Devilman Crybaby is the greatest thing about Satan since Little Nicky. Replete with sex, violence, and a weird style meant to be both artistic and balancing to the darker elements, Crybaby is ten episodes of stuff you’d expect from a 90’s OVA or anime series. But it’s a 2018 Netflix release, giving me a modicum of hope that streaming platforms such as Netflix are willing to spotlight anime studios making risky projects such as this that shove aside conventions of our modern age to provide more interesting products.

Devilman is the story of Akira Fudo, a normal high school kid whose childhood friend returns from the jungles of South America with tales of devils. Ryo Asuka has some sort of plan for Akira, as evinced by the fact he purposefully takes him to a Sabbath, a big Satanist party full of sex and drugs, and has him be possessed by a devil. Akira is strong enough to not let the evil inside him take over and he becomes Devilman, a pseudo-hero meant to take down evil devils.

And that’s just the first episode. As it goes along interpersonal conflicts arise, we see an ideological schism between Ryo and Akira, and it all leads to an apocalyptic third act.

Let’s start with the good of Devilman Crybaby:

The animation is going to be a make-it or break-it deal for the majority of viewers. The proportions are off, the devils look silly, backgrounds are ugly, the fluidity of some movement works while in other scenes it can look off. The color scheme will sometimes be extremely bright or occasionally become a dreary dark where blood is yellow rather than red. The running animations for devilmen look absolutely ridiculous.

But this all works for me. It gives a sense of Frank Miller’s comic book style where the guy isn’t a great artist but he doesn’t have to be because the story is what matters. But for what it’s worth, I loved the style of this animation purely because it reminded me of old independent comic books or some of the mature titles being released in the 80’s and 90’s. I even got a Watchmen-y sense from some scenes. The distortion of the characters and the trippier facets of the animation also help balance out the sexuality and violence.

This is an anime full of nudity and some explicit sexual scenes. By using this animation style, they don’t come across as sexy or fan service...they are grungy and ugly. It’s not glorifying the sexuality, it’s actively condemning it as one of the seven deadly sins, as lustful acts with consequences and emotions. So with this mindset I can say that you may hear that this is a sex obsessed anime but it really isn’t. It’s weaved into the fabric of the story in order to comment on morality.

The violence is also tempered by the animation. When things look this silly, you can’t take the gore seriously...usually. There are a couple scenes in the series that stick with me due to the way the violence is handled in those compared to when Devilman is ripping the jaw off a demon. This makes some of the important deaths of the late series that much more hard to watch and scarring. In two late series cases the deaths are much more grounded making the extreme use of gore all the more effective.

Devilman Crybaby’s unique style is aided by a great OST that combines haunting melodies with synthwave and I guess I’d even consider the free-style rapping (this series answer to The Dark Knights news reports) part of the soundtrack. It’s all good stuff, memorable music that worms its way into your head. Well, with the exception of the opening song. It sucks.

And I’ll finish up the praise by saying that I really enjoyed the story. In ten episodes it told a compelling tale with a lot of twists and turns, with an especially interesting third act full of good ideas and memorable moments.

But on the flip side:

The story is rushed. There are some questionable character moments where more backstory or an extra episode of depth would have done some good. I’m a little disappointed this wasn’t a twelve or thirteen episode series as just two or three extra episodes could have made Crybaby nearly perfect for me. Without that elucidation on certain motivations or dynamics it makes one episode in particular (in which Akira’s parents are the key players) hard to follow. There’s another somewhat jarring jump from the end of the second act to the beginning of the third. The two episodes don’t necessarily require a bridge between them, but it would have helped ease into the very different tone and world of the third act. I took each episode as its own sort of motion comic, so I didn’t quite feel the disconnect between the sixth and seventh episodes, but I can understand that criticism. At ten episodes I understood the plot, I understood character motivations for the most part…

Except for Ryo Asuka’s. If there is one major plot issue with Crybaby it’s that Akira never questions what Ryo has to gain by making him Devilman and all of the happenings afterward. And that’s the first question you think he’d ask. It isn’t until much later that we find out who Ryo is, something I intuited for myself early on just to have a motivation for the guy. While I can look past most of the issues of the pacing and plot, this is a glaring problem for a plot that is this enmeshed in emotion. I can’t even invest in Akira, truthfully, when I feel like he’s too stupid to know he’s being played and question the morality of the guy who he spends most of the series with.

I’m trying to refrain from spoilers as this is a series that works better the less you know going in. For me, Devilman Crybaby is a mixed bag but one that I appreciate so much I’m willing to look past some of the plot and pacing issues because I enjoyed myself so much. It’s the kind of anime that got me into anime and the sort of thing I’ve actively been searching for over the years, a breath of fresh air in a season replete with more moeblobs and bland action series than you can shake a stick at.

But as stated above, this isn’t a show for everyone and nor do I expect it to hold up in the eyes of most viewers. Devilman Crybaby is a niche, cult series; one that I hope a lot of people watch so Netflix continues to take risks and fund anime like this, but one I respect that most viewers won’t be able to get on board with.