Devilman Crybaby (WIP)
2018 ONA
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Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Producers: Yōhei Shintaku, Kazuomi Nagai
Writer: Ichirō Ōkouchi
Animation Producer: Eunyoung Choi
Music: Kensuke Ushio
Episodes:
(All written by Ichirō Ōkouchi)
- 1. "I Need You"
- Storyboard: Masaaki Yuasa
- Director: Masaaki Yuasa
- Animation Director: Tomohisa Shimoyama
- 2. "One Hand Is Enough"
- Storyboard: Masaaki Yuasa
- Director: Katsunori Shibata
- Animation Director: Takashi Kojima
- 3. "Believe Me!"
- Storyboard: Juan Manuel Laguna, Abel Góngora
- Director: Tōru Yoshida
- Animation Director: Tetsuro Uetake
- 4. "Come, Akira"
- Storyboard: Tomohisa Shimoyama
- Director: Tomohisa Shimoyama
- Animation Director: Tomohisa Shimoyama
- 5. "Beautiful Silene"
- Storyboard: Kiyotaka Oshiyama
- Director: Kiyotaka Oshiyama
- Animation Director: Kiyotaka Oshiyama
- 6. "Neither Demon nor Human"
- Storyboard: Keisuke Shinohara
- Director: Keisuke Shinohara
- Animation Director: Naoya Wada
- 7. "Weak Humans, Wise Demons"
- Storyboard: Pyeon-Gang Ho
- Director: Ayataka Tanemura
- Animation Directors: Ken Obata, Atsuko Hikimoto, Yūko Kobayashi, Masumi Hattori, Kenji Hattori, Daisuke Takemoto, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Atsushi Aono
- 8. "I Must Know Myself"
- Storyboard: Katsunori Shibata
- Director: Katsunori Shibata
- Animation Directors: Tomomi Kawatsuma, Shōko Nishigaki, Kiyotaka Oshiyama
- 9. "Go to Hell, You Mortals"
- Storyboard: Masaaki Yuasa
- Director: Takashi Kojima
- Animation Director: Takashi Kojima
- 10. "Crybaby"
- Storyboard: Masaaki Yuasa
- Director: Masaaki Yuasa
- Animation Director: Naoya Wada
Episode 1: "I Need You"
Episode 1 opens with visuals of Earth before humans (and after.) Arms reach toward a white light, countless angels stare on apathetically as the arms fall to the earth. Angels descend upon the earth, clashing with dark counterparts, and the world is consumed in their conflict. All that remains after the lights fade is a burning red planet. While we watch on, we hear Lucifer monologuing about love and sadness - how there is no such thing as love, and therefore no such thing as sadness (or so he thought.)
We see the earth as it once was. The arms reach up once more, this time toward nothing but darkness.
This scene then transitions into the first time Akira and Ryo met as children, then to the scenes with their arguments over the dying kitten. Ryo monologues once more regarding how they were viewed by others as children, giving us some more key lines of dialogue that shape his character.
"People despised me, and you were a crybaby."
"I'm not sad. It was going to die anyway."
The last we see of this introduction is Ryo, 10 years later, driving like a bat out of hell and shouting that he needs Akira.
It was a bold move to introduce the series with the immediate connection to Ryo as Lucifer. It may seem kind of pointless to be secretive about a 45-year-old spoiler, and maybe that was their thought process. Instead of trying to trick the audience, just be up front about the character reveal, and craft the story from there.
Personally, I feel like this opening scene was the first and most pervasive issue throughout this story. In revealing this connection up top and leaning into it, they shot themselves in the foot. As the protagonist, Akira's characterization is the heart of the story. But Ryo's is the spine. This opening scene in many ways acts as the start of the problem; the tone set here snowballs into the story's crumbling thematic infrastructure by the end. Preserving a separation between Ryo and Lucifer until the late stages of the story is not about keeping a secret, it's about establishing the complex layers of the character. In making this connection so quickly and leaning into it so hard, Crybaby's iteration of Ryo/Lucifer is never quite accessible enough to the human audience to properly support the messages of the story, and I'll expand on that as we go on.
Having gotten that out of the way, there is plenty to appreciate about this opening. We witness a vague artistic version of Lucifer's fall from heaven, and that in itself is something I enjoy. I don't think the visuals of this scene quite match up with the beautiful artistry that we've seen from some other renditions of this opening (personally, I don't think anything will ever top the 80s OVA opening or the first chapter of the og manga - that shit was gorgeous), but there was still a clear intention of starting off on the same note and paying respect to the original in that way. Flex the artistic muscles and show a bit of the world before the humans came along. Give us a look at the devils and divine beings before we really even know anything about the story. Hook the viewer from the get-go with the promise of a much larger conflict to come.
I'll say as well that, though I feel the story fell short of presenting Ryo/Lucifer properly in general, I do see how they made an effort to show Lucifer's thoughts and feelings more, and create more homogeny between Ryo and Lucifer's personalities. (I don't think it had the intended effect, and I think the separation between Ryo and Lucifer's personalities is, in fact, key to making the complexities of the character work. But again, I'll discuss that more later.) Lucifer's views about love and sadness and human emotion of that nature are interesting to hear, and I do think it stands in an interesting contrast to Crybaby's chosen way to represent Akira's powerful empathy. Honestly, maybe they could have made this work if they hadn't made other certain choices moving forward.
The kitten argument is especially powerful, and I think is the most accurate (I use that word loosely here, since everything this story does is technically accurate to itself as its own canon, but you know what I mean,) and meaningful representation of our deuteragonists and their opposing ways of interacting with and viewing the world. In one character, we have an immature empath with a desperation to preserve life despite the situation. In the other, we have a disconnected pragmatist who would prefer to cut off the injured limb without batting an eye to it not being his own body. It may not speak much to what made them each this way, but it solidifies their natures for us and sets an interesting dynamic, taken even further by Akira calling out the sadness that Ryo isn't even aware he is feeling. (Or, depending on your interpretation, projecting his own sadness onto someone who truly isn't feeling the same, desperately trying to connect with someone he cares about in his own moment of pain.)
It's very on the nose, but I think it's also very effective. The story may not have quite gotten Ryo right, but it did a decent job with their relationship and dynamic considering the inconvenient start it gave itself.
What we see next is a shot of modern day, and proper introduction to our protagonist. Akira, Miki, and Miko are at track practice with their classmates. Some classmates sit on the sidelines expositing on the three of them - ogling Miko's breasts, discussing Miki's reputation, and questioning Akira's role in it all considering his lack of ability. Then they begin discussing the Sabbath, and the most recent murder that occurred in connection to it. Akira approaches, crying about the death of a person he didn't know, and Miki makes a comment normalizing this behavior as part of who he is in general. She steps away to make a call, and Miko joins in on the classmates' conversation about her, expositing more on her role as a local teen celebrity and her mysterious business-or-possible-not relationship with the mysterious photographer Nagasaki. We then meet Nagasaki: an adult man sitting in dim lighting in his car, inviting a teenage Miki to join him for a meal later while scrolling lewd images on his tablet.
Next, in quick succession:
- Koda murders a man who we can assume is either his coach or some sort of PR manager.
- Miko, Miki, and Akira begin walking home together while discussing Akira's - seemingly uncomfortable to him - position in the Makimura household, including references to his not owning a phone and watching porn on the family computer
- Miki runs ahead, saying she has something to do, but is then shown to be cancelling on Nagasaki (to his irritation) to instead sit thoughtfully by herself on a dock
From there, she is approached by some teenagers and we get Crybaby's version of the in/famous introduction between Akira's peers and Ryo Asuka.
This sequence serves to establish this story's tone and setting - the incorporation of the casual sexuality into the candid representations of the human body, the immediate characterizations of Akira and Miki, the introduction of the Sabbath, the intiation of several subplots to come with Nagasaki and Koda, and the absolute out of pocket and unaddressed moments like the club advisor frog-tonguing the fly with a smile like it's no big thing. There's a lot to unpack about all of this, so we'll take it one thing at a time.
The simultaneously casual and in-your-face sexuality in this show is pretty polarizing. I always operated under the assumption that it was the first thing to divide the audience. I've definitely spoken to some people myself who felt it was too much, while others have spoken about how it adds to a larger point the story is making. I think it's a bit of both, as being too much is kind of the point of Devilman sometimes. It's so much that it intentionally comes back around to almost forcing the viewer to see what it's showing you as not-much-of-anything. Normalization. Desensitization. Shoving something in your face so hard, you have to manage your feelings about it to go on with the story. It mirrors the gore - but we'll get there.
For example: we are given shots of the character's crotches under tight athletic clothes. Miko breasts extremely boobily to the finish line during the sprint. The male classmates comment on this, and are also shown later making sexual comments about Miki as well. But I wouldn't say any of this is presented as especially seductive to the audience. It's sort of just... there. Miko's tits jiggling aren't paired with a zoom or slow-mo moment, none of the visuals are really lingered on, and the athletic clothes are tight on bodies that are almost uncanny in this art style. Even the students' comments aren't anything especially specific or titillating.
The sexuality of the scene is as normal as the fact that they're at track practice. The teens are running for a club, and also they're horny and observing each other's bodies. And those two facts are equally casual and neutral. It may seem a bit in-your-face to an audience that prefers less direct acknowledgement of sex, but it's a very important set up, considering how heavy handed the show is with its sexuality in general down the line (true to the og, just scaled differently for a less censored era and more desensitized audience, let's be honest.)
Another important thing that is established here is Miki's characterization. It's not much yet, but there's some subtle intentional interactions that give us a fuller look at her than a first-time viewer might notice.
She intervenes on the conversation when Akira starts crying to explain the behavior and quickly shut down the conversation that was about to devolve into bullying, but she does it subtly and with a smile on her face - changing the topic to track and field. Even her dialogue later toward Akira when they're walking home is blunt, sure, but quick and purposeful; then the topic is left behind with a smile on her face. Perfectly executed to make a point without rocking the boat or upestting anyone.
I'll be honest, I don't like it. It feels very sanitized, like they were just trying too hard to make her different from the original - which is fair in theory, as she was usually more of a reward or symbol or something to protect than an actual character in her own right - that they just. Failed to make her much of anything. They could have changed certain specific details and adjusted her role in the story to flesh her out more and make her something beyond "thing to protect and earn the affection of." And they could have done this without scrubbing her personality down into something perfect and palatable to everyone. The only similarity between Crybaby's Miki and og Miki is that she's still bold, at least. But again, in a very palatable - if effective - way.
I don't need or want Miki to be able to navigate a conflict especially well. I just want her to do it brazenly. My Miki Makimura has hands and a sharp tongue and got herself into situations. Give my girl back her nasty attitude.
I'll get more into this later, but this characterization of her almost comes across like they wanted to seem like they were "improving" the character or making her more suitable to a modern less-sexist audience. However, with her role in the story not changing much combined with this sanitized personality, she really feels like even more of a sexist caricature. More than ever, she becomes a symbol moreso than a character in her own right.
But I'm getting ahead of myself there. Let's talk about pre-Amon Akira a bit.
His characterization isn't even sanitized - if it was, I would almost view it as trying to make some kind of statement. What he is is sort of... overly cheery. With the obvious exception of when he's crying over the news story about the dead guy he didn't know. Now I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. I don't think it's quite as powerful as the versions where he and Miki are being harassed, and he's absolutely useless in the fight despite having a heart of gold. But I think it serves a decent enough purpose.
It establishes all the important parts. He's cheery, ruled by emotional urges, a bit of a dorky weakling, cares about others, and even comes across as a bit air-headed about it all. The only real complaint I have (despite, again, being less powerful for me than the other versions of the story) is that it's almost uncanny. Especially next to this weirdly purified version of Miki. FINISH THIS THOUGHT
emphasis on akiras crying and characterization
sabbath from teens, not ryo
subplots intro
out of pocket