Review of Devilman: Crybaby

(This is gonna be a long and wordy review so skip to the conclusion if you don’t care about the justification for my score) I’m honestly not sure where to start. I never expect anything directed by Masaaki Yuasa to be normal, nor do I expect them to be lackluster, especially with shows like The Tatami Galaxy, Kaiba, and Ping Pong under his belt. These previously mentioned shows are some of the best examples that come to mind when I think of anime that is wildly eccentric and experimental, and I find it incredible that they could embody such words without alienating the viewer orquickly losing their charm. From THAT Masaaki Yuasa comes an anime that is horribly uneven and unsatisfying

ART:

I was genuinely surprised that this series’ art could be so disappointing. Yuasa’s bread and butter is his crisp animation. Each of his series has a radically different art style, but most have a level of polish and absurdity that keep them incredibly distinct. Devilman Crybaby has those things too...occasionally. The first episode already had me convinced that Yuasa had “done it again” with the fantastic introduction of Akira and Ryou and the vivid colors of the Sabbath party. It wasn’t until sometime during the third episode when I realized that the quality of the art is terribly inconsistent.

At that point, I wasn’t even trying to critique the series, nor was I specifically watching for the animation quality to falter; it was bad enough for me to notice even when I wasn’t looking for it. I’m not that picky when it comes to the art style for most shows, and a lot of times drops in quality will fly right past without me noticing. What I do care about is Akira looking like an elongated extraterrestrial in one shot and Johnny Bravo in the next (and no, he hadn’t transformed). Once I noticed, I saw it everywhere. Changes in character designs, extreme lack of detail in certain shots, and choppy movements started coming to my attention quite frequently. The only scenes that were mostly exempt from these quality drops were the fights and close-up conversations. The rest constantly moved between passable and poor.

Even ignoring the inconsistency, there is nothing surprising about Devilman’s art outside of the grotesque monsters and gore. Fight scenes and demon designs are the only time that Yuasa takes any risks in the animation of the series, so it’s unsurprising that these things turned out very well (though the fight scenes have a lot of jump cuts and weird camera angles that sometimes obscure the action). However, this series also has its fair share of narrative, and any scene that didn’t involve violence or transformations was accompanied by shockingly dull art, save for a few beautiful backdrops of the city. Anything outside of the realm of demons and Sabbath parties was bland and forgettable, which is probably the most painful thing I have to say in this review.

I was only impressed with last four episodes, as there was some astounding art to go with the dark turn that the series takes. I just wish the art had retained this level of quality throughout.

SOUND:

Inconsistency hit this anime pretty hard in more than one spot. I often negate sound in my reviews because it’s one of those things that I forget to pay attention to, but as with the quality drops in the art, the sound effects were sometimes abysmal enough for even me to notice. And again, this was not a constant phenomena, but it also wasn’t a rare occurrence. Blood splats, movement noises and “impact/collision” sounds (not sure of the proper terminology) would jump between perfectly fine and low quality. If you want a specific scene as some kind of “proof” of my complaints, look no further than the bus scene from episode 4. The poor sound effects in this scene were enough to completely erase any sense of drama that it was supposed to create. I actually found myself sighing in disbelief.

I don’t have much to say about the music and voice acting. None of it, besides the mangled english, stood out as lackluster, so I guess that’s a plus.

CHARACTERS:

The characters are the one strong point that I have to acknowledge. Though they are often undermined by the pacing and tone (which I elaborate on in the story section) the main cast is quite likable and some characters, such as Miko, even receive a good bit of development. That being said, side characters are given little focus, which doesn’t fit well when Devilman tries to force us to mourn or sympathize with them.

The only weak point I can think of is how Akira was treated in the beginning. The series starts out by forcing Akira to go through a huge character change (his transformation into Devilman) before the viewer has a strong understanding of what type of person he is. We spend the rest of the series hearing about how much Akira has changed and having characters give their opinion on his development, but we have such limited knowledge of who he was before that we can’t make our own judgements.

STORY:

(WARNING: I am going to spoil the story. I have major complaints that can’t be explained without including spoilers, so skip to the conclusion if you care)

Okay, so the animation and sound effects are inconsistent. But a good story can still carry an anime. That’s all that really matters, right???...

Though I can understand this sentiment, Devilman’s story is a far cry from being its saving grace.

The tone is the main crutch of the series. It tries to create too many different moods, and never finds one to settle on. The first few episodes present a brutal, if somewhat tedious, action anime. This is followed by bouts of drama that never seem to fit with the absurd violence that permeates each episode. Finally, we have the execution of all of these elements, which tries to be sporadically comedic, tragic and surreal. This wouldn’t be a problem if they found a way to mesh all of these tones properly. Instead, the show leaps from one to another with reckless abandon and ends with its last four episodes feeling like an entirely different show. This is also a product of the pacing, which goes from meandering to fast paced at a moments notice and leaves important details in the dust.

It’s too dark to be taken lightly and too cheesy to be taken seriously. The result is some questionable scenes where I genuinely couldn’t tell if the dark comedy was intentional, and dramatic scenes that had little to no impact. “Akira’s parents are gonna die! Don’t you care??? Oh wait, all we’ve done is imply their relationship in previous episodes, so let’s just hamfist some sad dialogue and flashbacks to make you care about them.” Unlike Yuasa’s previous projects, which always seemed to have a heartfelt core, any attempt made by Devilman Crybaby to be heartfelt feels insincere and unnatural.

Devilman’s final quarter is a bleak and tiring affair. We are suddenly supposed to care that human lives are being exterminated, but since the very first episode, human death has been given no significance. You see dozens of humans get slaughtered within the first fight and zero portrayed consequences. Now we are shown a snippet of a funeral and Akira is complaining about innocent humans being killed in the crossfire, as if such events can even phase the viewer at that point. The death of background characters only seems to matter when the show wants it to, and at any other time they are simply fodder to decorate the quickly resolved action sequences.

Then comes the scenes that are meant to be the emotional climax of the series, however, it is too late for them to shock or sadden the viewer. Those last four episodes are filled to the brim with the deaths of so many important and unimportant characters that their suffering ceases to have any effect. The cast starts dropping like flies so quickly that their deaths feel utterly insignificant. It’s just gratuitous despair in the misguided attempt to dig some grief from the viewers, even though the bulk of the series has already passed at this point.

Failed attempts at emotional resonance and a tone that seems to be all over the place leaves this series feeling like a mess, and is dissatisfying no matter what angle you look at it from. If all you’re looking for is action, you will be let down by the short fights and an intrusive narrative. If you want a drama or something meaningful, you’ll find yourself distracted by Devilman’s inability to maintain a coherent approach.

The very last episode is a beautiful and otherworldly experience, one that I hoped the entire series would be like. However, a single episode isn’t enough to carry an entire show, especially one that feels like a monster hunter anime for six episodes, a dystopian movie for three, and ends with a monolithic bout that it did not properly build up to.

CONCLUSION (4/10):

This show was a huge disappointment for me and I’m perplexed by the overall reception that it seems to currently have. I tried my hardest to find things to compliment about it, and even then I couldn’t think of much. What I see is a series with major inconsistencies in quality and narrative execution. It almost finds its footing towards the middle, and then proceeds to miss the mark by a mile. The best thing that I can say about Devilman Crybaby is that it could have been worse, but as of now, it’s already a subpar outing no matter what genre you try to fit it in.