clannad was sad, well, first off, I doubt you'd have any interest in Devilman, but I can assure you, the near end of Devilman is going to utterly destroy you from the inside. Unless you don't care about fictional characters. In which case, it will at least make you say, "Oh, that sucks". And it just makes you think to yourself, how will they manage to solve this.................. Well............... Uh, spoilers.......... They don't.......
Devilman: Crybaby was a pretty decent anime. I wouldn't exactly call it the scariest anime I've ever seen. Hell, it barely passes as horror, which kind of almost made me not make this review because of it. But it's still a great anime regardless. Plus, I needed to talk about more horror anime. I'll get to Elfen Lied eventually, but not today. Devilman: Crybaby manages to have competent writing, great characters (Most of the time), and one of the best soundtracks for any anime I've heard in awhile. Sure, the whole, "I'm the monster but really a good guy" has been told to death, but I think Devilman can slide, since it's based on a manga from the 70s. If you want to watch a surreal series, or you just want to feel like total garbage, I say, give Devilman a try. Take care.
Devilman: Crybaby is a ten episode Netflix original anime. Now, there haven't been much Netflix original animes. Including this one, there's about... three.... One of them being Neo Yokio. Oh, now that's true terror. Anyway, Devilman: Crybaby is based on the manga by Go Nagai, a famous manga artist who's manga for Devilman started back in 1972... Yes, really. It is that old. Now, there have been a few anime adaptions to the original manga, and do they all follow the story completely. Eh..... kinda? Sorta. Crybaby is also no exception. Granted, it's as faithful as it gets to the story, but let's talk about it for now, shall we. Devilman: Crybaby follows the story of Akira Fudo, a quiet high schooler who always cries when something unfortunate happens to someone else. He lives in the Makimura household with his... cousin... I think?... It's not specified. He lives with Miki, her younger brother, their parents, and their pet cat. Shut up, the pet cats important. One day, Akira runs into his childhood friend, the so anti-social, I think he may be a serial killer Ryo Asuka, who informs him that there are demons in the world and that, the only way to kill the demons, one must become one. During a night of partying gone horribly, horribly wrong, the demon Amon attempts to posses Akira, but due to his heart being in the right place or something, he manages to control the demon inside him, thus turning him into Devilman. And from here, violent battles occur all over the place, before things go terribly, terribly wrong. So, let's talk about just how bad things get, shall we?
First off, I just want to say that I love the first episode of this ten part series. I'm one for a series wanting to show you the worst of the worst slowly and subtly. It's why I love a majority of horror games I talk about. But I can assure you, there was no way for Devilman to be subtle with it's horror. So, the best thing to do instead is to crank it up to full blast and just show you everything this show has got in the first episode. The party I mentioned, a place called Sabbath, was filled with nothing but rough sex and violent beatings. Even shankings and I think even murders occured there, and not by the demons. This show does not shy away from any of it. You get full frontal nudity and complete violence thrown at you from the get go. And it doesn't just act as a way to get you set up for what's to come in future episodes, but it also acts as a warning to those who can't handle it. If you don't want to sit here and watch these next few episodes, it's best to get out of there right then and there. Because I can promise you, things do not get better. They only get worse... Much, much worse. But another thing you will notice about this show is the animation and how it looks... off in some places. Characters move in such a stiff manner sometimes, some are completely void of expressions, and there are some scenes that just looked unfinished. Thankfully, you do get used to it after a while. And trust me, when the show starts to show you the utter insanity with the sex and violence, the animation goes out of it's way to be flashy, colorful, and completely insane. The style changes to something that looks kind of ugly to have a sort of uniqueness to it that makes you feel both disturbed yet fascinated and just can't look away from the screen. It's actually really good to look at these people transform into the demons that they get possessed by, even if some of the demons look kind of laughable. Some of them can be pretty creepy, like the one that attacks the bus in that one episode that I can't describe because spoilers. That was freaky. But then some look pretty goofy at times, really. But, again, you get used to it.
Sadly, as much praise as this anime has gotten, I don't think it's perfect. There is a lot of anime out there that are in the category that, I have decided to put in, as the, "We Did Nothing Wrong" category. A category of anime where the protagonist is fucked up on sight by everyone except for the few friends they have because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time or are just different. Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Parasyte, and, of course, Devilman fall into this category. But of all the protagonists in this, Akira is probably the dumbest of the bunch. Akira, look, I get it. You've been friends with Ryo for a long time. I can understand you can let a few things slide... But can you let him shooting a machine gun near the feet of your classmates slide? Can you let him stabbing people with a broken bottle slide? Can you even let him pointing a gun at your friend slide? Yes, he can. He never gets angry with Ryo, he rarely tells him off, and he never asks questions. It's only when things have gone too far that he realises that, maybe, probably, Ryo may be in the wrong here. Eren Yeager wasn't smart, but he was competent. Shinichi was emotional, but he knew what to do and how to think. Even Kaneki, Edgelord Jesus, knew when to question things. Akira, come on. Thankfully, though, the side characters more than make up for it. Miko's jealousy towards Miki being more popular. Koda trying to find out if he is a Devil or a human. And then you got the best side characters in, probably any anime ever, the loveable Japanese rappers, Wam, Gabi, Kukun, Babo, and Hei. These guys are just a joy to see them go around Tokyo just rapping about what to expect in today's episode. Truly, they were the best characters of the show.
Another thing that should be noted is the... oddness of this show. I'm all for strange stuff happening in shows. Hell, I applaud anyone who makes something real weird. But Devilman did not prepare me for the weird stuff. I thought I could handle it... And then it got real bizarre. The Devilman Run, which is weird on it's one, aside for a moment, there's Araki's massive bulge that shouldn't look like the way it does, there's an entire ceiling drenched in semen, and who could forget the lovely sounds of a girl making donkey noises as she touches herself... No, I'm not kidding. You think you've seen it all, but then you get a load of this shit! All the Jojo I've watched couldn't prepare me for the insanity. There is even a realistic painting of Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of The Last Supper. I get what they were going for, they wanted to make it symbolic, and I get that the family was a little religious, but there are other ways to do it. It's also not good to have a panning shot of the painting and to ignore everything else as you do so. It just looks distracting and strange. Speaking of strange, the shift in tone. One minute, it's a raunchy comedy, then it becomes full suspense, and then it becomes "Fuck your feelings" marathon. Let's talk about the third part.
Despite all of the stuff I talked about, the violence, the trippy visuals, the Devilman Runs, there doesn't seem to be a lot of horror in this part. And there isn't... Until you get to the second half. It is here where things start to become a horror, after the demons are revealed to the humans. And this is where things get bad and where you see just what the anime and manga of Devilman was trying to pertrey. People turn on each other in a heartbeat, kill each other out of fear of demons, and the world is trying to finish each other off before they are killed. And, I won't say what happens, but there is a character who just keeps the world plundering harder into warfare that it makes everything seem so hopeless. And it is. This is what Devilman is telling a story of. Of humans self-destructive nature. When people are afraid, they will do what they can to help themselves, and maybe those close to them, in order to survive. It is been proven that fiction is mostly filled with stories of how humans are horrible, awful, and selfish creatures. And Devilman takes that idea and runs with it. It doesn't hesitate to show you the worst that humans can do. You will probably think to yourself, "There's no way they would do something like that. They wouldn't". Yeah, don't test this anime. You think it won't do something, it will. It will, because it's got an agenda, and that agenda is to make you feel shit both for the characters and for the fact that you were born human. I love the last few episodes of Devilman for it's perfect pacing and writing... Until the final episode.
I won't go into detail about what goes on in the final episode, but Ryo says some shit, then there is a big war, a lot of exposition and such. It just makes you think to yourself, what happened? Did the studio run out of time? Where did all of this go? They probably could have just expanded this all into, maybe, a second season. I don't see why they couldn't. Though, they probably did this because, after the ninth episode right before the final episode, you aren't thinking about what's going on and how it got to this point. You're probably thinking to yourself what the fuck you just witnessed in the last episode or you're crying in the corner because of how miserable this anime makes people feel. It seems to have a habit of doing that. Let me tell you right now, I usually don't cry for fictional characters. I always tell myself that they are not real, and they simply only died to move the plot along or give a character motivation. Other than that, I don't cry for fictional characters. Call it heartless, but that's just me. But I can assure you, that the ninth episode nearly drove me there. I didn't cry, but I was close. I felt a little dead inside. So, yeah, if you thought stuff like Clannad was sad, well, first off, I doubt you'd have any interest in Devilman, but I can assure you, the near end of Devilman is going to utterly destroy you from the inside. Unless you don't care about fictional characters. In which case, it will at least make you say, "Oh, that sucks". And it just makes you think to yourself, how will they manage to solve this.................. Well............... Uh, spoilers.......... They don't.......
Devilman: Crybaby was a pretty decent anime. I wouldn't exactly call it the scariest anime I've ever seen. Hell, it barely passes as horror, which kind of almost made me not make this review because of it. But it's still a great anime regardless. Plus, I needed to talk about more horror anime. I'll get to Elfen Lied eventually, but not today. Devilman: Crybaby manages to have competent writing, great characters (Most of the time), and one of the best soundtracks for any anime I've heard in awhile. Sure, the whole, "I'm the monster but really a good guy" has been told to death, but I think Devilman can slide, since it's based on a manga from the 70s. If you want to watch a surreal series, or you just want to feel like total garbage, I say, give Devilman a try. Take care.