Devilman: Crybaby

So basically, this is an adaptation of the darkest manga of Go Nagai: DevilMan. Go Nagai was also creating TV Shows for kids (like Gurendaizer - Goldorak -, BomberX and Mazinger Z), so a manga as dark, crude and violent as DevilMan from the same author can be quite unsettling. However, the anti-war theme that we find in most works of Nagai is present here nonetheless, yet the exposition of this discourse involves a lot of disturbing violence. Graphically, this adaptation may look quite different from the original work of Nagai, it is narratively very faithful to the source material. The storyline follows the manga, but modernizes a lot of things in the storytelling. Smartphones, internet, social networks, among other things are included seamlessly in the plot without denaturing it, on the contrary, it adds a lot to the message of the original work. The unique animation and direction style of Yuasa adds a lot to the freshness of the overall experience.

However, this is still DevilMan, it is raw, harsh, there is abuse, sex, drugs, nudity and violence. The overall experience is a cruel, nihilistic, emotional rollercoaster. The story is quite grandiloquent, and we can still feel a certain narration style from the 70s. But it is definitely a good anime that reminds of pre-2000s mangas, when nothing was ever half-baked if it serves the discourse.

If you are prone to get offended, do not watch DevilMan, but if what I said above still appeals to you, go watch it ! It's damn good. (no pun intended)

I am happy that Netflix supports this kind of uncensored productions. I've recently watched "The end of the F***ing World" and "Black Mirror Season 4," it definitely feels good to have more things with substance on Netflix recently, and DevilMan Crybaby is definitely on the Anime side of this good wave that makes me like Netflix again.

Yeah, first and second episode may seems illogical but in the end they explained it well, the ending is good.

Art, characters, sound everything is great.

This anime is actually true to the manga, not like the 1972 TV version. It is cruel, bloody and in the end, it really touched me.

It may look very strange at first glance, but it got really interesting from episode 3 onwards, so give is a little bit of time if you are hesitant on the first two episodes.

Devilman has a good length (although I wouldn't have complained about 1-2 more to explain the archaeology part/demon background a bit more - the manga did a bit of a better job here I believe), since it's very common with Anime's nowadays to stretch it out over many episodes and seasons.

It's visually stunning, the narrative style very different, and the soundtrack great. An amazing anime, I loved watching it. It touched some sensitive topics, how humans treat each other and what's the real evil in this world.

I'm actually happy that Netflix supported this kind of production - I kind of would've expected them to censor it more, but it's perfect the way it is.

The Good: Devilman Crybaby is certainly worth a watch if any of the promotional imagery or description tickles your fancy, and was my first delve into the franchise. It's filled with aggressive sex (that's only a short walk away from being hentai), visceral gore, superb synthwave style music that gives a real "underground" vibe and explosive animation. The character designs of the demons are also quite aesthetically pleasing/intriguing, particularly of Devilman himself. The fantastic action scenes, intense soundtrack and fast pacing of the show make it so that you'll never become bored, which is a blessing as the show probably wouldn't hold up without them. The very ending was also unexpected and somewhat refreshing, with an interesting moral and a conclusion that makes it possible to tie in Devilman Crybaby as a sequel/prequl to every other previous/future Devilman story respectively. The show is also apparently very faithful to the original manga.

The Average: The (dub) voice acting is not exceptional but still perfectly acceptable by anime standards so there are no real issues there. There are also certain moments where the animation quality seems to take a bit of a nose dive, but whether this is the result of the director's (Masaaki Yuasa) fairly unique style is up for debate.

The Bad & The Ugly: Where the problems really begin is with the story. The story's basic plot points are interesting enough, although they never really have a chance to develop properly and there are plenty of moments that bring up questions that are never actually answered. This ranges from "world building" related questions to characters that just turn up, act like we know that they're a big deal and then vanish, never to be spoken of again. These instances are fairly unimportant and can be glossed over quite easily but as a Devilman first-timer it's very confusing. Some people may take more issue than me with the logistics of the story not making much sense at times but... eh, it's an action anime so y'know. The characterisation is also pretty flat. Almost all of the characters stay exactly as they start off as which makes any twists or revelations either entirely predictable from the start or just dull, not because the twist is bad, but because you just don't really care. The only characters that I kind of felt for by the end were the rapper guys (who can basically be treated as one singular character for the most part), Miki "Miko" Kuroda, Akira Fudo (Devilman) and Ryo Asuka (within the show's closing seconds). That's not to say that they're bad character templates, but that's all they ever are, templates.

Conclusion: If it looks cool to you just watch it. You'll have a fun time and at worst you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. If it gets a sequel I'll certainly be watching it if you want to put it that way. If you're looking for something more emotional, in-depth and that is a bit more intellectually stimulating however, this probably isn't it.

Let me tell you, I was not expecting it to get that crazy. I initially found this anime through a social media platform, and honestly started watching it without knowing absolutely anything. The first episode was quite unexpected and I wasn't sure why some things happened and was slightly confused. Then I dropped it for a bit because it wasn't exactly going as fast as I wanted it to and the plot wasn't that intriguing. However, after a couple of episodes everything got so much more intense and I felt every single bit of it. I really love how this anime shed light on very human aspects of life and the true nature of humans, it offered a wonderful perspective and got me to ponder about a lot of things. Would highly recommend this is you don't mind all the gore, sexual actions and just want to think about life while also feeling every emotion in this insane rollercoaster.