Review of Devilman: Crybaby

So, this was my first incursion in the Devilman franchise and it was… tougher than I expected. Even if I’m not a fan of Yuasa Masaaki’s style, I’ve already watched three of his works and this is the one I enjoyed the most so far. The art style was mostly likeable and I got used to it in a few episodes, so I don't think it could spoil your overall enjoyment. And if you like it from the beginning, probably you will be able to appreciate better than me how it changes according to the tones and atmospheres. I would have preferred a more usualstyle in some scenes, but a lot sequences were actually impressive.

Another thing that could bother someone is the length. While watching the series I noticed that things were escalating very quickly, and I wondered if the choice to make it last only 10 episodes was the right one. I have not yet come to a conclusion.
Surely there are characters to whom I have not had enough time to get attached, but that didn’t bother me too much because I still cared about a few of them, the main ones. What let me down were the demons: some were supposed to be “bosses”, they were also part of secret organization of demons, but both individuals and the organization had much less screen time than I expected.

On the other hand, I don’t think that simply increasing the number of episodes would make this particular series better. I mean, you can take a minimalist artist and make him add more elements to his artworks, but who know if that will be an actual improvement. Probably not. What I’m saying about the anime is that, to me, it works as it is, despite these flaws. And the credit goes partially to the director and largely, I guess, to the source material.

Because what impressed me the most are the themes you deal with while watching Devilman, and later I’ll give you some examples. The synopsis is simple, almost classical, but this is not a typical shounen. During the first 3 episodes, I wondered what kind of anime I was watching (and it’s still hard to tell). It starts off like a shounen, but from the beginning there are elements (e.g. the graphic violence or the sexually explicit scenes) and events that clash with that definition, or at least they push it to its limits. During episodes 4-5 I was still wondering, but I started to figure it out. At this point, you can see what’s going on, you can guess what road the story will take. And you will ask: how far down that road?

Then the last 5 episodes will hit you like a ton of bricks. They struck me so hard, and that’s why I truly liked them. You too will like them if you are a thoughtful person (or a masochist… or even a sadist). This is one of those works that wake you up. It shows you things you don’t want to see and it makes you think about things you'd rather ignore. I love how this anime is violent, disturbing, touching and nihilistic. In episodes 6 to 9 these elements build a perfect climax. Then the last episode is an anticlimax, but it’s worth because it digs even more in the nihilistic element.

Watching this series forced me to think over issues like the correlation between the will to protect someone and the strength you need to do so, the classic “fear of the other”, the true value of kindness and its limits, the (arbitrary) categories in which we put ourselves and the others, how these categories prevent to understand or even accurately judge someone, how a mix of ignorance/stupidity/fear can make people evil and dangerous, how dictatorships hide in plain sight behind good intentions and the consent of the majority.
A remarkable lot of things for a 10 episodes series. And, in my opinion, these are also very current topics on which people have stopped questioning.

One last thing about the sound: the OP is cool and I think the soundtrack is really fitting. I usually don’t pay conscious attention to the OST, but in this case it affected me, certain sequences were perfectly emphasized by the score.

EDIT: Initially I rated this anime 8/10 (the mean score was 8.5 actually), but then I upgraded it to a 9, because of two subjective reasons: my enjoyment and the fact I hold in high regard those shows that don't sugarcoat their messages.

[English is not my native language, I'm sorry if what you just read was poorly written]