Review of Devilman: Crybaby

*No Spoilers* Summary: This is a show with dark themes that could have dug deeper and developed into a story with some meaning but instead stuck to gore and sex with flashing lights and animation. There are many better anime that tackle similar underlying themes about humanity, society, and animalistic traits. If you enjoy flashy shows with unique animation, you may like this. However, Parasyte and Dorohedoro (the manga is complete) are similar anime that tackle similar themes in a much more cohesive and thought-provoking way. Story: 2/10 The plot could have been great. It could have explored the devils inside of all of us, or focused on socialconstructs of devils, or even flipped the devils and angels. Instead, it started off catchy and completely fell apart. Aside from one scene which shows the impacts of media, the story is completely outshined by other anime that illustrate about humanity, society, and animalistic traits. Additionally, it feels like the story cut out all the meaningful parts that would develop the characters to replace them with sex and violence before cutting half of the plot lines to make room for other scenes to add unnecessary drama. The plot struggles on its own and is worsened by terribly developed characters and horrific dialogue.

Art: 2/10
The art style is okay. The story focused more on the flashy style than substance.

Sound: 3/10
The music is fine, the sound effects are on par, and the voice acting is sufficient considering the dialogue is asinine.

Characters: 2/10
The title conveys a crying Devilman, and that would be great if the story explained why the character cries and undergoes the changes that make him a Devilman. Instead, the story is plot-driven and absurd. None of the characters develop due to their own choices and instead they’re turned into Devils more or less against their will. The characters that do make hard choices are barely introduced and add minimal meaning to the story. If this anime had well-developed, interesting characters, the show could have been extremely powerful. Instead, the antagonist manipulates everyone around him and you, as the viewer, don’t care.

Enjoyment: 2/10
The first few episodes were somewhat intriguing because I thought the show was going to have a lot of underlying meaning. Then I finished it and all I ended up with was lots of gore and weird orgies.

Overall: 2.2
This is a show with dark themes that could have dug deeper and developed into a story with some meaning but instead stuck to gore and sex with flashing lights and animation. There are many better anime that tackle similar underlying themes about humanity, society, and animalistic traits. If you enjoy flashy shows with unique animation, you may like this. However, Parasyte and Dorohedoro (the manga is complete) are similar anime that tackle similar themes in a much more cohesive and thought-provoking way.