Devilman Crybaby

• 1. Introduction

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  Devilman Crybaby, in the words of Newsweek's Emily Gaudette, was "the bloodiest, most profane animated series of the year." Masaaki Yuasa directed the Netflix series, which arrived on the 5th of January 2018. Within days it had become one of the most argued-over anime in years. Some viewers were enthralled by its excess, and others were revolted. It retells Go Nagai's Devilman manga, the story of an ancient race of demons bent on destroying humanity. Why would a director celebrated for fluid animation take on material this grim? What happens to a society once it learns that demons exist? And why do critics still disagree about whether the finale offers hope or despair?

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• 2. A Commission Nobody Expected

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  Ping Pong the Animation, released in 2014, was Yuasa's earlier project with the company Aniplex, and that partnership led to the offer. Aniplex suggested a Devilman adaptation. Yuasa admired the original, yet he had never pictured himself making it.

  Ichirō Ōkouchi wrote the script for every episode. Eunyoung Choi served as animation producer, Ayumi Kurashima designed the characters, and Kiyotaka Oshiyama was responsible for the demons. Aniplex and Nagai's own company, Dynamic Planning, produced the series. Yuasa's studio, Science Saru, handled the animation, and Netflix released it.

  The original Devilman was published in a shōnen magazine, meaning one aimed at young male readers. Yuasa suspected that this audience had kept Nagai from showing sex and violence as freely as he wanted. He noted that Nagai's later works were "even more extreme." His guiding thought was, in his words, "If Nagai-sensei could have done as he pleased, he'd have gone this far." Yuasa has also said that a sequel would let him explore "different settings and ways of telling the story."

  March 2017 brought the announcement, timed to honor Nagai's 50th anniversary as a creator. In August, the Netflix Japan YouTube channel carried the first trailer, which confirmed that the run would total ten episodes. When the full season arrived, it reached 90 countries or territories at once. Viewers could choose from 23 subtitle languages and seven spoken ones. The dubs covered English, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and two forms of Spanish, standard and Castilian.

  On the 30th of May 2018, Aniplex Japan put the complete series on Blu-ray as a "complete box." Between May and June of that year, the music store chain Tower Records hosted an exhibit called Sabbath Shibuya. The clothing brand Beams made street fashion inspired by the show, and Aniplex sold polystone statues of its characters.

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• 3. Rap and Rhythm

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  Wamu, the rapper who leads the gang that Akira tries to fend off in the opening episode, stands in for a type of character the manga handled differently. Nagai's version gave Akira delinquent bullies, and the anime swaps in rappers. Because of that choice, several episodes contain extended rap sequences by professional rappers, and these work as a kind of narrator. Yuasa explained that "rappers are the people who speak what's on their minds today." The rapper Ken the 390 voiced Wamu in Japanese and supervised the rap scenes.

  Yuasa pointed to people getting shot over a video game as one sign that the present resembles the manga's violent world. His other examples included police brutality toward African-Americans, the rise of nationalism in politics, and problems being blamed on foreigners. He also saw a bright side. People were coming out as LGBT through social media, and he noted a growing "acceptance of different opinions and lifestyles." His summary was that "people are a lot more connected, for good and bad." The series reflects this through rapid text messages and social media posts that show how people react to demons.

  In the story's universe, the Devilman television series from the 1970s exists as a real show. Its theme song plays as a child's ringtone, and the bedroom of one of the children is crammed with Devilman anime objects.

  Kensuke Ushio composed the music. Denki Groove's "Man Human" serves as the opening theme, while Takkyū to Tabibito performs a special ending song, "Konya Dake," for episode nine alone. Avu-chan of Queen Bee sings a remix of "Devilman no Uta," the theme of the 1970s anime, as an insert song. Aniplex released a two-disc, 48-track soundtrack on the 10th of January 2018, and the complete box added a Devilman Crybaby Freestyle Rap All Tracks CD. Syfy.com's Christopher Inoa found the score so good that he called it a tragedy it was not on Spotify.

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• 4. Sabbath and Betrayal

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  Akira Fudo, a high school student, shares a home with Miki Makimura, his only friend and longtime crush, along with her brother Taro and her parents, Noel and Akiko. When Akira tries to defend Miki from a gang led by Wamu, his childhood friend Ryo Asuka rescues him. Ryo has just come back from an expedition to the Amazon rainforest. He claims it revealed that demons exist and that the world's governments are hiding the fact.

  The Sabbath Party, held at an underground nightclub, is where Ryo plans to expose the demons. He attacks the patrons with a broken bottle, and demons appear. Ryo films them massacring humans before one pins him down. A powerful demon named Amon tries to possess Akira, but Akira's will overpowers it. He takes on Amon's demon form and slaughters the demons around him.

  Jinmen, a sadistic demon, is among the foes the two friends fight after escaping. Jinmen is responsible for the deaths of Akira's parents, of Amon's lover Sirene, and of her associate Kaim. Later Ryo announces on television that the track star Moyuru Koda and fellow athlete Miki Kuroda, called Miko, are also demons. Akira recruits both.

  Ryo's increasingly extreme measures to protect Akira's secret strain their friendship. Meanwhile the news of demons sets off a global panic, with riots and paranoia as humanity turns on itself. Demons possess humans on a large scale, which spreads fear and distrust further. Disgusted by Ryo's indifference to the chaos he caused, Akira joins Koda and Miko in searching for other Devilmen to form a team that protects humankind.

  A worldwide broadcast from the Amazon rainforest was supposed to reveal where demons came from. Ryo instead shows footage of Akira turning into Devilman. The world sinks into mass violence and genocide. The police kill Miki's family, and Akira buries them outside the city. Miki and her friends defend Akira on social media, but a paranoid mob mistakes them for demons and murders them. The mob parades their dismembered bodies on pikes, and the grief-stricken Akira incinerates every one of them.

  Betrayed, Akira confronts Ryo, who reveals that he is the fallen angel Satan. After being cast out of Heaven, Satan discovered demons living on Earth. God destroyed his body and the demons for their savagery and violence, yet their souls survived. Reincarnated as Ryo, Satan wants to exterminate humanity and reclaim the planet for the demons. He judges them superior because they are simpler than weaker, more complicated humans. He also arranged for Amon to merge with Akira so that Akira would survive the world to come, and as thanks for staying beside him when Akira was human.

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• 5. The Other Within

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  Nagai has said that the main aim of the original Devilman was to be an anti-war story. Crybaby carries that purpose forward by showing humans capable of cruelty equal to the demons'. Heather Alexandra of Kotaku observed that the demons commit the violence at first, but humans copy their behavior as the story advances.

  Megan Farokhmanesh of The Verge read the series as an allegory "about the cost of persecuting those we don't understand." Alexandra compared the panic over demons to homophobia, transphobia and racism, moments when people see others as "the other." Mike Toole of Anime News Network said it shows how quickly people single out anyone who seems suspicious or abnormal in order to shield their own group. Eric Thurm of Decider described the political message as a reflection on "humanity's tendency toward paranoia and willingness to turn on others."

  Rose Bridges, also of Anime News Network, focused on mass media and technology, which ought to unite people but instead feed "judgmental impulses." She added that demons bursting out from inside human bodies symbolizes how judgment can devastate people internally. GameSpot's Kallie Plagge called the series a meditation on what it means to be human, and Lynzee Loveridge asked whether any line separates humanity from monstrosity. Rob Salkowitz of Forbes found that it also probes religion and the fragility of social institutions.

  Toole read the changes in Akira after he gains Devilman's powers as a metaphor for the anxiety of puberty, especially in boys. Nick Creamer of Anime News Network called the series a tale of "the chaos of puberty, about struggles with sexual identity and unrequited love." Brittany Vincent, writing for Syfy.com, described it as a story of "self-discovery, and coming to terms with yourself."

  Bridges saw a positive message for LGBT viewers in its picture of "the destructive nature of the closet," paired with the idea that self-acceptance can strengthen people who are suffering. Daryl Surat of Otaku USA said many viewers resonate with the emphasis on explicitly gay and lesbian characters in a dramatic setting. Farokhmanesh found its "unwavering acceptance" of queer romance refreshing.

  Matt Schley of The Japan Times felt the series was less a Devilman adaptation than a spiritual successor to Kemonozume. Both works wrestle with identity, prejudice, religion and star-crossed love.

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• 6. Tears at the End

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  Akira refuses to join Satan's cause and gathers the other Devilmen to fight Satan's army, but they lose. Crybaby uses the manga's apocalyptic ending, which no other animated Devilman adaptation has used. Humanity, the demons and the Devilmen are all wiped out, and the Earth is left a ruin.

  Satan sits in the wreckage reminiscing with Akira, unaware that Akira has already died. When the truth lands, he understands that he has killed the only person he ever loved. Overwhelmed by grief, he cradles the lifeless body and weeps. An army of angels then descends to destroy the planet and remake it. The new world has two moons.

  Daryl Surat of Otaku USA called the ending nihilistic. Remus Noronha of Collider wrote that a sense of "tragic inevitability" runs through the whole series. Alexandra of Kotaku agreed that the manga's nihilism survives, though hope seems to flicker near the close. Chris Person, also of Kotaku, rejected the label, because the story has "an emotional core and a thesis that it strongly believes in." Allegra Frank of Polygon thought Satan's tears for Akira make such a bleak ending "feel not so totally hopeless."

  The YouTuber PewDiePie considered the ending "flat" and a "fatal flaw" in the series. Frank, by contrast, called the "beautiful, devastating finale" perfection.

  Yuasa has his own view, which centers on Ryo rather than Akira. Akira is resolute from beginning to end, while Ryo is racked by doubt and "internal changes and struggles." The two met as children, and Akira was the only person who supported Ryo. Ryo came to have feelings for him without realizing it. Yuasa says Akira's role is to teach Ryo something, so the point is what Ryo learns by the end. His summary is short: "in the end, it's about love."

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• 7. A Hit Without Numbers

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  James Hadfield of The Japan Times named Devilman Crybaby the Netflix original anime with the "biggest buzz." Christopher Inoa of Syfy.com called it the first big talking point of the year in the anime community. GameSpot's Dan Auty went further, describing it as one of the most talked-about anime releases for many years. The Devilmen's running style also drew attention, including from the YouTuber PewDiePie, and was dubbed "the best animated running since Naruto." The remix of "Devilman no Uta" turned into a popular meme.

  Nick Valdez of ComicBook.com still ranked it among the most divisive anime of the Winter 2018 season, because of Yuasa's stylized take on Nagai's work. It was a regular topic on Twitter in January 2018. Megan Peters of ComicBook.com said that calling it controversial was an understatement. In her telling, its over-the-top imagery enthralled some people and revolted others.

  Netflix does not release viewership numbers, yet Auty, Valdez, Roland Kelts of The Japan Times and Lauren Orsini of Forbes all called the series a hit. About 90 percent of its audience came from outside Japan. Even so, its Japanese Blu-ray release ranked 11th among best-selling products on that medium and sold at least 2,637 copies in its first week. Success of this kind caught the eye of the distributor GKIDS, which showed interest in releasing Science Saru's earlier films Night Is Short, Walk On Girl and Lu over the Wall. Nagai himself praised the series, as did Masaki Tsuji, the screenwriter of the 1970s Devilman anime, and the filmmaker Sion Sono.

  Rotten Tomatoes collected nine reviews and recorded an 89 percent approval rating. At the 3rd Crunchyroll Anime Awards, the series won Anime of the Year and Yuasa won Best Director. The Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs placed it among 14 Japanese works in the Jury Selections of the Animation Division at the 22nd Japan Media Arts Festival Awards. Staff at Crunchyroll, IGN and Polygon named it one of the best anime of the 2010s, and Film School Rejects chose it among the decade's best animated series. Paste magazine's staff ranked it the 35th best anime of all time. Critic Toussaint Egan wrote that it would "stand the test of time."

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• 8. Blood and Brushstrokes

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  Auty of GameSpot wrote an entire article on why Crybaby holds "some of the most extreme content ever to hit Netflix." Toole called it "the most ludicrously violent, sexed-up anime TV series ever aired." Thurm of Decider labeled it the "grossest show on TV," and Joyce Slaton of Common Sense Media said its mature material exceeds what viewers expect even from anime made for adults. Schley of The Japan Times saw a closer match in the ultra-violent films of the 1980s, such as Akira, Demon City Shinjuku and Violence Jack. Jacob Chapman of Anime News Network found it easy to bear, thanks to Yuasa's super-cartoony style.

  Critics split over whether the excess has a purpose. Peters and Rebecca Silverman of Anime News Network judged most of it gratuitous. Farokhmanesh disagreed, calling the graphic content a tool for showing the overindulgent, sometimes disgusting side of being human. Alexandra was torn, finding the violence occasionally distracting and quick to lose its impact. Person thought the sex scenes were deeply silly and suited a story whose first part concerns the absurdity of sex, especially to young people. Loveridge objected that every demon at the Sabbath is female, with traits drawn from their sex organs that devour the men, which she said demonizes female sexuality.

  Pementel of Bloody Disgusting said "the remarkable animation style" drew comment from many critics. Loveridge ranked the series among the most visually striking anime ever made. Salkowitz of Forbes said it unleashes the "most eye-melting psychedelia seen on the small screen" since MTV's Liquid Television. Vincent argued that Yuasa's fluid animation turns what could have been an unattractive gorefest into a ballet of human and demonic interaction. Daniel Kurland of Den of Geek claimed that the story is nothing special on its surface, and that Yuasa's eye-popping animation and art direction make it special.

  Surat praised the characterization for reaching beyond Akira and Ryo. Toole liked that Miki is no longer the mere plot device she was in the manga, and that the punks became rappers. On faithfulness, Surat called it perhaps the most faithful animated adaptation of the manga. Egan of Paste said it is as orgiastically violent and unflinchingly risqué as Nagai's original. Toole noted that the first episodes look like a straight take on the classic and recall the 1987 original video animation. Zac Bertschy of Anime News Network said it grips you the moment it starts, calling it "a screaming, crying apocalypse" that "never lets go."

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