Devilman Crybaby - Review
Aug. 24th, 2018 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatJust finished watching the ten episode anime miniseries, Devilman Crybaby, which is directed by Masaaki Yuasa. It is a Netflix original adaptation of the 1970s manga Devilman.
In a word?
Wow.
Just...Wow.
This blew me away.
Found a good review of it on The Verge. The review is entitled:
Devilman Crybaby is Netflix’s horniest, most shockingly violent show yet and that’s exactly why you should watch it
Yep.
The series, as the Verge states, is not for the faint of stomach or heart -- it is shockingly violent, deliberately vulgar and offensive, and really drives home how cruel and horribly violent people can be to each other. It is horror, and delves deeply into Christian mythos.
But.
It is also breathtaking in places. And has some interesting things to say about our somewhat demonic culture, and the cracks within it.
It shows how violence and hate feeds on itself. There's no end to it, it becomes a snake eating its own tail. Ultimately ending in the destruction of everything. And how sex without love, just for one's own sex, turns us inside out. Objectification demonizes and destroys. But these messages are shown not told in an artistic style I've not seen done in anime, and that sort of takes established anime tropes and explodes them. Evil is blond, white, glowing and blue eyed. While good is dark skinned dark haired, and dark eyed. A woman who turns into a spider demon turns out to be good, if troubled, while a beautiful blond-haired blue eyed demon who turns into a winged bird demonic goddess is pure evil.
A boy turns into a demonic fish who eats his mother do to uncontrollable cravings...and he slowly becomes demonized from repeated viewings of pornography on the internet.
The animation shocking and troubling, but also breathtaking, with explosions of color and variations in lines. Blending various styles, some reminiscent of soft cell animation, others computerized, and still others making me think of cartoons like Beavis and Butthead or King of the Hill.
Here's the trailer, which is Japanese with English Subtitles. The anime on Netflix is actually available in English -- or I watched it dubbed in English.
As the critic in the Verge review points out:
It does not go in a direction that one would expect. And it...what it states about love and friendship...
The story is in the end an odd sort of allegorical love story. Sort of a what if tale, which often are the best stories.
If you are a fan of anime, you really need to watch this. But it is not safe for work, and it is not for kids. I'd say NC-17 at least. But as the reviewer in the Verge notes -- it is also a compelling statement on our toxic oversexualized culture. Depicting how sex frightens and allures us, and obsesses us.
By far the best anime I've seen in a long time. Right up there with Spirited Away.
ETA: There's this fascinating exchange in the comments section that makes me want to applaud one of the commentators (and strangle the other one who clearly watched a completely different series than I did) and also underlines something I keep saying -- we all do not perceive the world and art the same way. We don't think the same. We each and every one of us process information and perceive it our own unique way and instead of celebrating that fact -- we're extremely judgemental of each other instead of appreciative of views that vary from our own and learning from them -- this is an interesting perspective, I never considered that. I think it's the fear that this new perspective or angle could blot out our own distinctive voice? IDK.
I agree with Poster 2.
The comments do show that it is not for everyone. Cartoon violence and sex doesn't bother me. I found Game of Thrones and Walking Dead far harder. And I can't watch The Walking Dead at all. But some people love the Walking Dead and can watch that, but would find this offensive.
Also, I think metaphorically not literally -- and if you are a literal thinker, anime doesn't really work. It's metaphorical in character -- sort of like a visual poem.
This anime in particular is more poetic in character, a violent poem, but still a visual poem, and very metaphorical and allegorical. It can't really be appreciated on a literal level. And the problem with metaphor and poems is they tend to be more open to interpretation -- we bring ourselves to everything we see, I think.
At any rate, I found the comments as I often do on blog sites to be annoying. I don't know why people feel the need to post their disagreement to blogs and internet posts. Why this need to be contrary and nasty? To be demonic? Why sow dissent and disagreement?
I don't know. I see it a lot online. The reviewer/critic wisely ignores the comments. It's the best approach actually. When someone writes something that is contrary or nasty in response to something you wrote -- it is best to ignore them. That's the only response. Ignore. It's passive but works well.
In a word?
Wow.
Just...Wow.
This blew me away.
Found a good review of it on The Verge. The review is entitled:
Devilman Crybaby is Netflix’s horniest, most shockingly violent show yet and that’s exactly why you should watch it
Yep.
The series, as the Verge states, is not for the faint of stomach or heart -- it is shockingly violent, deliberately vulgar and offensive, and really drives home how cruel and horribly violent people can be to each other. It is horror, and delves deeply into Christian mythos.
But.
It is also breathtaking in places. And has some interesting things to say about our somewhat demonic culture, and the cracks within it.
It shows how violence and hate feeds on itself. There's no end to it, it becomes a snake eating its own tail. Ultimately ending in the destruction of everything. And how sex without love, just for one's own sex, turns us inside out. Objectification demonizes and destroys. But these messages are shown not told in an artistic style I've not seen done in anime, and that sort of takes established anime tropes and explodes them. Evil is blond, white, glowing and blue eyed. While good is dark skinned dark haired, and dark eyed. A woman who turns into a spider demon turns out to be good, if troubled, while a beautiful blond-haired blue eyed demon who turns into a winged bird demonic goddess is pure evil.
A boy turns into a demonic fish who eats his mother do to uncontrollable cravings...and he slowly becomes demonized from repeated viewings of pornography on the internet.
The animation shocking and troubling, but also breathtaking, with explosions of color and variations in lines. Blending various styles, some reminiscent of soft cell animation, others computerized, and still others making me think of cartoons like Beavis and Butthead or King of the Hill.
Here's the trailer, which is Japanese with English Subtitles. The anime on Netflix is actually available in English -- or I watched it dubbed in English.
As the critic in the Verge review points out:
Devilman Crybaby is easy to scoff at, thanks to its wonky animation and extremely NSFW story. But it flies in the face of expectations of what a Netflix cartoon can be, whether it’s subverting toxic masculinity and traditional story arcs about how heroes will always triumph, or openly embracing queer stories, rather than leaving them as subtext. It moves from jawdropping to heartbreaking at a moment’s notice, but it never strays from being unforgettable.
It does not go in a direction that one would expect. And it...what it states about love and friendship...
Humankind begins to turn on those it believes to be devils or even devilmen, attacking anyone they perceive as different — a clear comparison to modern-day bigotry. It’s sometimes heavy-handed in its message to prove a broader story that humans might be the real devils, but its unwavering acceptance of storylines like queer romance is refreshing. A character mourning the death of his boyfriend, for example, is depicted as a traumatic, sympathetic event, rather than a reason to other him.
There’s also a gentleness in the love between Akira and Ryo, two long-time friends — or maybe more. Akira may be the soft one, and Ryo his ice-cold, suave counterpart, but their emotional need for each other makes their relationship compelling to watch. The show has room for many examples of how we not only crave love and friendship, but understanding. Akira’s friends, Miki and Miko, are given the same treatment to a lesser degree; what starts as a friendship stained by jealousy ends with professions of love from them both.
The story is in the end an odd sort of allegorical love story. Sort of a what if tale, which often are the best stories.
If you are a fan of anime, you really need to watch this. But it is not safe for work, and it is not for kids. I'd say NC-17 at least. But as the reviewer in the Verge notes -- it is also a compelling statement on our toxic oversexualized culture. Depicting how sex frightens and allures us, and obsesses us.
By far the best anime I've seen in a long time. Right up there with Spirited Away.
ETA: There's this fascinating exchange in the comments section that makes me want to applaud one of the commentators (and strangle the other one who clearly watched a completely different series than I did) and also underlines something I keep saying -- we all do not perceive the world and art the same way. We don't think the same. We each and every one of us process information and perceive it our own unique way and instead of celebrating that fact -- we're extremely judgemental of each other instead of appreciative of views that vary from our own and learning from them -- this is an interesting perspective, I never considered that. I think it's the fear that this new perspective or angle could blot out our own distinctive voice? IDK.
Poster 1
I guess I should have put a trigger warning in front of Anita Sarkeesian’s name. Sorry snowflake.
"Losing his humanity" vs "becoming a badass" sounds like a distinction without a difference to me. The trope is that the main character develops from the death of a female character. So the shoe fits.
Again, the major fault of the series’ writing is that it doesn’t convey how/why the humans "go crazy." It’s a facile take on prejudice at best. "Oh they don’t like devils because they’re too devily! ..even though deep down Devils have hearts too!" Mind you… the Devils are giant monsters that slaughter/eat humans.
Also anime has a long history of "grimdark" type stories. In fact probably the thing that distinguishes anime from other animation genres is its capacity to go after explicit / "adult" content. Manga/anime are just mediums in Japan serving many age groups and styles of storytelling. Devilman itself inspired many other works in Japan. If you think it’s the only anime with a "sad" ending, then you have a limited exposure.
Posted on Jan 22, 2018 | 9:54 AM
Poster 2
Don’t be dick, she is essentially the poster boy for shitty opinions.
He didn’t become more powerful from losing his humanity, it wasn’t a level up it was a heavy loss that weakened the protagonist, if you don’t understand the difference then that’s on you. The reason the shoe doesn’t fit is because the death of the female character wasn’t used to excuse a power-up by the protagonist, and in addition to that you can say that trope is used in any story where the death of an important character changes the protagonist.
The reason why the humans went crazy was clearly explained, it was mass hysteria caused by the perception that hidden demons were hiding around every corned waiting to kill humans, comparable to the red scare, paranoia and fear of a illegitimate threat is enough to push people to craziness why wouldn’t the discovery of a different species literally called demons? The Devils did have hearts and not all of them ate people, plus the fact that the people who became devils became so against their will, the whole point of the plot was that Akira was an example of humanity remaining even in the event of becoming a demon.
Yea there are grim dark type stories, the way that it’s unique is that it didn’t have a happy ending where the MC ends up with his main waifu in the end, where the most popular anime all end like that. Don’t be pedantic, I’m not saying it’s the first nor is it the last anime to end sadly but you can’t deny that it is very uncommon.
I think that you’re perception of this anime was predetermined before you even saw the first episode, you didn’t wanna like it, so you didn’t in the end. I went in blind expecting the classic OP anime bullshit and I was pleasantly surprised that it was different, this isn’t saying that it being different makes it good, but it was refreshing. Not only was it refreshing though, it’s art style was terrific and the characters were not all the stereotypical anime characters that you would see in SAO, Naruto or any of the other most popular anime.
I agree with Poster 2.
The comments do show that it is not for everyone. Cartoon violence and sex doesn't bother me. I found Game of Thrones and Walking Dead far harder. And I can't watch The Walking Dead at all. But some people love the Walking Dead and can watch that, but would find this offensive.
Also, I think metaphorically not literally -- and if you are a literal thinker, anime doesn't really work. It's metaphorical in character -- sort of like a visual poem.
This anime in particular is more poetic in character, a violent poem, but still a visual poem, and very metaphorical and allegorical. It can't really be appreciated on a literal level. And the problem with metaphor and poems is they tend to be more open to interpretation -- we bring ourselves to everything we see, I think.
At any rate, I found the comments as I often do on blog sites to be annoying. I don't know why people feel the need to post their disagreement to blogs and internet posts. Why this need to be contrary and nasty? To be demonic? Why sow dissent and disagreement?
I don't know. I see it a lot online. The reviewer/critic wisely ignores the comments. It's the best approach actually. When someone writes something that is contrary or nasty in response to something you wrote -- it is best to ignore them. That's the only response. Ignore. It's passive but works well.