Review of Devilman: Crybaby

Anime is off to a great start this year with Devilman: Crybaby leading the craze. Overhyped? Maybe. However, it's though to call it bad from an unbiased standpoint. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly no masterpiece, but it's an amazing show compared to most modern japanese animations. If you haven't watched it yet, I plan on doing my very best to convince you to. Very certainly, it's no anime to see if you're new to the genre, or weak of heart, since it is overflowing with a abundant amount of gore and explicit scenes. Definitely not something to watch in public. Still, Devilman: Crybaby is not shockingfor the sake of being shocking, there's something more to it. It's about exposing mankind. It's about uncovering our inner beasts, our demons. A message of banalisation and overreaction.

Yet, no matter how dark it is, there's still this alluring glimmer of hope present in our hearts. Devilman: Crybaby is also bringing out the very best humanity has to offer as it is a tale of love, hope and brotherhood. It's one of the few series that was able to paint a painfully accurate and complete portrayal of our society.

Although, it wouldn't able to stand solely based on this.

It's music is what truely saved the series. We're talking about a complete original soundtrack of 26 songs for a anime of only 10 episodes. Devilman: Crybaby's catchy EDM tracks, once flavoured with orchestral sounds, set the tone for a dark action-based Seinen. Most of the soundtrack is memorable, in a perfect harmony with the visuals. It doesn't really feel like background music, for the animation is beautifully dancing along the rhythm.

And it's true what they say, it has a splendid art style. Even though, it's minimalistic sometimes, it's bold, and it definitely helps the series stand out. The simplest sights can look so real thanks to crazily fluid visuals. Nonetheless, detailed work always seems to win over the hearts of anime fans. But to a certain extent, too much is too much. Devilman Crybaby knows how to be precise when it needs to. Although, it's boldness resulted in a couple of scenes that are quite painful to look at.

What really lead the hype for Devilman: Crybaby, up to the point of being labeled Anime Of The Year, was it's ability to toy with it's audience's emotions by breaking boundaries and stereotypes. The unexpected is to be expected. What I'm about to say is biased and only based on my personal experience with the series but; It made me think a lot. This anime is an emotional rollercoaster that isn't afraid to show you the horrible things it wants you to see.

So, with all the good things I had to say about it, how come it didn't get a 10?

I believe that Devilman: Crybaby has one big flaw that affected negatively multiple aspects of it: It's too short. The pacing is too fast, and too much is cut. It's story became condescend as much is left unexplained to the viewer. No wonder the ending was a suprise for everyone! Unless you've read the book beforehand, there's no way in hell you're going to figure out what's going to happen. Because of this, the end seems to pop out of nowhere, completely breaking the flow of the show. Also, characters are underdeveloped. Ryo could easily be compared to a brick wall. His relationship with Akira is almost nonexistent, but the series keeps doing it's very best to try to convince the viewer that it's there.

After episode 5, the anime suddenly takes a shift in tone. It neglected it's explicit themes to replace them with dramatic ones. It's an unexpected change that comes out of nowhere marked by an important event in the storyline. However, I feel like it would have been better if the tone change would've been built up to. The series feels very different starting from this point.

Still, it's definitely worth the watch.

Story: 8
Art: 10
Sound: 10
Character: 7
Enjoyment: 8

Overall: 8.6
Average: 9