Review of Devilman: Crybaby

Finished it. First, the good: It is done by the same guy who created Kemonozume and Tatami Galaxy, which are good titles with very unusual animation. Masaaki Yuasa. Some of the magic you could see in Kemonozume shows in this anime.... sometimes. Now, the bad: It is a big unsalvageable mess. The issue here is that original Devilman wasn't exactly Shakespeare's level material, and it is admirable that somebody tried to retell it in modern age. See, I finished devilman manga recently (along with devilman lady manga). And I was honestly surprised to see almost verbatim re-interpretation of first chapters....in the first episodes however. Past thatpoint the anime takes weird liberties with original material, start changing character roles, adds odd subplots, and everythign goes to hell due to what looks like rather clumsy attempts to appeal to western audience. There's rap in the anime. Fairly weak techno track for music. There is no opening song (it is just a music track), and no outro for majority of episodes. There are only 10 episodes, and given that Devilman had 4 volumes, it means pacing is shot. The anime didn't have the guts to pull off some of the more gruesome scenes from original..... amd there are many other problems as well. Sigh. Anyway.

Detailed breakdown:

Story: 4/10 - it is based on devilman story, which wasn't exactly stellar but had some interesting underlying ideas. The anime starts with faithfully trying to retell the original story which is almost identical, and then devolves into some sort of mess that somehow involves rappers and people walking around with dreadlocks and guns.... supposedly in japan. Due to short length of the anime, the pacing is shot, and certain turn of events happens to be too abrupt and feels out of place.

Art: 5/10 - Masaaki Yuusa is known for his unusual style, and it is used in this anime as well. At some points there are sparkles of the past genius, for example, one of the beginning episodes depicts a kiss of a background character... and this moment done in amazingly fluid fashion. However... the issue here is that this art style doesn't seem to work very well for demons. If original devilman had problem where it was hard to take character seriously, due to visual style being similar to previous comedic works by Go Nagai... this one has opposite problem, where it is hard to take demons seriously, due to the art style that doesn't really like to use shaading. On many occasions characters sit with strangelly stiff and straight posture.

Sound: 3/10 - extremely poor choice of music. The anime uses completely forgettable techno tracks and on occasion there are characters that try to freestyle/rap. Given that the story supposedly happen in japan, this feels odd and out of place. There are no intro/outro songs that are common for anime in most of episode. There's intro music track, though. Also... there are a lot of characters that speak heavily accented english.

Character: 4/10 - well, this is devilman. Characters weren't that well written to begin with, although miki can be charming/cute on occasion. I think she is the only likeable or interesting character here.

Enjoyment: 3/10 - Didn't like it. The first episode was very promising and I liked it (because I read devilman before), but past that point everything went downhill, the anime tried too hard to mix original devilman with elements of western culture and in the end failed to deliver. It is bland, non-atmospheric and very messy.

Overall: 3/10:
If you read devilman before, check out the first episode, otherwise a decent idea might as well be to skip it. The director is known for his unusual style, but this particular anime give impression that it is trying too hard to appeal for western viewers... and result is subpar.

If you're looking for a rock-solid devilman-themed anime, the best idea would be to check Devilman Lady instead. Devilman Lady was superior in most aspects to this anime.