Tag: Devilman Crybaby

Devilman: Crybaby

Devilman: Crybaby

Devilman: Crybaby Poster/Cover Art
Devilman: Crybaby Cover Art

Overview

I finally watched Devilman: Crybaby this weekend and I have to admit that it was much better than I expected. Netflix finally got their first good “original” anime and all they had to do was realize that CG anime is trash (the bad kind of trash) and get a non-CG anime like this one.

Going in I had thought this would be a disappointment since Netflix never really seemed to understand anime as a genre, so how could an anime funded by them actually be good? I’ll tell you how. They changed up everything I thought I knew about Netflix anime adding their most violent series to the collection.

I assume it’s no mystery that I love a good dark anime at this point, but in case you didn’t know, now you do. Devilman: Crybaby definitely had its dark moments and didn’t magically make every little character arc end happily which is something I think ruins shows of any kind.

However, the series is not without its faults. It’s 10 episodes long and apparently, the final episode was a real tear-jerker for a lot of people, but I think the series should have ended in 9 episodes. Episode 9 was really the climax of the story and the most emotional part.

Episode 10 just kind of cobbled together an ending to tie up loose ends and went for a quick emotional appeal which had no impact on me. If anything, it just made everything that happened in episodes 8 and 9 not really matter anymore.

Characters

Akira is the main and titular character of Devilman: Crybaby. He has a pure heart and often cries for other people who are unable to cry for themselves. But then one day his body was taken over by a demon and he became Devilman.

His pure heart fought and won against the demon who inhabited him so Akira became able to control his new demon powers unlike most who were taken over.

Ryo is Akira’s best friend from childhood and is trying to prove the existence of demons and gather information on them. He is the foil character to Akira because while Akira shows an overwhelming amount of emotion, Ryo is lacking emotion. He teams up with Akira to fight the demons.

The last character we’ll look at is Miki. Akira lives with Miki and her parents because his parents are doctors traveling overseas. Due to Akira living with Miki and her family over the years, Miki has essentially become Akira’s sister. She is the one person he would do anything for.

Miki had the most interesting character arc in the series to me because unlike Akira and Ryo, she’s just a normal high school girl who’s been caught up in everything that’s happening. She has much more interaction with all the other characters in the anime and while some might say she’s a boring character, it’s the more normal characters who appeal the most to me.

Akira Fudo when he first turns into Devilman
Akira Fudo (Devilman)

Conclusion

I originally had Devilman: Crybaby at a 6, but after seeing the events of episodes 8 and 9 play out I decided that the series is a solid 7/10. As I mentioned at the beginning, I wasn’t much of a fan of the final episode of the show, otherwise, this could have made it to an 8.

Another minor issue was that the best song in the OST, which should have been used in the OP, was just used once or twice in very short segments. A song like that should at least be used during the climax of the anime, but it wasn’t from what I noticed.

As a final warning, this anime is for mature audiences because not only is there plenty of violence, which isn’t a big deal, but there is also a large amount of nudity which I did not expect from an anime funded by Netflix. Even if they could, I’m not sure that other anime streaming services like Crunchyroll would pick this anime up due to that.