Devilman Crybaby Review – *weird running intensifies*

“Are you human or Kabane?!”

“Neither! I am Devilman!”

Get your heart ready for some gore, weird sex, and mindblow, because this is Devilman Crybaby.

Underneath its heavily stylized animation and raps, Devilman Crybaby opens with a plot that’s ordinary enough. Kind dude got messed up by his friend, conceals the fact that he’s messed up from a girl, and goes out at night to kill devils. He follows the general teen protagonist trope down to the bit where he lost parents and became something in between two things.

Crybaby started to get really good on the second half, where the narration cuts the chase to the most interesting and intense part of the story. It reaches its peak in episode 9, and very rarely do I see such brutal deaths handled so well that’s it’s not brutal, it’s shocking and sad.

Crybaby is an anime that needs time to get used to and time to get to the good part, but once you do, it’s worth the wait.

Akira and Ryo made some interesting protagonists. One is so kindhearted that even after seeing the darkest side of both human and demons, still believed in mankind, and the other is like ‘nah shuck the entire human race they ain’t worth a dime’. It makes the ending ever more powerful.

I didn’t expect to like the raps so much. This anime got real rappers to do it, and once it’s over, I feel sad that there’s no more to listen to. Side characters like Kukun and Miko are more relateable than any of the 3 main. I didn’t expect to like Miki at all since she’s that general ‘good girl’ you see everywhere, but once things get worse you really see her true strength.

I thought I’d hate this anime, but once it’s done, I closed my laptop lid and thought ‘well that was quite a ride.’ There are things or two to be learned, and as bad times bring the worst out of people. Even if the setting is mainly in Japan, it’s not the world being destroyed by random teens in Japan, it’s the world being destroyed by the world, and Crybaby manages to give off the ‘international’ feel it’s supposed to have.

For a ten-episode anime, Crybaby is exceptional in making a lasting impression.

“Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion- these are the two things that govern us.” – Wilde

See you next post.