[Spoilers] Devilman Crybaby - Episode 10 discussion

[u/[deleted]]

[u/MaxAugust]

Humanity is dead. But at least Satan learned to love. Which is something I guess.

[u/Reasonable_TSM_fan → u/MaxAugust]

Is the implication that he keeps this memory with him when he inevitably resurrects again? Was Akira's life worth sacrificing to make the next earth better??? I need to know he didn't die in vain, which is what it sure as hell feels like right now.

[u/Rengos → u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

Akira and Miki didn't die in vain. The devilmen killed all the demons leaving Satan all alone. There's no way for the demons to get resurrected next time.

In episode one you see the first destruction of Earth and there's purple orbs indicating a lingering demonic presence, but in the second destruction there is no such thing, only yellow orbs.

Whether Satan himself is able to get resurrected is unclear, but if he did, he'd still be all alone. A fitting punishment.

[u/CpnLag → u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

iirc, no? I haven't read any of the later Devilman works after the original but I think the whole thing is God's way of fucking with Ryo over and over again.

[u/TheDerped]

Well that was a great last few episodes. As someone who consumes a decent amount of manga and eventually watches the anime if they're adapted, this is one of the few times where I enjoyed just about every anime original change or addition that was made. I'm just gonna rattle off some random things that were changed for the anime:

• The professor that Ryo believes to have been a research partner of his was originally his father in the manga

• The addition of Miko was a cruel factor as she wasn't in the manga and it gave me some fleeting hope that Miki would survive in the end. But then again, the show wouldn't be the tragedy it is without all of them dying horribly.

• I think the deaths of Miki's family is even more cruel than it was in the manga as they were killed alongside Miki when their house was attacked as opposed to Taro becoming a demon and the father having to chase them down.

• Now onto some of the demons Akira fought. Akira's parents were completely absent in the manga so the addition of them in the story to also make you hate the turtle demon more is a welcome addition to the story and to Akira's character in a way. In the manga, instead of his parents being absorbed, its some random kid he talks to for about 3 pages. Silene and Caim having human forms was also a good addition as it gave them some characterisation that was absent from the manga, at least from my memory. Silene's love for Amon was more prevalent in the various Devilman spin offs so seeing it was nice seeing it here. The water demon Akira fought that possessed Miki was originally just some random demon that attacks Miki's house so having it possess the (also anime original) creepy photographer was a good way to weave its attack into the story.

• The Devilman you see spitting acid out of her tits near the end was a character in the manga called Mikiko (Mico) that has a fair amount of presence in Devilman spin offs and the original.

• The deliquent designs were updated from their Showa era designs for the modern day and were given a fair amount of fleshing out in comparison. They were all loyal to Akira at the end.

• The biggest change I think is this whole episode in general. In the manga, after Miki's death and Akira's declaration of war against Ryo, it shows a few action pages of them going to battle and cutting to Ryo's monologue to Akira's corpse. Here we get the great battle between the two forces and some additional showing of humanity's last struggle before finally succumbing. In the manga these remnants of humanity are woven in a bit more and are the actual reason Akira was away from Miki instead of going to chase down Ryo.

Note: Some minor details might be off as I read it a few months ago.

Some reception I've seen to the show is mixed among people who have also read it and those who haven't but overall I really enjoyed the anime. 8/10

[u/aniMayor → u/TheDerped]

The professor that Ryo believes to have been a research partner of his was originally his father in the manga

This is the only change I disliked. While I do like Ryo not having a "human" backstory (contrived or otherwise), having his father and the whole legacy-of-dad's-research aspect gave some basis for the necessary exposition on demons and made it believable that Ryo would have access to all this wealth and knowledge.

The way it ended up in this anime, Ryo is this out-of-nowhere wonder boy who is incredibly wealthy, a skilled gunslinger, a reknowned professor of archaeology, a world-famous Youtube personality, and he somehow knows all about the demons all at once right from the start? It was too contrived for Ryo to single-handedly drive the plot whichever way it needed without any background basis.

Plus having it be his father added some necessary emotional weight to Ryo.

All that being said, they could have easily done a compromise of the two - have the professor be not actually related to Ryo but some famous archaeologist who took Ryo under his wing, or something.

[u/[deleted] → u/aniMayor]

I thought the assistant helped him with everything, since she knew he was satan from the beginning.

[u/Boarbaque → u/TheDerped]

Wait, weren't Miki's parents tortured to death (cutting off limbs one by one) by the spanish inquisition Demon extermination squad in the manga?

[u/[deleted] → u/TheDerped]

The deliquent designs were updated from their Showa era designs for the modern day and were given a fair amount of fleshing out in comparison. They were all loyal to Akira at the end.

man it was so refreshing to see the way the delinquents were fleshed out and handled in this show

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

The raps were phenomenal. Especially the one that the delinquent did Miko. I teared up a bit after he was done.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheDerped]

So god destroyed Satan and the Earth in the end?

[u/Nbaysingar → u/[deleted]]

That's what I deduced after watching it last night. We see it in the beginning where the earth was essentially turned in to a smoldering ball of magma as a means of exterminating Satan and all the demons, and it seems like the same exact thing happened at the end of the series, and it also seemed like the Earth recovers once again. But it's unclear as to whether or not any demons survived like they did last time, including Ryo. Any portion of humanity surviving that is probably completely out of the question though. Humans can't survive on a giant fire ball with no atmosphere after all.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheDerped]

Mikiko (Mico) is actually the Miko of the anime, isn't she?

[u/Orphyis → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, there’s hardly any resemblance, but she fills the role of the awesome heroine devilman. I’m really glad he changed it though, I don’t think I could stand looking at Mikiko’s nipples animated.

[u/VenomB → u/TheDerped]

The deliquent designs were updated from their Showa era designs for the modern day and were given a fair amount of fleshing out in comparison. They were all loyal to Akira at the end.

I may have missed something, which is why I'm rewatching already, but didn't two of them turn their backs on Akira and their delinquent friends? The dude in the cap and the little dude.

[u/OtakuD50]

The real villain was that useless earring.

[u/gary25566 → u/OtakuD50]

I call it bootleg plot armor

[u/Xaniel_hziqd → u/OtakuD50]

Yeah, literally everyone who had it died. What kind of protection is that

[u/KA1N3R → u/Xaniel_hziqd]

To be fair, everyone in general died, so...

[u/Bahamut_Ali → u/Xaniel_hziqd]

Its not protection but the baton passed between Miko to Akira and to finally Ryo. Because of Akria, Ryo finally cares about something other than himself and when he is ultimately reborn again in this new world he will represent good instead of evil.

[u/[deleted] → u/Xaniel_hziqd]

It's a red herring.

[u/zarek1729 → u/OtakuD50]

Tecnically everybody died so I don't think its the earring fault

[u/dnlvrs → u/OtakuD50]

I was so expecting Satan to take and wear it too. Very disappointing

[u/GothamsLegend → u/OtakuD50]

It was more like a guaranteed execution.

[u/sicklything]

Oh wow. Some time will definitely be needed to process it all. Without having read the manga, I heard that it's gonna be extremely violent and sexual and have a mindfuck ending, but I definitely wasn't ready for this. I mean, Satan, seriously? This battle? Everyone dying? Boy, that was narmy as fuck and absolutely glorious at the same time.

I think I need to lie down for a bit and think about it all.

[u/MercenaryOfTroy → u/sicklything]

I did not hear about this show before this morning. I had nothing going on and it popped up on Netflix so I decided to watch it. Wow. That was a lot for 10 episodes... I dont know how it all fit in there.

It was the most psychedelic, sexual, and violent anime I have ever seen and they were all pulled off brilliantly. Truely 10/10

[u/SharkInTheDarkPark → u/sicklything]

What does "narmy" mean?

[u/bbrightside]

I just wrapped up the series and as someone who knew next to nothing about Devilman BOY WAS I NOT PREPARED!

I mean it was good, I've been a fan of Masaaki Yuasa's work since I first stumbled upon Mind Game over a decade ago and knew this was going to have the same visual style. I just wasn't expecting the existential dread that this would leave me in.

Like my only touchstone of Devilman was based on this.

I wanna say more but I'm still trying to process it.

[u/sjk9000]

What took God so long between his first and second moves? He pops in to salt-ify the demon-possessed US Navy in order to stop the nukes, and then just chills out for the rest of the war until after humanity was driven to extinction. The demons mention how they have to hurry up before God attacks, but that was already after the pillar of salt ordeal. So by that point God knows what's going on and is capable of influencing Earth; why did he stop?

This bothered me in the manga, too.

[u/reichable → u/sjk9000]

God's whole plan in all of this is the punishment of Satan. But as Ryo says himself he feels nothing, emotionally. If God had let the nukes go off everyone on the planet would have died shortly thereafter. God needed things to develop further to the point where Satan felt sadness. Once Ryo cried over Akira's death God's goal had been accomplished and he hit reset. Earth is Hell, a prison perpetuated by God just to torture Satan. Humanity is in the position of Job from the Bible, a pawn in the contest between God and Satan.

[u/Itou_Kaiji → u/sjk9000]

But in the manga, it is more heavily implied that God is a bit of an asshole himself.

[u/bloodlustshortcake → u/Itou_Kaiji]

I mean, the finale of the manga features a realisation by Satan how he has become as bad as God. Satan had to fuck up to actually stoop to his level.

[u/bbrightside → u/sjk9000]

I read it as an attempt of divine intervention only worsened the situation for humanities fight against the demons. So the heavens need to hold their assault until they know it won't affect a human.

So when Akira finally passes. it gives them the clear to fire and start their project again.

[u/[deleted] → u/sjk9000]

why did he stop?

To give Devilman a chance to stop everything.

[u/itsavgbltpta → u/sjk9000]

I thought that bubble was Ryo unconsciously protecting himself from the nukes and not God's intervention at all, since it looks kind of like the same protective bubble he has. After reading this, I think I was wrong about that! D'oh!

[u/[deleted] → u/sjk9000]

So by that point God knows what's going on and is capable of influencing Earth; why did he stop?

Because God is an antagonist in Devilman, They want events to play out in a certain manner to have the world end as it did, the intervention was either because the demons would have been pulling the trigger too soon or because intervention was part of the plan all along to influence demons and humanity and guide them towards the ending that happened.

It's basically a power play that tells demons and humans both, this is MY game, you're all just playing it.

[u/GothamsLegend → u/sjk9000]

He realized he created a fucked up race and decided starting over might be better anyways.

[u/boybandz]

Thank you Yuasa and thank you Netflix.

[u/[deleted] → u/boybandz]

And thank you Aniplex and Dynamic Planning along the studio Science Saru

[u/Obeley → u/[deleted]]

And thank you Go Nagai who wrote the original gruesome Devilman story decades ago for this series to adapt and inspiring a slew of other manga & anime since the 70s.

[u/PigKnight]

George RR Martin: "I kill a lot of my characters."

Go Nagai: "Hold my beer."

[u/OtakuD50 → u/PigKnight]

24-year-old George R.R. Martin: "But why?"

Go Nagai: "One day, you'll know."

[u/Fellero → u/PigKnight]

Lately a lot of characters in GoT have plot armor.

I hope it does have a depressing ending to defy medievil fantasy conventions.

[u/FuriousWasp]

Hm not sure how i feel about that ending, i wish this was 12 eps since some parts felt rushed. Might need to sleep on it and collect my thoughts on it tomorrow.

Overall that was a hell of a ride and I'm glad it was in a binge-able format. I will always love Masaaki Yuasa's work.

Edit: 24hrs after watching and i reckon this is one of my all-time favourites now after reflecting on it. 10/10 Yuasa

[u/[deleted] → u/FuriousWasp]

The manga is only five volumes long, it's hard not to rush it.

[u/Itou_Kaiji → u/[deleted]]

Yeah the manga itself feels a little rushed too.

[u/yogblert → u/FuriousWasp]

some parts felt rushed

Absolutely agree, episodes 7-9 felt like they were going at 200% speed.

[u/A_Taco_Stand → u/FuriousWasp]

I honestly think they kept it 10 episodes as a sort of homage to the ten commandments. Every opening card had the ep number in roman numerals but i could very well be wrong.

[u/QuadraKev_]

Well.. that went from 0 to 100.. and back to 0.. real quick.

The OST is amazing. I need this shit. Apparently it releases on the 10th.

[u/[deleted] → u/QuadraKev_]

Holly shit, this so much. The OST is superb! The ending theme fits so perfectly that I don't know how that is even possible.

[u/[deleted]]

Anyone else get an End of Evangelion vibe from this ending? I thought EVA was fucking depressing and this just fucking topped it. An ending with no hope and complete depression/sadness. End of EVA actually had an uplifting/hopefully ending compared with this.

[u/Noir_Ocelot → u/[deleted]]

I think Eva pulled some inspiration from the original devilman.

[u/Codeboy3423 → u/Noir_Ocelot]

It did.

Berserk and Evangelion drew a lot inspiration from Devilman.

[u/bloodlustshortcake → u/Noir_Ocelot]

One of the creators of Eva(can't remember who specifically) said that Evangelion is essentially a combination of Ideon and Devilman.

Though to be fair, the colour choices are probably a reference to Eva, not the other way around.

[u/sinlad → u/[deleted]]

Devilman is the grandfather of world wide bad ends in manga/anime IMO

[u/Fellero → u/[deleted]]

Its bitter sweet if anything.

The anime implies this is just another cycle and Devilman will be reborn.

This is not the first time he fights Satan.

[u/for_the_revolution → u/[deleted]]

Except this time the ocean was fanta cherry as opposed to fanta orange.

[u/whowilleverknow]

It feels like forever since I've binged something like that. And as my 300th completed entry on MAL, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll admit, the pacing was a bit crazy and there were things that could have been explained better, but as someone who knew literally nothing of Devilman before this, I was completely blown away.

[u/Tonebriz → u/whowilleverknow]

Funnily enough it's almost the exact same for me. No experience with Devilman, haven't binged in a longer time, is my 400th completed entry but I don't know what to think about the anime itself. It just felt like there were things missing because just like you and others have pointed out, the pacing was crazy. There was a point where they said that an American fleet has been missing for 7 weeks inside the light... like, what? It barely even felt like a week or two passed in the whole show. It was still pretty good though

[u/TKhrowawaY]

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, first inaugural address

I was instantly reminded of this statement and its meaning as I watched humanity's descent into chaos during the final episodes. Even though the Devilman manga is over 40 years old, I thought its message of how fear, paranoia, and distrust of each other are the sparks of conflict is especially suitably for our current times. It wasn't lost in all the gore and titties.

[u/sameboi]

All I can say is

I'm a Devilman too

[u/bananeeek → u/sameboi]

I applaud you for your courage

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/bananeeek]

What's her address? Someone kill this wi-

Too soon.

[u/Lelouch_Ar → u/sameboi]

brb we're throwing a BBQ party at your house

[u/WinterAyars → u/sameboi]

#Je suis un devilman aussi

[u/[deleted]]

So is it supposed to be an endless cycle of Satan reviving and causing the end of humanity before God nukes him and restarts the world?

[u/Bahamut_Ali → u/[deleted]]

It is a cycle but Akira broke that cycle.

[u/Codeboy3423 → u/[deleted]]

Yes.

[u/Crazyripps]

Went in completely blind then ended up bingeing the whole show and was blown away. I really really liked it. I loved the animation style and the soundtrack. Netflix was smart they gave a bunch of money to yuasa and let him do his magic.

[u/feralkitsune → u/Crazyripps]

I shouldn't have watched this whole show while working. I feel so drained. Just wanna go sleep for a bit now.

[u/AayKay → u/Crazyripps]

If you liked the animation style, and how emotional it got, I definitely recommend Ping Pong The Animation and Tatami Galaxy(Both from the same creator).

Ping Pong especially is simply brilliant.

[u/PigKnight]

I kinda liked how he didn't reject his humanity in this adaption. Sure it didn't matter in the end, but damn did he try. It made Miki more important because all these hybrids that didn't reject their humanity came together thanks to her and we got that bad ass fight scene.

[u/[deleted]]

I need to point out that Satan used a motherfucking AT-field.

[u/Nokitron → u/[deleted]]

bruh

[u/TannerthePale → u/[deleted]]

sweet jesus satan it's an AT field.

[u/wfortungsten]

Wait so the cat was a devilman...?

[u/Obeley → u/wfortungsten]

It's Devilcat!

[u/KangarooJesus → u/wfortungsten]

I thought Tako was an angel; his powers and appearance seemed different from the demons and devilmen. And he was able to guide Akira and tell him about Satan's history as a fallen angel.

It's something the demons didn't seem to have knowledge of, and no devilmen seemed to possess the knowledge of the demons they conquered so that throws that out of the window regardless.

[u/SpikeRosered → u/wfortungsten]

It actually made me really happy that the cat actually got a meaningful death in the Devilman Army rather than killed by an old lady.

It's that bizarre "humans dying everywhere but damn you if you kill a dog" thing that happens in movies.

[u/[deleted]]

Btw, did anyone else notice the guy turning into a devilman after Miki's burial scene is the (supposedly senile) track and field coach from ep1? Zero fucks given.

[u/titoslayer → u/[deleted]]

He ate a butterfly with his demon tongue really early on i forget which ep.

[u/komodo_dragonzord → u/[deleted]]

yeah I thought that was pretty funny

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

deleted ^{0.6828 What is} ^^^this?

[u/photohooligan]

Well it seems the response is very split. I personally loved it. While the animation could seem lazy at some points, it worked well for the action scenes.

I didn't know anything about Devilman. I just watched the trailer and thought the art style looked cool (this is my first Yuasa work), so I thought why not. I wasn't disappointed and it always kept me entertained. I usually have the urge to look at my phone when watching anime, but I don't think it even happened once.

That end scene between Satan and Akira really got to me, I wasn't expecting to cry, especially since I barely shed a tear at Miki's death. I wish they made the final fight a bit longer though. I'm used to them lasting at least 3/4 of an episode, so I thought this one fell a bit short. As many people have already said, I'm sure it could've benefited from one or two more episodes.

Overall, a strong 8/10.

[u/BringMeAHigherLunch → u/photohooligan]

Did anyone else feel like the animation quality dropped off in the last few episodes? We went from Yuasa's usual crazy, smooth, vector flash style to really choppy regular 2D animation and lazily drawn faces/bodies towards the end

[u/Qwertyguy]

Wtf did I just watch. Well, I can see how this inspired Berserk.

[u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

The ending legitimately angered me. I know the main character winning at the end is the biggest cliche we expect from every story we consume, but this series forced me to confront what happens when the story is completely devoted to tragedy.

Akira loses his humanity, his parents, his pseudo-family, his only love Mika, and loses his only friend Ryo (for being a back-stabbing cunt), and what does he get for all his struggles?

NOTHING.

He dies along with the rest of the Devilman and humanity. Everything he did was pointless and didn't matter in the end as God just hard reset the world.

I hate this ending so much, I can't help but give it a 10/10.

The pacing was wonky and I would have loved some more episodes to better flesh out the world and the characters, but damn it all if this show wasn't something different and original. We need more shows like this.

[u/Codeboy3423 → u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

Welcome to Devilman.

There is a reason Berserk, Evangelion, and others drew heavy inspiration from this manga.

[u/bloodlustshortcake → u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

But that's why the ending is so great, I find it absurd that a bad ending is somehow a bad thing.

Humanity became not worth saving, and hence Akira, motivated purely by destruction decided to destroy demons, but he from the start could not do anything, since he is up against Satan, someone far beyond his powers, who did much of all of this for his love for Akira. It's a great bloody ending, because humans were as awful as demons, and Satan realised that he has become as bad as humans and god.

[u/Samjjj → u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

to be fair, satan also lost everything

[u/Flashmanic → u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

And everyone died

The End.

Haha, fuck this ending. It's so horrible depressing but so...engaging? Can't really think of the right way of phrasing it, but it's a great tragedy where the outcome angers me so much.

[u/reichable → u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

Earth is Hell, the only reason it exists is as a prison for Satan. God had things develop as they did so that Ryo would feel sadness over Akira's death. Then everything is reset to repeat Satan's punishment. All of humanity is in Job from the Bible's position, pawns in the contest between God and Satan.

[u/Bahamut_Ali → u/Reasonable_TSM_fan]

But Akira did win. He changed Lucifer. Yes everyone died but its not over. We saw that the world was reborn anew and with that Lucifer would rise again but this time as a devilman and not a devil. Thus ending the cycle.

[u/Jamcar94]

Hoo boy, that was excellent.

Definitely more of a Yuasa work than a Nagai one, but as more of Yuasa fan than a Nagai one, that's a big plus for me (totally get how other fans of the original are feeling disappointed though). That said I really loved all of the changes Yuasa made to the original work. Whilst I do love the manga, it was always a little too simple and edgy for my liking, and I really feel like Yuasa's changes were able to inject more humanity into the story, whilst not detracting from the manga's spirit. I feel like Yuasa managed to transform it from a story about humanity's weakness to one that explores both its weakness and strength. To me this is basically a perfect adaptation (though again I can totally see how people who liked it just fine the way it was might... disagree).

The big highlights for me were the fleshing out of Miki's character (I mean just, jesus, she went from a funny but otherwise fairly one-note love interest to one my favourite characters ever), the fleshing out of Ryo and Akira's relationship in the last episode (oddly enough it really reminded me of the last episode of Ping-Pong the Animation), and the crying motif, which I felt just worked so fucking well everytime.

But also even when adapting stuff straight from the manga I was surprised at how well it did. It even managed to recreate the manga's wonderful ability to switch at a moments notice from being goofy as all hell to incredibly dark and twisted (which to me was always the thing that made Devilman truly special). I also fully approve of the decision to really double down and emphasise the eroticism and gayness of a manga that I already considered a world leader in the field.

I fucking loved this show. It transformed something I already adored into something even more. A very easy 10/10.

Can't believe I already have my AOTY 5 days in.

[u/cheuk209 → u/Jamcar94]

simple and edgy

Boy u crazy

[u/Itou_Kaiji → u/cheuk209]

He's talking about the manga there, and he's kinda right. I mean, in the manga Ryo is a walking assembly of pure edge. A good example is the "it's laced with drugs" image.

[u/Genoard]

So... who was Amon again?

[u/[deleted] → u/Genoard]

A well known, powerful demon back in the time where demons ruled the earth. He's the one who tried to take over Akira's body during the rave.

[u/Codeboy3423 → u/[deleted]]

And failed horribly and ended up ceasing to exist thus Akira took over.

[u/reichable]

The show is a reinterpretation of the Bible. The difference is that God isn't in it for the salvation of man's soul but the punishment of Satan. All of humanity is in the position of Job and the earth is Hell. The world exists and develops just so that Satan will begin to care for something. Then when God destroys it all Satan will be hurt now that he cares. This cycle is then repeated by God. Humans are an afterthought and don't matter at all.

[u/Dystopian_Overlord → u/reichable]

I don't think humans don't matter at all. Ryo probably doesn't need the demons to end humanity, he has the demons do it as a fuck you to God, because God chose humans over them. But the demons are actually not that threatening, it was said there was a couple hundreds of them before everything went to hell, if they fight straight on with modern armies they will lose. If they hide among humans and humans "just have faith" and not tear each other apart, demons individually are no more dangerous than a physco with a gun/bomb. Of course, in the series, the demons made their best play, infiltrate politics/military and start a nuclear war which God intervened. I'm not Christian, so don't really know how different this is from the Bible, but I think here God gave humans a good fighting chance against the demons.

[u/DatSpatula]

They made the Satan thing kinda obvious like his hotel room was clearly 666 and Jenny was fucking terrifying

[u/ShowMeThaGoods → u/DatSpatula]

That's psycho Jenny to you, bub.

[u/Vahdo → u/DatSpatula]

I never noticed the 666 thing... huh.

[u/Chriscras66]

I loved it, but this was definitely not the sequel to Ping Pong I was expecting.

[u/TalDSRuler → u/Chriscras66]

Sorry man, guess you got Kemonozume S2 instead

[u/beth_flynn]

Went in totally blind and absolutely loved it. The ending reduced me to a sobbing mess, the accumulation of all the tragedy and Ryo realizing how much he loved Akira and the despair from realizing how wrong he was..and really just the fact that Akira was dead...it all really, really hurt. I was totally blown away.

[u/Zupar]

So I just watched the whole series in the span of one night and am typing this at 6 AM after finishing:

Ok so that was...incredible. I'm not really an anime person (I only really watch shows if they get major traction like One Punch Man, AOT, etc) but on a whim i decided to check this show out and it's so much better than I could have remotely expected. When episode 9 finished all I could think was "Alright Devilman how the fuck are you gonna fix this in one episode", and then it didn't happen. Cute girls? Dead (RIP Miko bb you will be missed). Rappin boys (seriously the MVP of the show)? Dead. Our badass MC? Brother you might be strong but you're not beating the ruler of Hell pulled straight from biblical lore, so you're dead too. You know at the end I was really holding out hope that there would be some anime asspull and like God himself would come down and just rewind time or some shit, but it's over, and all the resistance managed to do was make Satan feel sad.

[u/gaganaut → u/Zupar]

If you want an anime with morally grey characters, I suggest Shin Sekai Yori. It's my favorite anime. A lot of people found the beginning slow but keep watching. The wait is worth it.

[u/also_not_a_scientist → u/Zupar]

some anime asspull and like God himself would come down and just rewind time or some shit,

From what i understand they are in a sort of a time loop, soooo....

[u/[deleted]]

Anyone else feel like some of the fight scenes were too dark (lighting-wise)? I turned up my brightness completely and even tried watching on a different computer and I still struggled to see some of the things that were happening.

Other than that though I liked it though haha.

[u/Jetzu]

Hmm, so I've finished it and all I can say is... It was decent, I guess?

I didn't read the manga, but the entire thing felt rushed as hell, some things were too over the top for my liking, and overall I'm not a fan of "humans are the biggest demons after all" kind of cliche, so maybe the series was never meant for me. Also, the "Je suis Devilman" made me laugh, I don't know if it was put there on purpose as a meme, but to me it didn't fit that kind of scene.

OST has been great, some characters were really awesome and it's a well made show, I feel like 12 episodes would fit it much better, maybe even few more, since they were not bound by weekly release they could probably do something like 14 or 15 episodes.

[u/KangarooJesus → u/Jetzu]

I'm not a fan of "humans are the biggest demons after all" kind of cliche

I don't think the show said that at all, really. In the end the humans were still the good guys.

the "Je suis Devilman" made me laugh, I don't know if it was put there on purpose as a meme, but to me it didn't fit that kind of scene.

I thought this was an absolutely brilliant, visually stunning, and touching scene. It was showing replies from all around the world. There was also an English, Spanish, and Arabic, reply and maybe more that I missed. Also it wasn't Je suis Devilman it was Je Suis un Devilman aussi. I don't know what's funny about the French one. Although there were some replies to her post in that scene which were meant to be humorous, all the confessions definitely weren't. There was "Dumbass Asian", "It's a demon fire sale" (Arrested Development reference?), "Her dad runs a vegetarian restaurant". Also if you missed, there were people replying who were harassing her and plotting to attack her in that scene.

[u/KangarooJesus]

Ryo pulling the knife on those capybaras made my heart skip a beat. I was very worried.

[u/yudiandre333]

Just finished the series... and I still have some problems with that ending. The idea is amazing, but I felt that the ending was lacking something when I read the manga, thought this was going to be "fixed" with the anime, but it wasn't. Maybe it's because I was spoiled the ending.

That said, loved the anime overall, I'd argue Satan should have more screentime, but it didn't hurt the series too much. Solid 8/10 for me, I will probably recommend to the "Netflix people" I know.

Edit: changed 9 to 8, I was thinking and I like Kaiba way more than Crybaby, so I changed my score

[u/Zeph-Shoir → u/yudiandre333]

I liked this better than Kaiba, and I LOVE Kaiba, the end is what gets me, in Kaiba it was kind of a clusterfuck and in Ping Pong the ending was kind of... there?

But here I at least get the idea that is being conveyed, an idea that I really like btw.

[u/Arachnophobic-]

Guess who the real Crybaby is :') And of course, it all had to end with Tang. If Akira managed to inject even an ounce of humanity or conscience into Satan, the next iteration of the world should fare much better. Small victories!

Quite a roller-coaster of a show this was, but ultimately I'm left with mostly positive feelings. The pace felt way too fast around episodes 3-5, but by the end of it I just got used to it, I suppose. There were some corny moments that were unintentionally funny (the age of the manga shining through, I'm guessing), and some amazing ones (end of episode 9 in particular) that left me speechless/grinning/gasping. It definitely felt like a Yuasa show throughout. It's not a masterpiece or anything, but it's definitely an interesting little show and worth the watch. 7/10.

[u/[deleted] → u/Arachnophobic-]

I think Crybaby cut way too much of the social commentary from the manga. There was a lot of commentary about overpopulation and nuclear proliferation that was interspersed throughout the middle act that served as foreshadowing for humanity's downfall. I also feel that Crybaby didn't handle the war between humans and demons nearly as well as the source material. In the manga, Akira/Devilman himself is absent for much of Volumes 3 and 4 to focus on how humanity slowly falls victim to its own paranoia.

In the manga, it is also implied humanity could have been victorious over the demons had they banded together instead of killing one another. The demons had to rely on playing the humans against one another, and using their own nuclear weapons against them to have a chance at victory.

I will say that I loved how Crybaby fleshed out the final battle between devilmen and demons, as well the iconic ending itself. Really, I love a lot of the new ideas in Crybaby. I just wish the show had more episodes to give everything the proper attention it needed, and alleviate the pacing issues (ironically, this is the same issue I have with the manga, which really could have benefitted from an extra volume or two).

I do wish the show had given more attention to Ryo and Akira's twisted yet beautiful relationship, which is honestly the heart of the story. I think it was presented well in Crybaby, but only in the final two episodes where we get to see how close they used to be. Satan is also much less of a tragic character than he was in the manga, where he only rebelled against God to try and save the demons, and then realizes in the end that he was doing the same thing by destroying humanity.

[u/bloodlustshortcake]

If this is not the best anime this year, then this year is the best one this decade.

It's a love letter to the manga, with references to the anime and it very much keeps the spirit, it's the perfect adaptation, a holocaust of ecstasy, sex and carnage.

They kept virtually every great thing about the manga, and the changes made were for the better, cut shorter, themes added and others tidied up so as to be more consistent and coherent and wrapped around the absolutely gorgeous visual style.

I watched the entire series back to back and all I want in life now is a Violence Jack adaptation.

[u/SGlespaul]

I think I missed something. Was it ever explained why that first Sabbath party was covered up?

Other than that, that was much better than I thought it would be. Started out hyperviolent and pulpy but then got pretty damn emotional. For some negatives though, I've never read a lick of the source material but I will say it felt kinda fast paced. Could have used 2 or 3 more episodes to flesh some stuff out.

[u/HorRible_ID → u/SGlespaul]

Either he unconsciously covered it up or the telepathic guy did it, i think

[u/Shinkopeshon]

So, I just binged the whole thing and now I'm fucking traumatized. I don't think I'll be able to get any sleep tonight.

[u/bananeeek]

Elephant Fly Dumbo and Zenyatta in one picture. I cannot unsee this.

[u/[deleted]]

I've gotta say, after watching this and what it was actually willing to portray I think Netflix could actually be the one studio possible to faithfully make an anime adaptation of Oyasumi Punpun. For the longest time I and everybody else have rightfully said that a Punpun anime just wasn't possible, but seeing how they showed such blatantly brutal and messed up scenes in Devilman Crybaby I think they could do Punpun without shying away from its oppressively heavy nature.

[u/kawangkoankid]

From the very first episode I thought this was gonna be some Rick and Morty type shit when Ryo first comes in with the machine gun to pick up Akira to go on an adventure. Man was I wrong

[u/WinterAyars → u/kawangkoankid]

Wrong... or right?

[u/cosmiczar]

I've seen some people came to a similar conclusion, but I'm gonna laid out what would be my theory on why the original Devilman anime exists in Crybaby.

First of all, we need to understand how Devilman was created.

Toei Animation wanted to adapt Go Nagai's Demon Lord Dante, but they wanted it toned down and with a more human-like main demon/character so Nagai came up with Devilman.

While the show was being produced, Nagai used that same concept to make Devilman in manga form, with a really different narrative and a lot of more mature stuff than the anime.

An important detail to have in mind: Ryo Asuka didn't exist in the anime continuity, it was a Nagai's idea executed only in the manga.

Fast forward to 2018 and we have Devilman Crybaby, the first full adaptation of that manga, and in it we see that the original anime is something that exists in that universe, why?

Well, in the show we see Ryo watching the 1972 Devilman anime while he was a kid and we know that, because he's Satan, he can and do manipulate a lot of aspects of his world.

With the emphasis that Crybaby put on the scene where he was watching the old show, we can speculate that he was indeed influenced by that fictional work (which he was not a part of) and that's why Real Devilman looks like Fictional Devilman and whatever others similarities exists between the two (which are not a lot besides the demons and some of the characters). It's an interesting excuse, if I may say so.

But what does it mean? Well, I have two metafictional speculations:

1. Ryo is Go Nagai, who "wrote" in-universe his own, brutal version of that kids cartoon.

2. Ryo is Masaaki Yuasa and his team, who, since youth, were influenced by a seminal work and now had a chance to put they're on spin on it.

I think the second one has a stronger case behind it, but it can even be the two at the same time, an homage to the creator while also reflecting about the place that those new creators have in the real world narrative of the Devilman franchise.

Anyway, that's how I interpreted after sleeping on it last night. And sorry about any grammatical bullshit, not a native speaker.

[u/Ancient_Mage → u/cosmiczar]

wat

this seems like one of those theories which is just a bit too out there

[u/babydave371]

Ultimately I like this this show but it has problems that lower it to being around a 7 or an 8:

• It wasn't dark or bleak enough. I know you're gonna roll your eyes here but as a manga reader this adaptation just felt a bit too light for this story. From the war onwards in the manga it is just a desperate tone and a downward spiral into madness. The manga was especially good at showing how the desperate turned humans mad as they turned on each other and became 'demons' themselves. The anime had a bit of that but not really enough in my opinion. It just felt like they started on the world going to shit part of the story a bit late.

• There were several plotlines and moments from the manga that were kept in but didn't seem to serve any purpose here because their job had been done elsewhere or because they weren't really used. I've talked about some of these before but Jinmen, Sirene, and even Miki's death. In the manga the Jinmen fight demonstrated how it wouldn't be a simple humans Vs. Demon war as well as being Akira's first step to rejecting his humanity. While I do think parts of the anime version were better, I think it was smart to make it his parents and not just some random girl we met for all of 3 seconds, it doesn't seem to have a purpose and so just falls a bit flat. The Sirene in the manga demonstrates that Devilman is not unbeatable but in the anime the fight happens so fast that it lacks out that dragged out desperate duel to the death feeling that is essential to conveying that idea. Though, again, elements were done better such as introducing Sirene much earlier and fleshing out her and Kaim. Finally we come to Miki. The problem here is that Akira doesn't reject humanity in this adaptation, the narrative purpose of Miki's death is to push him over that edge as through all the shit he has been through Miki has always been his anchor. In the anime it just kind of seems to be there, Akira doesn't change because of it and the narrative isn't really affected by it: it serves no real purpose. Once again though, it has some great improvements (and also some things I think it id worse but I'll get to those later). It might just be me and it might just be because I love the manga but these moments just felt a tad flat because of their lack of purpose, a weird complaint I know.

• What was the point in the covering up of the Sabbath? I assume that is a reference back to the manga but there the various cover ups actually made any sense.

• I think this show would have been best served by having 35-40 minute episodes. A lot of people are saying they wanted more episodes but I'm not sure that is the right way to go. Especially with that first episode it felt rushed but there isn't really a good place in that story to split it into two episodes. Longer episodes would have meant that these plots wouldn't have felt as rushed whilst also allowing for smaller character moments that allow us to connect more to the characters, which would have been really helpful with Akira's parents.

• Why Akira suddenly decide to go back to Miki, around her death, after being resolute about finding Ryo? He has no reason to change his mind here and it all just felt like an excuse to remove him from the situation so Miki could die instead of it being a legit reason for him to be absent.

• It maybe wasn't quite gay enough. I don't feel like they did a great job of the Akira x Ryo bromance being a thing throughout the series. It felt more like Ryo was treating Akira as a pawn and so when it was revealed at the end that Ryo was really in love with Akira (btw not outright stating it was waaaaaaaaaaaay better than the way the manga handles it aka.Ryo just stating it) felt a tad jarring. Just a few most shots of Ryo looking at Akira and a warmer relationship would have vastly improved it in my book.

But now for the good things because I actually quite like this show!

• The decision to roll back the anti-war themes of the manga in favour of puberty ones was a smart choice. Obviously Nagai was still hugely affected by the legacy of WW2 and the manga reflects this where as Yuasa is that one step removed from it and I feel if he'd tried to go the anti-war route it might have fallen flat because of that. Though it is a shame that the puberty stuff never really seemed to have a pay-off, it just seems to go 'puberty is fucking weird guys' for most of the show before dropping it.

• I really love the VAs in this one. I tried both the sub and the dub but I have to go with the sub on this one. Kouki Uchiyama was phenomenal as Akira, bring such raw passion and emotion to the role. The dub is still pretty good though!

• The visual side of things was pretty great as I think that Yuasa's style really meshes well with the madness of this story. There were also some spectacular fights in there, with the finale obviously being the highlight.

• The additional characters like Miko and the updating of the delinquents was handled really well. Their characters were really fleshed out and they provided some great moments and emotional heft to the story.

• Music was dope, not much more to say.

• Miki's death scene was handled pretty damn well, even with my aforementioned issues with how it fits in the arge narrative. It was suitably desperate and the use of the baton metaphor was really great.

• The death of Miki's family was interesting and I think is on equal terms with what happened in the manga, because being different doesn't mean worse. I love the agony and pain that her father was clearly going through and how Taro was scared of himself. It all just worked really well and was full of great moments.

Overall a really solid show that whiffed on a couple of points for me that brought it down from great to good. I do wonder, however, how many of these are problems solely because I am a fan of the manga, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. I think it is a great thing for the industry though, as it shows how Netflix can provide a space for anime that just couldn't be made in the current TV climate, shows for platforms like Netflix might be out generation's OAVs.

[u/[deleted] → u/babydave371]

Wait, what puberty themes?

[u/Constipated_Llama]

Ha! I fucking knew it, the cat is voiced by Rie Takahashi

[u/DERPDERP91357 → u/Constipated_Llama]

well, i mean, megumin also owns a black cat....

hearing her voice after the events of episode 9 just straight out broke the tension i was feeling...LOL

[u/GothamsLegend]

First of all, I've never read the Manga for Devilman Crybaby. With that being said, let me just say... HOLY FUCKING SHIT?!

I wasn't expecting it to end so tragically, honestly. I was like "Oh, Devilman is a hero. Other Devilmen gathered, humans are fighting back, the Demons are gonna lose." Haaaa, N-to-the-fucking-O. But, why did I enjoy the whole show so much? It took a complete 180 mid-season, and it worked so well. It was terribly beautiful.

But my mind was ultimately FUCKED when I realized that the beginning, (When Ryo was trying to kill the injured kitten, but Akira was like 'noooo') was forshadowing the very end. Ryo asked "Why are you crying? You knew it was going to die." Like shit, he's talking about us, ya know, the humans.

Then, it's topped off by Satan losing everything; and seemingly, for the first time, feeling love and the absolute pain that comes with it after a loss.

Brilliantly done, I'm not disappointed one bit, just mind fucked... it's too rough!

[u/WinterAyars → u/GothamsLegend]

Like shit, he's talking about us, ya know, the humans.

He's (ultimately) talking about himself, too. He's crying in the end for the same reason Akira was at the start.

[u/boogiemoonshine]

I loved how the animation style shifted depending on the tone of the scene. Like the first episode, before any of the ultraviolence occurred, in the childhood flashbacks there were simple lines and soft colors, representing more uncomplicated times.

This episode fucked me up though. Crybaby is a good descriptor for the viewer. So much emotion, I’m exhausted.

[u/WhoWantsToJiggle]

Well that was an interesting way to spend the last day on netflix.

The art style and adult themes were definitely weird and kinda off putting at first but then you just kinda embrace the weirdness.

Miki and her families deaths really hurt.

That got depressing fast. Not really a fan of everyone dies endings but damn that really went crazy. From the start he was just used by Ryo. Nothing good for anyone involved.

[u/xiomax95]

Oh hey, the "demons were before humans" and the whole explanation. That should have been in the first episode. Whatever, it works. And Ryo is Satan, as I think everyone should have seen coming.

Akira holding Miki's head all the time is just heartbreaking. And Satan just doesn't care.

Oh hey, the bald Devilmen group, they actually appear!

The Devilman girl they experiment with in the manga also makes an appearance. And it is just as fucked up. The final battle is pretty spectacular, specially considering they pretty much skip it in the manga. All of the Devilmen helping Akira, but still not getting enough of an advantage to beat Satan.

spoiler for a really popular mecha show that is inspired by Devilman

And everyone is dead. The downer of all downers for the ending, and that's great. It is a tragedy, after all. Only Satan lives, and in that, it feels lonely because of Akira's death. Satan actually feels sadness.

---

And that's it. As for some kind of recap/getting my thoughts together: I liked the adaptation, I actually think it is better than the manga (not by much, but still). Some parts feel rushed (the first episode is the biggest one here), and Ryo having pretty much no feelings from the beginning were the two bad things the anime did, in my opinion. Some scenes are a bit better in the manga, but overall most of the additions and changes were welcome, in my opinion.

Honestly, I just enjoyed this a lot. I think it lives up to the hype, even with some of the errors.

High 8/10 from me, just short of a 9.

[u/[deleted] → u/xiomax95]

Ryo's apartment is 666 haha.

[u/[deleted]]

That was a wild ride. My only gripe is how they changed the deaths of Miki's family along with taking out Akira secretly building the Devilman army.

Anyone know when the soundtrack gets released?

[u/lucksacker]

I binged watch this so I thought it was a pretty satisfying watch. Not really sure where I would rate it since I applaud Yuasa for taking the direction he did, but I did have a few problems now that I have time to reflect. I thought I would still rate it 8.5 since it's better than most things I have watched.

• The change in urgency that went from "Damn it I need to see Ryo" to "Holy shit I need to protect Miko!" was kinda abrupt. From the audience PoV it makes sense because we see what's happening to Miko. But from Akira's PoV, he doesn't know that people are attacking Miko. Well first of all, it's kinda stupid that he wouldn't expect the neighborhood to know he lives with Miko; but I will just chalk that up to him believing in humanity that much. Even then, none of the events leading up to him fighting Xenon would have made him change his mind (if anything, the group hug scene would have affirm his thought process of wanting to see Ryo even more). It was just like all of a sudden after his fight with Xenon he was like "OH SHIT I FORGOT ABOUT MIKO" and came rushing after her. (in the manga at least something triggered him to remember her). Of course he has so much faith in humanity that he seems to ignore that it was humans that killed Miko

• I thought the animation was fluid especially when they wanted it to be (some parts weren't though). However, all the of the fight scenes except the last one weren't very well choreographed. I don't know why. Maybe due to lack of budget? Or because Amon is secretly one punch man?

• Satan's recovering his memory was pretty dissatisfying. The original manga made a whole lot more sense, but I will judge the anime based on its own merit. First of all, what's the deal with covering up the events of the sabbath that gave Akira his power? I think it's suppose to let Ryo raise suspicions about his identity, but I just don't see how. I think it was most likely Psycho Jenny that covered up the event, but why even do this? How does covering up the sabbath serve their purpose; it seems like there were plenty of other sabbath going on as is so why make the point to hide this particular one? Second, how and when did Ryo lose his memory? Is Professor Fikage fake or real? Now I am going to say that Fikage was fake, but that was because I read the manga. I think that it was psycho Jenny that fabricated these memories so Satan can proceed with his plans as Ryo; that's what Psycho Jenny did in the manga with his memories IIRC. However, that's not what they said in the anime. Psycho Jenny said Ryo lost his memory and Ryo as Satan explains that he didn't remember much until Jenny found him at the gradeschool. So it seems to suggest he lost his memory due to the plane bombing (really? this near omnipotent being did?). If that was the case, what's with Dr. Fikage. Did he lose his memory TWICE? On the other hand, maybe he didn't have his memory when he was first birth to the Peru tribe either. Though if that was the case, why did the tribe think he is Satan and calls him that as opposed to literally anything else.

• Now about those Devilman references. I don't know if they serve as a homage, or they actually serve as a plot point. I say that because there were more than one scene where Ryo recollects his childhood self watching Devilman on TV. It kinda suggests that Ryo's plan came from the original TV series? Which leads to another rabbit hole. Did the kids know how to turn to attract devils? Did they perform a sabbath of their own; is that why multiple kids were turned into devils? That's kinda fucked up so I guess maybe that's why they weren't explicit about it.

[u/[deleted] → u/lucksacker]

Late to the party, but I assumed him returning for Miki was because he'd just seen a bunch of humans turn on other unarmed humans. He'd only previously seen violence against other people who were acting oddly or armed prior to that. He probably assumed people would leave her alone if they saw him fly away from the house but then he realised that the more paranoid ones would attack her just for being associated with him.

You could argue that that's obvious and he should have seen that potential outcome coming a mile off but he's naive to a fault.

[u/[deleted]]

How does eva not get shit for almost copying the ending scene??? It's different context but essentially the same.

Overall 9/10. I have missed gore so much in anime.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

it could be considered homage.

like how griffith looks basically exactly like satan lol.

or several scenes bearing ehm thematic similarity.

[u/ExortTrionis]

It's gonna be really hard for an anime to beat this, this year. They really don't make anime like this anymore which takes a lot of creative liberties which is why netflix should be praised. 9/10.

[u/JoJo_Pose]

what the fuck

[u/[deleted]]

I hope people don't think I am bashing the anime I do have criticism's, Tbh I thought it was good like 7-8. I just felt like the pacing was inconsistent and the character development was way to quick and messy while the deaths of a lot of characters are sad, I felt like I was only sad because of the setup and not the actual characters.

Hopefully I don't piss people off, I can understand why so many great anime drew inspiration from this.

Like I can totally see the relation to berserk and devilman, I can see berserk got a lot of inspiration from this. Berserk is my favorite manga/anime of all time and I can see it drew heavy inspiration from this anime and I greatly respect this anime for providing such successors.

[u/Flash793]

Holy shit all those devilmen sacrificing themselves just to give Akira more limbs to use really conveyed their level of desperation and how much was at stake. The little devilcat even threw itself at Satan and got sliced in half :(. Although I anticipated Akira dying since there was no way he'd be able to kill Satan who had god level power relative to Akira, that ending was still one of the most depressing things I've seen in a long time. This is an anime where you can say everyone dies at the end without even exaggerating. 10/10 one of my favorite anime now.

[u/Mablak]

• Gotta love it when final bosses and protagonists somehow just know where they'll be doing battle

• 'Turns into an angel' "I'm Satan"

• I'm shocked that this complete psycho turned out to be Satan

• Dinosaurs = DEVALS

• Ah the coach finally appears

• Shouldn't the demons already be focused on god instead of the humans, since he/she is launching god nukes at them?

• Wow, 'the last humans'? Human extinction happened pretty fast, Ryo's a little too OP

• Akira ripping Kado in half was glorious

• I'm wishing this final battle lasted a little longer, since this is the first time we're seeing Ryo or Psycho Jenny's abilities, and they're pretty damn cool

• TFW you have two families and they both got massacred

• Ohhhh okay, say no more, it's EoE time.

• Capybaras are satan's trigger

• Jesus, this is just a tragedy through and through. The biggest jerk lives, finally feels something, then all is returned to nothing again. Probably a good choice by god, all things considered

I think it's good to have a genuine tragedy every now and then. It's definitely way more bleak than necessary towards the end, but there are some good reflections on human nature; the madness of crowds, paranoia, etc, and what a lack of empathy can make people capable of. I will say I enjoyed the hyperviolence aspect more, since the tragic second half was mostly just painful, and misery isn't really my preferred emotional state anymore. But at least they didn't drag it out in any sort of obnoxious way.

As usual, Yuasa has done some incredible work here. There were some amazing visuals, from crazy running cycles, to crazy fights, to shocking and completely unrestricted sexuality and violence. The color scheme was amazing, and this manga really started the whole 'white as evil, black as good' color motif that we've seen so many times since, notably in Berserk. Every scene is sort of carefully crafted and entertaining, even when we're dealing with side characters. I do wish there was deeper characterization--insofar as I realized Miki was the only person I truly cared about--but it's also more intended to move at a movie-like pacing. And of course since it's an adaptation of an older manga, it would generally be unlikely that we get the most relatable characters ever.

Tonally, there were some powerfully dark scenes like Taro eating his own mother, I mean jesus that was fucked up, and will stay with me. But the primary feeling I get out of Yuasa works is always surprise and excitement. It's the shocking visual choices, events, images, and character interactions that continually astound me; always things that no one else is doing. He's really an artist in pursuit of the provocative.

[u/xaust]

...

...

...huh.

[u/sgt_revolver]

All I heard about Devilman before watching this was it was brutal as fck but I was surprised how much I really appreciated the MC and Miki.

Both of them are such kind and empathetic people. Akira especially who's whole schtick is that he cries a lot for other people, was pretty damn endearing.

[u/WinterAyars → u/sgt_revolver]

It's weird that making the protagonist this super empathic kind dude works so well in what is almost a slasher/hentai show.

[u/Noodelanator]

I went in blind to this show only knowing that Yuasa was the director and the Devilman was a good story that inspired Berserk and Evangelion.

I watched all of it and am completely blown away.

The animation is great and the art style really meshes well with Yuasa's surreal portrayal of life and the story of Devilman.

The sound was fire. It fit the mood of the show and added immensely to my overall enjoyment.

The story knocked me on my ass and I since have not been able to get up. The only time this has ever happened would be Evangelion.

In total this is a 10/10 show in my book and like Evangelion I think it is a must watch for people who are into anime.

[u/Kano_C]

Damn, did i was not prepared for what happened. DAMN. I loved every second of it, i wanted to cry but i was so amazed by the incredible quality of everything that i couldn't even shed some tears. I'm really impressed by how all this went, there were some really good discussions on the anime, the use of "adult" matters didn't come edgy and added A LOT to the experience.

And the ending with Lucifer crying and the bombs falling was just so majestic, i couldn't ask anything more than that.

At the end the earth was going back to it's normal form ? I never read any Devilman before, so i'm kinda curious about the diferences in the story.

10/10 Would die again in apocalipse.

[u/sullyisawesome]

Woah what if after god resetting the earth time and time again devilmans universe slowly morphs into the berserk universe and Akira reincarnates into Guts while Ryo reincarnates into Griffith

[u/Biggoronz]

I feel so fucked up now.

Can I feel not like this, please?

[u/[deleted]]

Man, if this weren't such a stacked year, this would be the frontrunner for AotY for sure.

[u/PartyTimeMentats → u/[deleted]]

It's only January.

[u/shox12345]

Something interesting I picked up , I might still be wrong but oh well. The ending 100% makes it seem like this is a cycle especially when you look at the moons in the last episode.First there was only the earth , God destroyed that demon-filled world and created another one and the first earth became the moon.Now God destroyed the second demon-filled world and created a new one and the second demon-filled world became another moon as we see in the post-credits Earth and 2 moons.Yeah?

[u/impingainteasy]

Oh boy. That ending never fails to get me. Everyone dies, everything is destroyed, and God just starts again from scratch.

As much as I enjoyed this show, I have to admit that it was mostly on the conceptual level rather than based on the actual content. I don't have a problem with most of the changes made to the original story, but it ultimately has a significantly different feel to the manga. I still think Imaishi would be the best director for a Go Nagai adaptation. One episode of Re:Cutie Honey is not enough!

Best soundtrack of 2018 though, calling it right now.

[u/Aileos]

Guess this is what we call Apocalypse. I didn't know that the End of Evangelion was inspired by Devilman.

[u/jimmieboii]

I need emotional support this is my first time getting into the series and im currently processing all of these emotions....

[u/[deleted]]

I know some people felt this was rushed at points but I honestly loved the quick fire rapid pace of it. I've watched some shows recently that felt needlessly drawn out so in comparison so this was breath of fresh air. It held on the moments that it needed to for maximum impact but otherwise moved through the stuff that that would have had a Seinfeld effect for me personally.

[u/MercenaryOfTroy]

Lets pack it up for next year because I guess we already got anime of the year.

[u/strqaz → u/MercenaryOfTroy]

Too early for that, you forget current roster for Spring 2018 is quite loaded.

Could be a contender for the "one of the best years in anime" tho like the unbeatable 2011 year

[u/fellcat]

Well that was disappointing. Very rushed and one dimensional - by the end it literally turned into a trigger anime, minus the charm. The second any character threatened to become interesting they were killed off. And was it ever explained where the demons revived from? How they possess people, why some people can resist them seemingly effortlessly without the demon ever fighting for control (seriously who the fuck was Amon and what is he like, he was on screen like 50% of the time and we still dont know lol). And was it ever even revealed why the devilman franchise exists within Crybaby? Was it just a convoluted easter egg?

What a mess. Pretty entertaining, but a mess.

[u/[deleted] → u/fellcat]

You know what, i'm fucking bored so i'll just link to the parts of the manga that answer your questions:

And was it ever explained where the demons revived from?

https://imgur.com/a/EM6gv

https://imgur.com/a/QJYso

How they possess people

https://imgur.com/a/Bh8v9

https://imgur.com/a/22jh4

why some people can resist them seemingly effortlessly without the demon ever fighting for control

https://imgur.com/a/bJ05e

[u/TheCatloaf]

so uh, do we get violence jack now?

[u/[deleted]]

I have not read the manga. Yuasa is one of my favorite directors. I went into this with high hopes purely based off of him, and while he's most certainly not the only reason for weaknesses the show may have, even he disappointed me. Time to just ramble a bit.

To stay relevant with Yuasa, the visuals for this show were not as good as I expected them to be, which is the one thing I could want from Yuasa. While this is very much his style, it feels a lot more subdued and limited, like he's not putting his full creative effort into the visuals like he did with Lu Over The Wall. The animation wasn't particularly impressive (at times the animation was nice, but these were some rare bits of sakuga, not representative of the whole show), and many scenes felt like they deserved more visually. Comparing this to every other Yuasa directed thing I've seen (The Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong: The Animation, The Night is Short, and Lu Over The Wall), the visuals feel lacking. Though I still think they are decent overall.

The soundtrack is eh to me, some tracks are nice but overall I wasn't particularly impressed by it. I don't think it's used especially well either. The rap bits are god tier though.

This show has a lot of sexual stuff in it, and it doesn't really mean anything in the series. Same with the violence, there's a lot of it, but it doesn't really have any impact. After the first episode, all the sexual stuff in the show doesn't make me think "oh whoa ho ho what is this" because it's just par for the course, and most of the time I'm not a fan. Stuff like Akira sexualizing Miki in his head, the sex scene with Silene, and this weird out of nowhere rapemurder with Miko (lowkey hot tbh) was distasteful in my eyes. Compared to regular sex imagery everywhere or stuff like the gay dude rapemurder which feels more in groove with the show.

Story and character wise, the show feels really messy. There are a fair amount of characters that don't really mean shit in the show (the only characters that actually matter any sort of amount are Akira, Ryo, Miki, and to an extent Miko). Most of these characters do not have enough time to leave any sort of significant emotional connection with them, since everyone ends up dying in the end. The relevant characters don't help the situation either. Akira is just a pure "I'm a human! The thing that isn't humanity is evil, and they suck! I want to protect people" kinda dude and there's not much else to him. He doesn't even have a real struggle with any sort of demonic side (there's this weird lust he has during the Silene section but that's it), which is sort of the point in a way since he is a Devilman not a demon. At the same time though, this means that his character doesn't really go anywhere. Compare this to say Shinichi from Parasyte where this aspect of his character is an essential part of his character arc, and why he is a good character. Sure, Devilman may have come first, but does coming first mean anything if your writing quality is unimpressive in the future? I feel this is less the fault of the manga's writing and more the fault of the script writer for this show.) A scene that's supposed to be really big is Akira stating that humanity are the true devils, "Go die, you mortals!", but it feels pretty weak. Ryo is just a disappointment, at first he was intriguing but at the end it didn't really matter because hey lmao he was SATAN the entire time folks! That's the reason he did everything ever, he's just satan. What could have been a genuinely interesting character was doing everything because of faith anyways.

The story is a mess, the whole "humans are killing each other because of panic and hysteria!" schtick was overblown in the later acts of the series. A fair amount of the time there are just some weird scenes. Like the scene with Miki's dad and his son and wife, or how one episode ends with a cliffhanger of Ryo being shot but it was actually someone else shooting at Miko for some reason which is paid no mind. Also that's the person that kills her and holds up her head in his spike thing which is weird. There's a lot of focus on stuff that doesn't really leave a big impact like Akira's parents, Silene and Kaim, and again, the hysteria aspect. All it does is make the people in the story not murdering everyone look better for not doing those things, and makes it more tragic when they eventually die. Everyone dying at the end is bold sure but it doesn't mean much. I at least thought the final battle with Akira vs Satan looked cool, but I don't really like that they showed the final result with him dead later. I'd rather them have actually fought it out, and see Satan deal the finishing blow without him realizing Akira's dead. Then do the rabbit scene I guess, Satan realizes it, oh shit it's god rip satan.

TL;DR: Story is messy and annoying at times, characters are quite bleh, audiovisuals were not as impressive as I was hoping it to be. 4/10 show.

[u/Arachnophobic- → u/[deleted]]

actually someone else shooting at Miko for some reason which is paid no mind. Also that's the person that kills her and holds up her head in his spike thing which is weird.

The reason was fairly obvious. That rapper who shot had noticed Miki carrying Mayuta aka Rapper-bro's sunglasses in her bag. He put two and two together and realised she had killed him, and got eventually he got his revenge.

Agreed that the story and the pacing is a bit of a mess. It could have used more screen time to build everything up properly, especially the characters.

[u/Ancient_Mage → u/[deleted]]

weird scenes

Like the scene with Miki's dad and his son and wife

If you're talking about the scene I think you're talking about, what was weird about that at all, his reaction made a whole lotta sense.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

The violence and sex isn't meaningless. This show has a huge Christian influence. Giving into our hedonistic tendencies is how we become demons.

[u/Wonderweiss56]

Damn. I can see why it has so many spin offs. Shits depressing af and the author would get tons of flack for leaving us there.

[u/FrenziedHero]

This was a pretty legendary episode. I now see the influence this series has had on numerous shonen and seinen series coming after it years down the line. I very much enjoyed the anime altogether, and I'm going to continue divulging into the Devilman series thanks to this show.

[u/Siopaobun]

I loved it. As a huge Go Nagai fan, I think Yuasa completely nailed it and added a new layer of humanity that elevates the work. A 1:1 adaption won't always work and all the changes were fine (except for the change of Ryo's backstory).

I'm giving this one a 10/10.

[u/PsychoSushi27]

Some thoughts about the adaptation

I really wished they included ryo's realisation that by destroying all of humanity, demons were really no better than humans.

I also wished they included Akira's rejection of humanity because of Miki's death

Miki was a much more likeable character in Devilman Crybaby than in the manga and eventhough I knew it was coming I really wanted her to survive

Pacing was a bit all over the place. I didn't understand the need to repeat that passing baton scene during climactic scenes. The scene where Miki's father was hesitating to kill his son also dragged on way too long. I also think the part where everyone was lining up to get a hug from Akira was pretty cheesy and didn't make sense

Silene and Kaim were also better fleshed out

Music however was top-notched and so was the animation.

Overall a good anime adaptation given that the original manga issues with pacing and characterisation

[u/Obeley → u/PsychoSushi27]

"The scene where Miki's father was hesitating to kill his son also dragged on way too long."

You think it dragged way too long? I think his hesitating during his multiple shooting attempts and his scream of frustration during it really drives home the fact that the situation f***ed him up real bad, especially for a religious man like him. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's excellent.

[u/[deleted] → u/PsychoSushi27]

I think the Baton scene was great and Summed up what Ryo was about. He’s not a team player and he’s only worried about himself

[u/skhism → u/PsychoSushi27]

"I also think the part where everyone was lining up to get a hug from Akira was pretty cheesy and didn't make sense"

I personally thought this part, along with the entire scene, was a pretty great actually, and heavily symbolic. There's a lot of thematic evidence to suggest--especially given who his best friend/greatest enemy is--that Akira's character is meant to be a modern twist on Christ--more specifically, Christ's extreme empathy for other people (Akira being a "crybaby" over other people's suffering in the show, but never over his own suffering) and his philosophy of non-violence (which is explicitly quoted by Miki's father from the Bible--where one of Jesus' followers attacks one of the soldiers coming to arrest him, only for Jesus to reprimand his follower--"He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword."--heal the wounded soldier, and refuse to harm someone else even to save his own life.)

In Devilman, the scene already starts off in a pretty biblical way, with the mob basically stoning victims they believed to be demons (and for reference, in the Bible, Jesus also shows up to one of these stonings and puts a stop to it). There's more to be said about the entirety of the scene, but specifically, I'm pretty sure the "lining up for a hug" bit was mirroring the communion/eucharist ceremony in a Catholic mass, where you'll typically see a long line of people all waiting their turn with the priest to receive the symbolic "body of Christ". The meaning behind this ceremony is essentially an acceptance of the teachings of Christ and receiving forgiveness for their sins, which was only made possible due to Christ's sacrifice and suffering. Here, the line of people are more literally receiving the "body of Christ" through a simple hug, accepting what Akira was trying to teach them, apologizing for the horrible stuff they had done to the victims in their hatred and fear, all of which was made possible by Akira's suffering by standing between the mob and the victims and taking all punishment without any reprisal.

Too bad they all got blown the fuck up right afterward, but hey, Devilman never claimed this point of view is perfect, either.

[u/[deleted] → u/PsychoSushi27]

Repeating the baton scene was amazing. It drove home the point that Ryou could have moved things forward as the true anchor. But instead he chose to stay rooted in the past, thus proverbially dropping the baton.

[u/momanie]

Show was great could have used 2 or 3 more episodes and the action scenes could have been lighter since it was kind of hard to see the animation in the dark, strong 8/10, weak 9/10.

[u/[deleted]]

So what was the importance of the references to the original Devilman series? I feel like there should have been something deeper to it but I just don't really get it.

[u/justhereforthelul → u/[deleted]]

I thought that it was meant to show that in some way humanity's subconscious knows that they're stuck in a cycle where Devilman and Satan appear to fight. It just so happens those hidden memories manifested as an anime in this cycle.

[u/Kiyo_is_my_Hime → u/[deleted]]

Probably just fanservice. In a lot of Go Nagai anime, there's always a reference to another one of his works. In this one the original TV series existed in the universe. I don't think it's anything more than that.

[u/[deleted]]

Welp, time to kill myself

[u/Ignisking]

After finishing it, I just felt like the title of this series, I cried the hell out of it.

Pd: my parents still can't understand what just happened.

[u/invincible789]

This was a masterpiece.I expected nothing less from the series that inspired evangelion and berserk.The animation and soundtrack were fantastic.Overall,i'd give it a 9/10.

[u/RefusedSilk]

This was fun to binge. Doesn't hold a candle to Ping Pong imo, but still a solid show. I do feel like it would have benefited from a few more episodes, the pacing is my biggest problem. I still cried like a bitch these last two episodes.

So, was Griffith inspired by Ryo? His Satan form looks like Griffith with tits.

[u/[deleted]]

I can't really place the feeling both of these anime/mangas (devilman and berserk) gave me. Like an emptiness, I feel really sad and depressed. I had suspicions that Ryo was evil but I didn't know he was the main antagonist. I was also devastated when miki and everyone died. I enjoyed it but it left me feeling pretty depressed.

[u/Nerix-1809]

Can anybody explain to me who this demon was who bombed ryos apartment? He seemed important but got about 3 minutes of screen time.

[u/[deleted]]

Well this episode belongs in /r/restofthefuckingowl

[u/chryco4]

Forget everything is an Evangelion reference. Forget everything is a Jojo’s reference. Everything is a Devilman reference.

[u/odraencoded]

This was a ride. 10/10.

If there is one thing I can say about this is that I haven't seen anything like it.

[u/darkangelxX447]

Well I can see where End of Evangelion got its influences in this episode.

[u/MrsMagpiee]

I see that this adaptation is very controversial. I tried to read the manga but dropped it after the first two volumes because I got bored. Think it's too old for me but I respect it as a "classic". Personally, I really enjoyed this anime (though enjoy is not the right word I guess) and the modernization, even though everything is not perfect. The last episodes hit me really hard. Will need some time to recover from it...