Review of Devilman: Crybaby

I have to tell you in advance, that I have never written a review on any anime, so be gentle with criticism. Devilmen: Crybaby, the fresh and crispy Netflix anime took 200 minutes of my life, but I would never swap it for anything. I managed to finish it yesterday midnight and I’m still in catharsis, in a completely different state of mind than I usually am after experiencing art. In medias res, I will talk about the flaws I have discovered in the series, because there are way less of these, than positive features. 1. The foreshadowing in the first episode was a bit too obvious, especiallyfor the eyes of a person who was brought up in a Christian family and has detailed knowledge about the Bible. I think it is only a minor mistake, and if we take the framed structure of the anime into consideration, it comes out beautifully in the end, and makes it a very well thought out, in a way lyrical story.

2. In my opinion the usage of the name “Satan” was not the best option. The original name of Satan in the Bible is Lucifer, which means “bringer of light”. This name would have given Ryo’s character an additional dimension, and I’m a bit sad that the writer (Go Nagai) did not exploit this opportunity.

3. The most frequently mentioned flaw of the series is the somewhat dumb implementation of the change in posessed characters’ appearance and personality. But if we consider the character design and the entire aesthetic of by the anime, the harsh changes in appearances can be overlooked. Furthermore it was a crucial to understand the complex nature of people possessed by demons who have previously been completely pure. It helps the viewer comprehend the message that we all are “devilman” with flaws and evil features besides having a human heart that is capable of producing an entire range of different emotions.

4. The last thing I’d like to mention is that some initial questions of the anime, most of them emerging in the first episode were left without a proper answer. Why do people need a certain drug to get possessed by demons, and what is that drug? How did Ryo know about the existence of Amon, and his exceptional powers if he lost all his knowledge about who he was before (leader of demons)? If any of you can come up with an answer or explanation, I’d be more than happy, maybe it was just me who didn’t notice some minor details.

Now let’s move on to the positive features of the anime, which basically includes EVERYTHING, but I might be a little biased.

1. Story: I loved the framed structure of the story, which produced a bit of confusement in the beginning, but the last episode made everything clear so beautifully. The first half of the anime can be characterised by the adjectives gore, dirty, perverted, sexual, hypnotic, funny and extremely modern. The scenes incorporated today’s nightlife and club culture, the sexualizing of everything, the sexual perversion of people in modern society of high living standards, even fashion and music were completely on point. The story gradually transverted from this extremely dirty and materialistic phase to a divine and supernatural aspect. The gore still remained (fortunately) but it became more serious, and actually making the viewers’ heart ache. It might just be me, but animes in which EVERYONE dies is my kinda thing, so I was happy that not even the purest, most innocent characters received mercy.

I really appriciated that despite my Christian education I was still surprised by certain turns of the story. The counter attack of God’s divine army, the unfolding of Ryo’s evil plan and so on. The ending was very emotional, and it close the circle of the events with the destruction of the globe perfectly.

2. Characters: Character development is definitely the biggest strength of the anime. Not only the three protagonists (Akira, Ryo, Miki) went through great changes and development, but minor characters (Miko, Mayuta, Wamu) as well.

For me Akira represents human nature the best. He goes into great depths through the story (e.g.: raping and fighting Silene) and exploits the full potential of his demon powers, but still manages to keep his human heart, and this duality shows great emotional strength. This is where the title gets its meaning: a devil that is capable of crying, which is an ultimate way of expressing emotions. Even if there is no practical difference between demons and “Devilman” (it is just an artificial name given to Akira by Ryo), the self-identification is determining. It is a beautiful allegory to human nature, which is never black and white but the mixture of good and evil, and the only thing that counts is how we look at ourselves, how we define ourselves. Declearing that one is a “bad person” deprives him the will to act right.

Ryo and Satan cannot be identified as completely the same person in my opinion. Ryo have lost his memories about being a fallen angel, and was conveinced he was a human until the “relevation” he found in the Bible, that made him discover his past. His subconscious though, led him to fulfill his eventual purpose, but certain signs throughout the story showed that he was doubting himself (especially when it was concerning the life of Akira). In his Satan “form” there was no doubt written on his face. He was 100% sure in his goal and was ready to deploy all the means necessary to achieve it. The greatest surprise in my view was the fact that even Satan was able to change in a way. This is a feature of most anime that no character is purely good or evil. (This is the reason why I prefer anime to Hollywood shit.) In the closing scene he cried, which was a bit predictable and “too perfect”, but it was essential to understand his struggle. It proved him that love exists, and that “He cried too”, thus it was sort of an enlightment for him, in the exact moment when the annihilation of the world began.

One of the most interesting supporting Characters was Mayuta or Kukun. He was the only openly gay character in the series, and his sorrow after the death of his love was extremely moving, it made the show even more colorful. It was visible that his sadness fed the demon inside him, thus is it a good allegory for depression or other mental illnesses. He experienced the worst traumas in the anime (being revealed in front of the whole world meanwhile a massacre) and maybe because of his lack of emotional intelligence, he couldn’t process these events completely. He was easily manipulated, weak and a coward. It might sound like I hated him because of these traits, but that’s not the case. He was not able to achieve as much as Akira did, but he had a far worse backstory as well, which made him the ultimate “sadboy”, and that is exactly why he appaeled to me.

3. Art: Straght up perfect. In the first few minutes I had to adapt to the character design, since I was used to a more elaborated, “classical” design. It is very avantgarde if I can say that, there is a bit of everything in it from constructivism to pop art. It is also a great mixture of ancient and ultra-modern, since the Biblical nature of the story placed into modern times requires that as well. My favourite thing about the art was the naturalism it represented. The raw sexual and gore scenes, that had an extremely strong impact on my senses were to live for. I don’t easily become shocked of horroristic scenes, but the episode in which Taro ate his mom while his dad watching them, crying and hesitating whether to kill him or not had me straight up SHAKING.

4. References: There were no direct references in the anime, but the nature of the story and certain scenes have very much resembled those of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Both series are based on Biblical symbols and are centered around the theme of creation, genesis. In my opinion Devilman: Crybaby does a better job in that regard, with less waisting of time on fucking tsunderes and annoying complaining (yeah, I’m talking about Shinji).

5. Music: No words are needed, I’ve already mentioned that it’s exceptional and really sets the mood.

Now to the closing remarks. I know my review is not perfectly structured, since thoughts are still circling in my head like crazy, but I tried my best. Sadly I do not have the capacity to write about a dozen of more detailes such as Miki and Miko’s beautiful relationship or the historical and social dimension of the story (which is actually the most interesting thing so idk why I skipped it, I might write another review on just this later). All in all I loved the anime despite its flaws, tbh I love it even more because of them. I highly recommend it to everyone, since it’s extremely thought provoking. I warn you, around episode 9-10 you’ll be like a Crybaby.

Peace