Review of Devilman: Crybaby

What I took away from Devilman: Crybaby was not the funny scenes, or the christian imagery or the raw eccentric and frenetic nature of Go Nagai's vision. But rather a case study of the old adage "the leopard can never change its spots". Masaaki Yuasa, beloved director, Masaaki Yuasa has reared his head yet again to direct an anime based on an old and beloved character, the Devilman. Yuasa previously won my respect with the Tatami Galaxy it demonstrated good directorial choices, a nice overall concept, and charisma and personality in spades. Moreover, it feels that he garnered even more respect with Ping Pong: TheAnimation, which, although not my cup of tea, I could understand why it would speak to people. Devilman: Crybaby feels less like an evolution from Yuasa's more recent projects and rather a regression to his earliest tv-anime project, Kaiba.

In more detail Devilman Crybaby's premise follows as such. Two high school boys, Akari Fudou: a meek and archetypical male anime protagonist who is a little too naive and aggreable to a fault; and his best friend Ryou. Who is more capable and headstrong, but is also portrayed to be more sociopathic.

Now it is important to point out that although Akari is the protagonist it is Ryou who is a more driving force in the narrative, especially early on. Ryou has been doing research on the existence of an alternate being called Devils(in the very literal Judeo Christian sense) and wants to summon them for his own purpose. Things more or less go his way, Akari gets possesed and subsequently merges with a powerful demon named Amon. He dubs himself the Devilman, because y'know he is a devil and a man... get it, do you get it.

So already we are off to a good start. The premise has already been established by episode 1 so now the remaining 9 episodes can get into meatier elements that copmrise Devilman.

Stylistically, Yuuasa plays loose and fast with conventional storytelling. I love that about him frankly. It never feels like he is fumbling around with plot progression and he just goes for it. Furthermore he is confident in those directorial choices which makes the pay-off that more enjoyable and rewarding. Never before have a seen a full, uninterrupted, rap verse in an anime that manages to be awkward and at the same time serve as a perfect and endearing character moment. It's amazing.

Yuuasa's usual tendencies appear here as well. As always his visual storytelling abilites are unmatched, and he uses repetitive imagery to really try to cue in the audience on more subtle characterization. For example, Akari's tendency to cry and flashbacks of his youth involving his parents are both used repetitively and to an effective end. This is great narrative work and Yuasa uses it masterfully.

More or less that is where my praise for the show ends, because post episode 6, Devilman: Crybaby noticeably shifts in direction to wrap up the existing story.

Pre episode 6, and even during episode 6 to a degree. I was really impressed because I felt that although it routinely stumbled over it's own feet at times that it had a great vision. Go Nagai's material has the reputation for being disturbingly violent and sexual in nature and Yuasa was able to keep that vision intact without it feeling forced. I mean this is high school, these characters are sexual beings and Yuasa never shys away from that. My problem comes in the form that this show really has no idea what it wants to be. It is thematically complicated in the worst way possible. You have Akari and Ryo who have this strained relationship, the monster-of-the-week style adventure for about five episodes, then you have a side plot about Miki and her jealous friend, all the while you have another subplot with other Devilman appearing. All of that is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, jeez, it's too much. It's all just too much.

Functionally Devilman: Crybaby has two elements. A highschool seinen, and a hyperviolent gorefest. Which can work, unfortunately it just didn't work here because the staff did not know how to make these both fit cohesively together, therefore this show shifts between feeling like two entirely different series within the same episode.

This production needed two things for it to be better. One it may have needed a more conventional director. Yuasa never really gives the audience a chance to breathe. There is a scene where a character literally, not figuratively, gets his brains blown out. A two second scene that was a pretty serious moment. I think, and this is purely conjecture, that most directors would say "this is the first major character death of the story, maybe we should hold this scene for a minute". In the world of Devilman: Crybaby, this feels like an afterthough, and this character is never spoken of again. Very odd choice, especially given the fact that said character played a sort of integral role in the story up to that point.

I can't really put all the blame on Yuuasa(even though it may seem like I am) insofar as he didn't write the script. That credit goes to Ichiro Okouchi. As an outsider I only have limitied information on exactly who was responsible for what, but as is. I personally would lean torwards putting more fault on Yuasa, watching this feels like watching Kaiba 2.0