Review of Devilman: Crybaby

6.0/10 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Exploitation done right, Devilman: Crybaby is what I endlessly want the over-abundance of overly-pulpy overly-rediculous anime to be like. One of the only redeeming factors of Devilman, adapted by the venerable Masaaki Yuasa, is the astounding soundtrack. Everything else really doesn't shine as bright as I'd hoped, but what I got instead was a thoroughly unhealthy meal. A massive dollop of cheese mixed in with a hard-to-swallow cacophony and exploitation-era brutality that was endlessly easy to indulge in. That's what a plethora of anime is missing. A medium which is often bathing in pulp, you'd expect these kinds of elements to really shine in manyof the anime of this nature. However, leave it to the America-based company, Netflix, to do what I wish a lot of anime had the uncensored cojones to do. Indulge in ludicrousness. In the spirit of the 70s, Devilman really just is. It isn't a specific thing, either, it just is. Period.

With Yuasa-infused visuals lies a barrage of sex, violence, and rock and roll, or should I say synth-electronic dubstep-esq fusion. Quintessential marks of a long-gone era when the censors in Japan seemed lighter and the possibilities seemed tainted in grimdark nihilism. With sexualization that is as exploitatively hilarious as it is absurdly indulgent, you would never expect to see something like this in an anime nowadays. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find any nudity in television anime that isn't confined to the expensive blue-rays, and even then the nudity is often there for titillation and pandering fanservice. Censorship is a bitch, and if I were to praise Netflix for anything it is their willingness to go raw. And raw do they go with Devilman.

Guts spray across walls and skulls get crushed and viscera flies across white floors. The squishing sound-effects ripped from soundboards that sound a decade old are present, as well, which is as welcome as it is fun. There is so much present in Devilman that I wish a series like, for example, Re:Zero would have indulged in. A series that I heavily criticized for its blatant cornball storyline with an emphasis on death without the masochistic eye needed to make that kind of cheesiness engaging. Yuasa, with the backing of the uncensored Netflix, proves that the pulp that I often can't stand in anime can be put to good use. Every silly event piles onto the next, becoming a project that is messy in every regard, both in storytelling, characters, blood, and even seminal fluid on more than one occasion. And if anything, it's fun.

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[The Meat]

Not everything is twitching fingers and rolling intestines, though, as Devilman's absurdity doesn't stop with its exploitation-era-esq violence and sex. The story is utter and complete nonsense. That may be unfair. It is comprehensible if you try to look past the total and complete inanities and lack of anything resembling verisimilitude, but that doesn't mean it is even remotely palatable. I found myself scratching my head as much as I found myself groaning at how utterly haphazardly everything seems to be laid in place.

Character motivations struggle to mean anything. Hell, no character even has remotely realistic reactions to any situation. If their family dies, they may cry about it for a moment only to move on the next. Only to have another character break down in a prolonged sequence of tears at the death of someone else. Things often don't make sense, or at least lack any cohesion between written characters. This messiness drifts towards the pacing, as well. When I say pacing I use that term lightly. There is not pacing that I can see. The entire series is confusing. Some scenes drag endlessly to end up with no reward, other scenes simply slide by in a few moments yet end up playing a big role in the series.

Characters are introduced that lead you to believe they'll be important figures within the series arc, however, their episodes of introduction end in an ultimately minor role that does virtually nothing to move the story ahead. The last four episodes of the series are truly off-the-rails and can be classified as "so bad it's hilarious," but that's positive in its own right. I watched Devilman : Crybaby with my friends and we had a blast laughing at the multiple moments of really, really bad phonetic English reading from Japanese voice actors. Then, to our surprise, actual, legitimate Russian voice acting. The lack of any cohesion is seriously baffling and astounding at the same time.

There is a fairly large cast in this short, ten-episode anime and they end up somewhat blending into one another. This is due to the lack of characterization of a lot of characters. Deaths mean virtually nothing when everyone is expendable and no one is remotely fleshed out enough to be someone I saw myself becoming attached to. I do like the fact that Devilman didn't shy away from the nihilistic character-death. I found myself happy that these banal characters got fittingly violent ends, however, I feel like that isn't the response this series wanted to enchant me with.

My enjoyment stemmed from this unbelievable pulp more so than it did a compelling narrative, characters, or anything of that nature. Instead, a character I believe we were meant to like gets brutally murdered and yet I can't help but laugh because it is so over-the-top in every sense of the word. You know what? I'm not complaining. This grimdark edge-fest is fine as it is as a product of its time, and seemingly faithfully adapted from the original manga which, from what I've seen, was quite controversial for its time.

Which is why I can't help but applaud the audacious efforts of the series even if I can't necessarily enjoy all of them. Don't get me wrong, the absurdity in every episode got great laughs from me. The ridiculous moments are fully enjoyable. However, the show isn't anything but a collection of ludicrous moments highlighted by a signature art style from a great director. Everything else, apart from the previously mentioned amazing soundtrack, is virtually non-existent or honestly, bad.

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[Conclusion]

To keep this short, Devilman isn't good or anything I expected it to be. From a name like Masaaki Yuasa, I expected something less pulpy and stupid and more intense, exhilarating, and well-realized. Yuasa, after all, has made my favourite anime series ever, Tatami Galaxy. His style here isn't anything impressive, in my opinion. While certain sequences certainly look spectacular, they all pale in comparison to something like Tatami Galaxy's incredibly well-realized directing. I find that his style simply may not fit the product, or at least didn't feel naturally placed within a story like this.

The majority of the action scenes are either under-animated, silly, both, or just flat-out too dark, as in, lighting wise, making everything a chore to see or experience viscerally. If it weren't for how the series' reminds me of 70s and early 80s exploitation flicks I wouldn't be praising the positives as much. It has an almost refreshing amount of sex in it when compared to Japan-airing anime, where nudity is non-existent and sexuality is often childish or perverse. This, while far from mature, is at least so hyper-indulgent that it becomes entertaining. The sexual content here is just laughable, yet entertaining because of that. The same can be said for the brutally charming gore, as well, which doesn't always translate to compelling action, unfortunately.

The story and characters are the series at its lowest. While the story is at least somewhat entertaining due to its absurdity, the characters are far from fleshed out enough to be anything but walking cutouts, and while I'm sure it is different than in the manga in some ways, I can't say that the manga's approach, whatever it may have been, equal or not, matters to me in context of reviewing this series as it is. As it is, Devilman : Crybaby is is a completely entertaining mess that I'll gladly recommend to fans of heavy pulp and violence, which I feel should coexist with one another more frequently in the sterile, safe landscape of modern anime television.