Devilman Crybaby is a clever show. Utilizing the freedom to depict violence, gore, sex and other mature themes, studio Science SARU reaps the opportunity wisely.

Being a tale of mankind facing its inner, obstructed primal instincts while attempting to maintain law, order and morality, Crybaby thrives on its themes. Is there a better way to express this than with extremely graphic content?

The demons in this show are vastly used as a means of metaphorizing natural instincts. The urge to reproduce, to eat, to kill: those are the situations where humans meet their demonic sides, being Devilmans or not.

We could also see all these morally deviant behaviors spreaded throughout Devilman Crybaby as "sins", which would undoubtedly contribute to the obvious biblical subtext. And I do enjoy some Bible references (even if they're on a superficial level).

The overarching plot about this sort of bestiality is what keeps Crybaby from being just some cheap, gory show. It all fits perfectly in the context of the show, and reinforces the chaotic state of affairs that a dystopian, ruled-by-desire world would create.

Moreover, the Devilmans offer a middleground between utter bestiality and human sentimentality, morals, ethics and all the normative systems that come with civilization, when survival is not that much of a concern. Akira Fudo, the protagonist, is shown constantly fighting his "wild side": while he is trapped by gluttony, overwhelming libido and fits of extreme violence, he also cares about his family and humanity as a whole.

Another valid question about Crybaby therefore is if it reaches any conclusion to these complex moral dilemmas. It mostly doesn't, but that's okay. I see this show not as a way of getting answers about all the questions it raises, but as a case study. What would a primal world be like, in a contemporary setting? How would people act if they accepted their inner demons? I think this is what Crybaby succeeds at showing us.

Therefore, I like to see Crybaby as merely a worst case scenario, a kind of experiment on mankind as a whole, and not as a philosophical endeavor of any sort. That is not to say that it doesn't lead to reflections about the themes it depicts constantly, but it's clear that it's not on the show's interest to dive deep into any of that, but rather be a mosaic, an almanac of human society's qualities and plagues.

Overall, Devilman Crybaby is a good visual exposure of this messy, sin-filled world that is dormant in ourselves because of the advent of civilization. Don't expect deep answers, but more of a live, no comment coverage of the apocalypse.