#i love (1) unhinged blonde c**t

[jackharkness]

And you said nothing.

[dragimal]

alright just finished Crybaby, and here are my Opinions

(big spoilers for anyone who wants to watch it, and if u do plan on it, be aware of major trigger warnings like hardcore gore/body horror, death, full-on nudity/sex, and sexual assault. some of these elements are present in most dman adaptations to some degree anyways, but imagine those adaptations ramped up to 50)

things I liked:

- art style! I’m a HUGE fan of the fluid, gangly style, and it works so well w/ the high-action, intense fights

- the crying theme. it's a rly nice visual indicator that Akira is still in there, and how much he was affected by all the death and heartbreak. one of my fave parts of Akira as a character is how he has to reconcile his demon instincts w/ his humanity, so to see Crybaby Devilman break out into tears is esp powerful

- the development of the side characters. the bullies are some of my fave characters in the original, and I rly like how they were adapted into disenfranchised rappers in this one (and I esp love the relationship the one rapper had w/ Miko briefly like?? precious). speaking of Miko, she was EXCELLENT, easily one of my new faves, and her confession to Miki was heartbreaking. I also love that one gay runner (forgot his name..), and his camaraderie w/ Miko was truly mlm/wlw solidarity at its finest (before he y’know.... betrayed humanity...)

- I also rly like the approach to Miki’s character in this one; making her strong and capable was a good move. some ppl may know that I have mixed feelings abt og Miki, b/c I like her individually, but I hate how whenever she’s w/ Akira she bullies him for being soft (at least pre-Devilman) and forces him to protect her in fights she instigates. I like how Crybaby completely cut that from this adaptation and just made her awesome and actually nice to Akira. and believe it or not, I actually ship them in this adaptation, which is shocking to me b/c I’ve only ever shipped them in the chibi “Go Nagai World” adaptation and Devilman Grimoire. like that bit where Akira was all over-acting like, “oh yes, I saved you!” and swept Miki off her feet? I die. actually I ship Miki w/ several ppl in this adaptation, like Miko (of course), and that one bald rapper. also, was her “witch” nickname a reference to Grimoire? if it was, that’s cute <3

- the restructuring of the plot points to fit a slightly new plotline were mostly p good. like it was cool how Crybaby had Jinmen possess Akira’s dad, making for a double-whammy of pain seeing both his parents die at once. or how Devilman sucked Ghelmer straight out of Miki and burned the water out of his own body. just some neat changes. also I didn’t think any adaptation could ever top Jinmen’s subplot in terms of heart-wrenching pain, but look at that! Miki’s demon-bro topped it! thanks Crybaby I didn’t need my heart anymore!!!!!!

- Miki’s cat became a demon?? 10/10 easily the best part of the series

things I didn’t like:

- Ryo. just.... fuckin Ryo. part of me wants to like Ryo in any dman adaptation, so I didn’t actively hate him while watching the show, but the more I think abt how his character was portrayed in this, the more frustrated I get. like, Ryo is easily my top fave character from Devilman as an overall franchise (if not necessarily every specific adaptation), alongside Akira. so to see this character I love just whittled down to what he is here... it hurts, man. for those who aren’t super familiar w/ og Ryo, let me show u a panel that I think encompasses his temperament

Crybaby Ryo is cold, calculating, and largely unemotional. og Ryo, on the other hand, rapidly flips between stone-cold, almost comically blank, and hysterical. he’s not a “cool” character necessarily; Go Nagai may have attempted that portrayal originally, idk for sure, but any reader will tell u that’s not the outcome he achieved, nor how he was eventually portrayed in the OVAs. og Ryo is unhinged and clearly not emotionally prepared to take on the world, but by GOD that fucker’s gonna run in guns a-blazin’ or die trying. the simplest way to describe him is, “nihilist conspiracy theorist with a gun, oh god why does he have a gun who gave him that-”

just imagine this guy w/ a gun, shades, and blonde mullet, and that’s Ryo. but instead of getting that Ryo in Crybaby, we get, “unemotional nihilist (with a gun)” Ryo, and that’s rly all there is to him

and one of the worst things abt Crybaby Ryo is that he’s so.... reprehensible. not that og Ryo doesn’t do some terrible things-- he absolutely does-- but he either does them in such a hilariously goofy manner, or he’s so earnest u can’t help but shake ur head at him like, “Oh Ryo~” (again, not to excuse him, but trust me, there are ways to make villains charming, and Go Nagai originally hit on that p damn well, whether intentional or not). plus I don’t rly remember og Ryo ever killing ppl for the sake of “covering his tracks”. I only ever remember him killing ppl who were directly harming himself/Akira, and then just injuring ppl as a part of his goals (like that scene w/ him slashing ppl at the black sabbath is in the og version, b/c the sabbath needed fresh blood to initiate the transformations). I could be wrong, but I don’t think og Ryo particularly cares who sees him committing crimes, so long as he’s not directly confronted abt it. he’s.... not exactly a gr8 strategist in that respect... or at all....

and this is double sad for me b/c not only does og Ryo actually have emotions, but he’s so clearly pining for an oblivious Akira throughout the story, which is why they’ve always been my dman otp. there are some cute moments b/t Akira and Ryo in Crybaby (the pool scene, mainly), but they seem more instigated by Akira on an unwilling Ryo, and Ryo seems to only keep Akira around for the muscle/demon-power, so I can’t rly buy Ryo’s apparent “affection” for Akira here at all....

- there was too little build-up to Akira becoming Devilman. like the whole first volume in the 5-volume og series is dedicated to Devilman’s buildup and initial transformation, yet only one ep of this 10-ep series is dedicated to it. this fails for several reasons: 1)  the longer build-up in the og establishes how close Ryo and Akira rly are, and how willing Akira is to help Ryo, even at the expense of his life. 2) the og build-up gives you time to get attached to Akira before his transformation, and not only feel his pain at losing parts of himself to the transformation, but also the ability to recognize when his Akira-brand humanity is making an appearance post-Amon. 3) why the hell did Akira believe Ryo so readily? why isn’t he concerned at all about either demons’ existence or Ryo’s mental health? where’s Akira’s classic, “WHERE’S THE PHONE,” reaction??

- now setting aside my love for og Ryo, and Crybaby Ryo’s likability as a character for a sec, Crybaby’s approach to Ryo RLYYYY fucks up the entire Satan plotline for me. in the original, Ryo also doesn’t remember being Satan, so he is also trying to help humanity. but in the original, you FEEL that! you can feel how hard he's trying, and yeah he goes abt it in often dangerous/morally dubious ways, but in the end (before he regains his memories), his goals are for humans. he's a, “sacrifice the few for the many,” kinda guy-- which is absolutely questionable, but still has humanity as a whole in mind

Crybaby Ryo, on the other hand, doesn’t feel like he has ANY protectiveness for humanity, even when he's still under the impression he's a human. hell, I thought this adaptation had him start out knowing he’s Satan and actively manipulating Akira for his plans the whole time, that’s how little I believed in his want to protect humanity (I mean, the 2004 live-action film went that route, so u can’t rly blame me for being wary). maybe it would have been different if I had come into this fresh, not knowing Ryo was Satan, but I just never bought that he was anything but manipulating everyone specifically for the demons, so I was kinda surprised when he started to “regain” his memories b/c I thought he already HAD them. which is just frustrating b/c that big reveal is one of the best twists ever, in the original! b/c u believe this weird gun-toting dude’s rly truly trying to help out humans, but it turns out he’s been in the demon’s league the whole time!

b/c of this, the Crybaby ending also severely lacks the emotional punch of the og end, when Satan realizes they were wrong (and no, ”you taught me abt love,” is not the same thing as confronting their mistakes)

- and that leads into how Crybaby dropped the ball on the demons in general too. in the original, the demons were Earth’s original lifeforms, but this didn’t please God, so he tried to wipe them out. Satan was the only angel who defied this, trying to protect these creatures who had the right to keep living. THAT was why Satan was cast out of heaven, and Satan convinced the demons to freeze themselves into hibernation until they could later confront God together. upon reawakening, Satan and their demon crew are pissed to find the world taken over by humans, and THAT’S why demons have a grudge against humans. thus, Satan decides to disguise themself as human and tuck their memories away in order to intimately learn the weaknesses of our species in order to end us. all the demons were in on this plan, and were willing to sacrifice themselves to the cause. in the end, when Satan is sitting on Sadness Island w/ (half of)Akira, they realize that in their rage, they turned into exactly what they originally opposed, but it’s far too late to reconcile their mistakes

what’s the motivation of Crybaby’s demons? uh... fuck man, idk. snuff films? I guess they want to be revived, but why aren’t they in on Satan’s plans? why are they all surprised when Devilman is made, when this is a specific goal in Satan’s grand scheme? why didn’t Jenny reveal this plan to anyone else? how did demons’ “essence” survive, can we plz have more of an explanation for that? it doesn’t make sense???

not that the og didn’t have its own weird explanations for things (”global warming is melting the demons out of their hibernation! also here’s a complete misinterpretation of evolutionary theory!”), but idk man, at least it mostly made sense w/in its own canon, I think. 

- the one other big thing that bothers me is the fact Devilman, the franchise, exists Crybaby? like I get that it’s just a joke, but it wasn’t just one-off, like this is brought back SEVERAL times, and it rly breaks my immersion every single time. like if the dman franchise exists in Crybaby, why is anyone here surprised by anything? and it’s not even an obscure story in-canon, it’s popular enough that ppl recognize the character, and Miki’s brother is obsessed w/ it. so if there’s a rly popular story that already reveals more-or-less Satan’s entire plan to the public, why are ppl so shocked?

the only way I can justify this is that it seems like maybeeee the only part of the dman franchise that’s present in the Crybaby universe is the 70′s tv show, which has a distinctly different plot from the original, and doesn’t feature Satan at all. but even with that explanation, not everyone who’s watching Crybaby knows that, and it’s still immersion-breaking even knowing that. like if they wanted a cute reference to Go Nagai’s works, why couldn’t they have featured Mazinger Z, or hell even Violence Jack

- some of the psych horror of the og/OVAs was cut and that’s a real bummer b/c it was honestly more horrifying than the gore. like og Miki’s parents phasing thru the walls/furniture when Ghelmer is attacking? that haunts me. also a lot of the demons in the og sacrifice themselves by merging w/ humans and killing the humans and themselves in the process in order to increase mass panic in the humans, which is a horrifying but cool tactic

- thankfully these bits were p quick, but everything involving the Amazon natives was....... uncomfortable at best. like, fair-skinned boy being worshiped as a god by darker people? hmmmmm. like idek why that part even existed, why didn’t Ryo just immediately wake up on that island where Akira lived, why did he have to be raised by the people in the Amazon only for him to become an orphan on that island anyways. Akira could have still found him on that cliff later on, it’s not like Satan Themself would have died if he wasn’t cared for as a baby. it would even make sense for Crybaby Ryo, considering that lack of affection in his formative years could have made him into the sociopath he is today

also when Ryo was explaining how old monsters of myth are demons, there were a few shots of gods shown, like.... Ryo.... those aren’t monsters those are religiously/culturally significant figures wtf are u doing...

- this adaptation is weirdly sexual? I mean, most dman adaptations have weirdly sexual elements, but most of the time it’s purely nudity with some /hints/ at sexual elements. like, ppl just Happen To Be Naked, and also sometimes make sexual comments. not that this isn’t questionable in and of itself (Silene’s og design, w/ her tail feathers UNDER her buttcheeks is uhhhhhhhhh), but it never felt like sexual assault or anything when ppl were fighting; ppl just happened to have their Whole Titty out when fighting. in Crybaby, there’s a blatant connection between the violent gore and the sex, and it’s uncomfortable at times. like I’m not necessarily a squeamish person, so most of the time I wasn’t that affected, but when Akira-- our hero-- effectively raped Silene on-the-fly during their fight I was like NO THANKS

overall opinion?

despite how long the “didn’t like” section is, I do like the show a lot. it’s strong as an independent series, and there is a lot to love as a dman fan as well. however, Ryo is not only an important character to me, but to the Devilman franchise as a whole, so to drop the ball on his character isn’t just insulting to me personally, but weakens Crybaby’s overall lore/plot in places it should be strongest