Review of Devilman: Crybaby

Alright, what can I say about Devilman Crybaby? It's a 5/10 so it should be easy enough, right? Well... Story: The main chunk of the story of Devilman Crybaby isn't actually too bad. Most of it was good. MOST. The problem with the story, in my opinion, stems from the story's inconsistent theme. I will not go into specifics because of spoiler reasons, but the theme of the story is entirely different by the end of the show. It would be fine if the theme slowly shifted into something else by the end of the story, but I felt like the latter episodes spun the theme onits head.

Art and Sound Design:
I originally thought that the art design was great when I first began the show, but recently someone mentioned that they thought the art was lazy at times and I can definitely agree with that. Some scenes, you'll have a 120+ frames per second animation of someone running and in the next scene you’ll have a character literally sliding across the screen. The show doesn’t try to be lazy very often, so it’s good that it isn't a common occurrence. It just really takes me out of my immersion and my overall enjoyment though. The sound design was just really solid overall. I felt like the sound designers could have used more sound effects at certain points, but the sound effects are serviceable when they are used.

Characters:
The main character, Akira, is really interesting. His character isn’t done entirely well, but it is intriguing. His newfound abilities that he obtains grants him the power to save the people he cares about. The internal conflict he goes through with feeling useless trying to save people helps build his character a lot. In general, he’s a hugger, not a fighter. The problem I have with his character development is that it is completely crushed by the last episode. Again, I won't go into specifics because of spoiler reasons, but it seems like he goes against what his entire goal is by the end of the story. The other characters in the story aren’t particularly likeable or hateable. I’m pretty indifferent about the other characters.

Side Notes:
So, this show is meant for an 18+ age audience, so how do the sexual themes play into the story? At first, I thought it was a clever way of introducing an element of temptation in the story that might eventually get resolved by the main character. I was wrong. After episode 7-ish, they stop with the 18+ material and focus on the story. It would be fine if they focused on it less, but it felt like it didn't serve a purpose at all by the end of the show. At some points, I think the 18+ material hurts the show by driving the main focus away from the story for the sake of ecstasy. In general, I don’t think the show should have been marketed towards a mature audience. The use of 18+ material really seems unnecessary.

Is It Worth a Watch?
Being only 10 episodes long, you can pretty easily consider binging this in one day. I think it’s really up to you to decide whether you want to watch it or not. I’ll be honest, this isn’t a typical show. Devilman Crybaby, to me, seemed like an experiment. It tried some things that worked and it tried some things that didn't work. It was cheesy at some parts and was actually really compelling at other parts. It leaves some unanswered questions about the lore of the universe while also providing too many answers at times. Overall, I give this show a solid 5/10 for trying, which is more than I can say for most shows. Even with its ridiculous amount of cheesiness and inconsistency, it is still a show that I can’t say I wasted my time on.