Review of Devilman: Crybaby

The moment I heard that there would be a new Devilman anime directed by my long-time favorite animator in the industry, I was more excited than I think I'd been in my entire life. The night of its release, I remember sitting and watching the clock like it'd skitter away from me the second I took my eyes off it. I had to see it the second it came out. It was going to be the best thing I'd ever seen. It took me three or four episodes to admit that I was disappointed, and all 10 to admit I didn't like it. I've spent a longtime stewing in my thoughts about this show. In my heart I still really want to think of it positively, but the only real emotion I associate with it now is embarrassment. I know that the people who worked on it pumped their blood sweat and tears into it, but I also know that if those same people had been allowed to work around a more coherent structure it would have been a masterpiece instead of a pretty disaster. So, really, that line of rationalization just makes me more irritated.

There is just no way I can justify the existence of the anime original characters they constructed to pad this show. They're tissues in a push-up bra, and the bra is an A cup. I did not enjoy myself when Miki Mk. II was on screen. I don't even know the name of the gay track star, and I can't recall why he looked like the butterflies guy. Things kept right on happening to these guys with little significance and no regard to pacing. I didn't care about them. Why should I? They run track and they're real mad about some personal stuff. Personal stuff that would have been better suited to the monster of the week than a permanent fixture of the cast. There ya go. That's them!

And Regular Miki. I know people love her, but... She's so very average. I didn't feel that way about Manga Miki, but I do about Anime Miki. There's not a spoken line of hers that I don't think I could find a million other anime dream girls reciting in a million other shows. I wish her speech would've touched me on some personal level, but it didn't. It was washed-out, generic positivity, and it rang hollow in my ears.

There's no way I can give this show any lower than a 6 just from the production quality alone. There's too much soul in it to insult it that way. But it rates lower than that in my heart of hearts, under the brutal scrutiny of my pitiful little fanboy feelin's. This show was meant to be a statement on humanity. This franchise has always been a statement on humanity. I wouldn't have minded if they wanted to present us with something more optimistic than the manga. If they could have handled that optimism well, I would have been happy for it. But it wasn't handled well. It could have been, but it wasn't. If only there were fewer mediocre raps, fewer pointless characters with irrelevant problems, and a little more introspection. Maybe then. But not in this world, not in this time.

I'm crying, too.