Review of Devilman: Crybaby

Overview Devilman Crybaby is an interesting, if not profoundly confusing, piece of media. I will start off by stating that I am not familiar with any prior adaptations or the original source material for the series beyond youtube compilations of funny moments from the 80s dub, so this review is entirely based on my opinions of this particular version of the story. Story - 5 (Average?) What is the point of Devilman Crybaby? Being Satan is suffering? Things sure do happen throughout the 10 episodes, dramatic and shocking things, in fact. And yet even with the clarity of having completed the series and thought on it for severalweeks, I still cannot understand its intended meaning. I want to believe that Devilman had a purpose, it really feels like it should! But any moral or commentary I can think to have been an intentional choice on the part of the creators is contradicted by one event or another.

At least in a series like Neon Genesis Evangelion the confusion is a part of the experience and the strange choices in direction and animation have something to say. Yet even with its wide acclaim, Evangelion remains a divisive franchise-- for good reason! A lot of its more experimental approaches to its storytelling did not resonate with many viewers, which is normal! Whether you enjoyed Evangelion or found it pretentious, the least you can say about it is that it had a message that the director was trying to convey. Devilman fails in this category on a near-comical level.

That being said, it did manage to keep me engaged through 10 episodes, so I suppose that has to count for something.

Characters - 6 (Fine?)
Was it just me, or were there no characters of value in Devilman? Akira has no personality-- I seriously tried to think of any way to describe him besides the damn two-word title of the series and there is simply nothing else there. Without spoiling the last section of the series, any characterization and likability that Akira was able to scrape together through the series is completely obliterated when he makes a series of frankly baffling choices which contradict everything the series has shown us about him up to this point.

Ryo sure is. Ryo definitely does. One time Ryo. And then he.

Art - 7 (Good)
No. No, Devilman Crybaby did not have exceptional animation. My brothers in Christ, did you not see the very obvious 2d rigging on almost every mundane shot? Now I'm not here to complain about technological advances, I am very much pro-CGI if it helps take the load off animators who are already putting in ridiculous hours.

That being said. That shit was Family Guy level. Regularly.

The fight scenes looked nice enough, a lot of the animation was above what is average for a tv anime series. That being said, I'm not going to lie when I say I was disappointed. Animation isn't everything, but howdy golly gee did they not make up for it in any other areas.

Enjoyment - 5 (Average)
I did not care for Devilman Crybaby. I watched the whole thing in one sitting, so it kept my attention, at least, but the moment the final scene ended, I was left with absolutely nothing. The only thing that this story, which was clearly meant to be tragic, did was make me laugh my ass off.

It is glaringly obvious that this is not the way the series is meant to be consumed, so I can't really give it points for making me laugh at how poorly it executed its drama. That being said, I did make it through the whole thing without actively wanting to turn it off, so that does have to count for something.

Overall - 5 (Average)
Calling Devilman mid feels like a sin, but I really cannot in good faith call it anything else. The entire thing felt like a completely pointless waste of time. Some people like it, and more power to them, but to me, at least, there was absolutely no appeal. If you're reading this before watching Crybaby, do yourself a favor and just watch one of the 80s dub compilations instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qayq4esPWEg