The vices of humanity behind the faces of the demons.
Devilman Crybaby is an anime series based on Go Nagai’s Devilman series. The anime updates the setting from the 70s to the 21st century. The original series depicts an anti-war message, but the anime adaptation questions the themes of sexuality, puberty, love and relationship between humans.
Let us start with the synopsis. The main character is Akira Fudo — who becomes a devil with the heart of a human. This happens because his best friend from childhood — Ryo Asuka — says that demons will conquer and reclaim the earth, and humans are helpless against this threat. We won’t spoil anything else, you should watch it by yourself. You better be ready for lots of graphic content, so if you are sensitive, you have been warned.
The artwork of the anime is rather interesting and might be the reason for you to stop watching this series, but we promise you that you should give it a chance. This artwork is so fitting for the whole atmosphere of the series — distorted faces or bodies depict the madness around people, fountains of blood show us the cruelty and hatred towards each other and oversexualisation depicts the puberty of the main character, or the culture of lust. There are many messages behind the story about demons and humans, it's up to you to uncover something else.
The music in this anime is a masterpiece — Kensuke Ushio did an amazing job of keeping the atmosphere of madness or horror. “Judgement” or “Smells blood” are still enjoyed by many fans, and “Smells blood” perfectly increased the atmosphere of madness in the nightclub (it is the scene where you understand that nothing will be normal anymore).
Many critics think about the true message of the anime. Some point out the cruelty and violence of humans, others write about the existential crisis, but we will say that it is a strong message to people, which includes cruelty and violence, existential crisis, puberty, identity, problems of coming to terms with oneself, judgment, frailty of social institutions and many other problems of humans — and all of this is hidden behind demons. Some things may be exaggerated, but the authors wanted us to see ourselves from a different perspective and to understand that we need to live in peace and stop acting like demons. The ending is so powerful that it leaves you sitting alone and thinking about your existence — it forces you to be concerned about people and their problems.