Devilman Crybaby Review

By: Nik S


Director(s): Masaaki Yuasa
Voice Cast: Koki Uchiyama, Ayumu Murase, Megumi Han, Ami Koshimizu
Studio: Science Saru
Licensed by: Netflix

Devilman Crybaby is an anime series based on Go Nagai's manga Devilman from the 1970's. The series follows a young high school boy named Akira Fudo as he is reunited with his childhood friend, Ryo Asuka, after his discovery of demons returning to earth to reclaim the land which was once theirs. Ryo takes Akira to a Sabbath at an underground nightclub in the hopes to collect video footage to prove the existence of demons, or devils as they're more commonly referred to by the cast. After a small series of events to bring the demons out, Akira is united with the demon Amon and transform into Devilman, a being that possesses the powers of a demon but is able to keep their humanity.

The one thing that sets Akira apart from the rest of the characters in the show is his empathetic nature that is offset by Ryo's blatant disregard for anything, especially his fellow man. The relationship between these two characters is the driving force for the show. It doesn't matter what horrible action Ryo does, like stabbing someone or threatening to kill Akira's loved ones, Akira is able to quickly forgive him. This has always been their gimmick ever since the manga that several other animes have taken tribute to.

The original manga, and anime that followed were extremely influential in their genres and set up many tropes for years to come. The few flaws that Devilman Crybaby has is simply from them trying to rekindle the usage of those tropes without bringing anything new to the table. Thankfully most of these can be easily overlookable as the show doesn't tend to linger on them or make them the central focus of the entire episode. There are times when hints are subtle at where the story is headed and other character motives, like Ryo's use of irony in his dialogue, and not so subtle hints like a large portrait of the last supper as Akira is eating dinner with his adoptive family. The dialogue can often be a little wordy, but since it's only a season-long they make up for it with a multitude of amazing animation.

The visuals in Devilman Crybaby can range from plain with muted colors, to surreal with a plethora of colors. This is all due to Masaaki Yuasa's bizarre style blended with Go Nagai's dark, violent storytelling in his original work. If you are unaware of who Masaaki Yuasa, he's the director for the episode "Food Chain" in Adventure Time with the trippy animation, as well as an episode for Space Dandy "Slow and Steady Wins the Race, Baby". So Devilman Crybaby really shines in its gore-filled battle scenes with its unnerving animation. The visuals truly aren't for everyone, but that's what really sets it apart from the other anime choices on Netflix. The other times when the animation isn't as vibrant is during the dialogue scenes and filler scenes, to which you get more set up than visual eye candy with muted colors and basic animation.

If anything, just give the first episode a watch just for the visuals alone. You'll quickly see the mixture of the plain and bland color palette for the dialogue scenes, but the wacky and insane fever dream of the devil battle royal at the end. Devilman Crybaby starts with a bang and ends with a cataclysmic atom bomb in episode 10, Crybaby (the final episode), as it is a nonstop thrill ride of different animation styles and it all blends together well with an ending you don't see coming the first time around.

I truly enjoyed Devilman Crybaby from start to finish. I was able to watch it within a day since the whole series just takes a couple of hours to watch, and never got bored watching it a second time with my wife. If you do watch through it a second time you'll be able to pick up on a lot of clues that you overlooked the first time like color choice in characters, ironic dialogue, and other background features.