Crying through pain is what makes us human, so says Yuasa in this adaptation.
What They Say:
Akira Fudo is informed by his best friend Ryou Asuka that the demons will revive and reclaim the world from the humans. As the humans do not stand a chance against the supernatural power of the demons, Ryou suggests fusing with a demon. Akira becomes Devilman, with the power of a demon and the heart of a human.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review contain significant spoilers)
Trigger Warning Depictions of sexual violence and harm to pets are included in this review
Go Nagai enters his 50th anniversary as a creator having a prolific amount of work that inspired generations of people. One of his works is Devilman. Masaaki Yuasa and Ichirō Ōkouchi challenged themselves to adapt Go Nagai’s famous work to modernize it for a newer audience. Needless to say, they did a great job, and in doing so created an enthralling series to watch.
Akira Fudo is a normal, if not an emotional teenager, who gets made fun of by people because of his easiness to cry. This scenario ends up leading him to bullies when a friend from grade school Ryo appears. Ryo talking to Akira tells him about what drew him back to Akira: to ask him to help fight demons that have recently appeared in the world. To find them, they attend a party called Sabbath, Ryo and Akira are introduced to the gamut of wild debauchery. Understanding that these events are not enough, Ryo tries to coax the devils to come out by starting to kill people in the party. Triggering the demons to come, Ryo asks for a particular demon, Amon, to take over Akira. What transpires instead is Akira fusing with Amon and thus, Devilman is born. Now with his powers, Akira wants to stop other devils from harming humans and help make the world better with Ryo.
Devilman is hyper-violent. Normally discussing violence, we talk about people beating each with full impact and some bloodiness. Devilman takes it to the extreme. Absolute bloodbaths, gore that show dismemberment, impaling, the violence feels over-the-top. In the beginning, the hyper-violence similar to the same hyper-violence shown in Superjail or Mr. Pickles. It becomes more engrossing and more purposeful the further the series goes along. As the battle scenes become more gruesome and the despair of humans become more recognized that violence becomes more necessary. These are cruel beings doing cruel actions that do harm and the violence happens to emphasize this action. Koda going on a rampage as a demon he not only kills the vast majority of the track starts but has their blood smear across the field.
Speaking of hyper, it’s also hypersexualized. Less than benign things like women’s nipples frequent the series. Masturbation and intercourse that’s just short of porn also occur within the series. With that said, it becomes a major plot point, initially being a trigger for devils to come out, because they cannot control their lust. The first episode displays this scenario with a dance orgy, but also when Akira tries to control his lust from being a devil when looking at Miki. It also to advance character development such as Miko’s transformation into a devil or Sirene having her lust for Amon so pent up she masturbates before turning into her demon form.
What becomes the most devastating parts of Devilman is when the gore and the sex tone down for the more emotional parts. Miki’s family trauma represents this emotional part with Taro. We then learn about him becoming more demon akin to Akira himself, with him eating a dog because of the meat cravings. Taro (and Miki’s) mom sees this event and takes the initiative to spare her son from being killed. It becomes more heartbreaking when Taro’s dad comes to see his son eating his mom. Again, the parent spares the child, with Taro’s dad unable to kill Taro. The tragedy ultimately occurs with all three killed before Akira could save them. The bloodiness of Taro after eating the dog seems grotesque, and cruel but framed in a saddening display, knowing that Taro is no longer human. The cruelty of humans wanting to exterminate anything demon even if it means destroying a family comes out in full force which makes the scenario even more saddening.
Devilman does do its part to emotionally prep you with breather content. Normal high school events such as track and field give a sense of breath before the levity of the series really begins. Miko getting a rap dedicated to her by her crush really is a cute scene that allows you to see humanity in a nice light. These moments, while minor, are helpful as when the rest of the series starts from the back half, these events rarely show up again except for reminder cues. The music also works as an emotional prep. The different songs help mood set the scenes which drive homes the violence, the lack of empathy, the kindness and joy in Devilman.
This is not to say Devilman is perfect. Plot points at times seem contrived to get the characters going to places if they weren’t dropped. The character design may not be for everyone. The violence and sex will seriously turn off first-time anime watchers, and even more experienced viewers themselves. These things do harm Devilman Crybaby in a way that doesn’t make it for everyone. A lot of these concerns would easily resolve themselves with a couple more episodes to give breath towards these ideas. Some ideas could come forth through different methods without needing to resort towards violence. With that said, the series understand these complaints but assuredly answers that this direction is what’s best for the audience.
In Summary:
The major theme that plays throughout Devilman Crybaby is the search for human emotion. Yuasa and Ōkouchi executed this concept beautifully. They laid down memorable scenes and characters that detail the viciousness of humanity as well as the hope that can occur. The violence portrayed seems over the top, but they managed to justify it in every sense of the word in the series. They truly had a vision for the series and thoroughly communicated through this animation and may have even turned a lot of people into crybabies in the process of doing so.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Netflix
