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Mar 7, 2018
This show is poorly written, especially the police procedural/mystery/thriller part of it. As a spectator it's hard to ignore a poor script if you're familiar with the genre and you can recall plenty of better works.
Both the characters and the situations are stereotyped, they often failed to persuade me, and the plot twists aren’t quite surprising. If I wanted to make a harsh critique, I would say it doesn’t feel like a consistent story, nor a consistent world. And sometimes the things are a little messy. What it feels like, indeed, is that a lazy staff was content with a superficial, not quite well
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thought work.
Just to be clear, Psycho-Pass is a popular anime that shares some similarities with B, but the former is a masterpiece if compared to the latter.
The supernatural part of the show was slightly better, as well as the backstory, which caught my attention more than the current events.
Checking on Anime News Network, apparently the script was written by someone named Ishida Katsuya, who previously only wrote one episode of Hajime no Ippo. If that’s true… well, as a debut it’s not too bad, I guess.
It’s a shame, because the series surely has some merits. I really enjoyed the animation, and the general mood of the series was appealing too, but I could not ignore the obvious flaws this show has.
If you can just get over it, maybe you will enjoy the anime a lot more than me. Actually, I think many people can, that's why I don't want to be too strict with the rating... but I can't even be too kind. It's a 6.5.
Anyway I would not recommend it to someone who is already used to (well crafted) crime shows.
Finally, to be honest, there is one thing I loved: the ending theme (and the visuals too). “The Perfect World” is an amazing song, I listened to it again and again.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 1, 2018
So, this was my first incursion in the Devilman franchise and it was… tougher than I expected.
Even if I’m not a fan of Yuasa Masaaki’s style, I’ve already watched three of his works and this is the one I enjoyed the most so far. The art style was mostly likeable and I got used to it in a few episodes, so I don't think it could spoil your overall enjoyment. And if you like it from the beginning, probably you will be able to appreciate better than me how it changes according to the tones and atmospheres. I would have preferred a more usual
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style in some scenes, but a lot sequences were actually impressive.
Another thing that could bother someone is the length. While watching the series I noticed that things were escalating very quickly, and I wondered if the choice to make it last only 10 episodes was the right one. I have not yet come to a conclusion.
Surely there are characters to whom I have not had enough time to get attached, but that didn’t bother me too much because I still cared about a few of them, the main ones. What let me down were the demons: some were supposed to be “bosses”, they were also part of secret organization of demons, but both individuals and the organization had much less screen time than I expected.
On the other hand, I don’t think that simply increasing the number of episodes would make this particular series better. I mean, you can take a minimalist artist and make him add more elements to his artworks, but who know if that will be an actual improvement. Probably not. What I’m saying about the anime is that, to me, it works as it is, despite these flaws. And the credit goes partially to the director and largely, I guess, to the source material.
Because what impressed me the most are the themes you deal with while watching Devilman, and later I’ll give you some examples. The synopsis is simple, almost classical, but this is not a typical shounen. During the first 3 episodes, I wondered what kind of anime I was watching (and it’s still hard to tell). It starts off like a shounen, but from the beginning there are elements (e.g. the graphic violence or the sexually explicit scenes) and events that clash with that definition, or at least they push it to its limits. During episodes 4-5 I was still wondering, but I started to figure it out. At this point, you can see what’s going on, you can guess what road the story will take. And you will ask: how far down that road?
Then the last 5 episodes will hit you like a ton of bricks. They struck me so hard, and that’s why I truly liked them. You too will like them if you are a thoughtful person (or a masochist… or even a sadist). This is one of those works that wake you up. It shows you things you don’t want to see and it makes you think about things you'd rather ignore. I love how this anime is violent, disturbing, touching and nihilistic. In episodes 6 to 9 these elements build a perfect climax. Then the last episode is an anticlimax, but it’s worth because it digs even more in the nihilistic element.
Watching this series forced me to think over issues like the correlation between the will to protect someone and the strength you need to do so, the classic “fear of the other”, the true value of kindness and its limits, the (arbitrary) categories in which we put ourselves and the others, how these categories prevent to understand or even accurately judge someone, how a mix of ignorance/stupidity/fear can make people evil and dangerous, how dictatorships hide in plain sight behind good intentions and the consent of the majority.
A remarkable lot of things for a 10 episodes series. And, in my opinion, these are also very current topics on which people have stopped questioning.
One last thing about the sound: the OP is cool and I think the soundtrack is really fitting. I usually don’t pay conscious attention to the OST, but in this case it affected me, certain sequences were perfectly emphasized by the score.
EDIT: Initially I rated this anime 8/10 (the mean score was 8.5 actually), but then I upgraded it to a 9, because of two subjective reasons: my enjoyment and the fact I hold in high regard those shows that don't sugarcoat their messages.
[English is not my native language, I'm sorry if what you just read was poorly written]
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 21, 2018
This show is a blood feast. It seems to say “You can’t have vampires without blood. You can’t have ghouls without dismembered bodies. You can’t have a nazi battalion without a carnage. The opposite would be hypocritical”.
So, is it good? If you love gore, it is.
This is an original take on Dracula and the myth of the vampire; regardless of the outcome, I find it interesting when Japanese media re-elaborate European folklore. For example, the Eros/Thanatos dualism has always permeated vampire stories. Given that Japanese animation is often blamed (rarely by me) for its unnecessary erotic scenes, I was quite surprised to find out
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that here the sensual element is measured out and subtle. It's not absent – because it’s needed – and you can feel it, but the story is more revolved around death and violence.
I would say the main plot is just a “staging”. It doesn't lack of creativity, deep moments and evolving situations, but there's a thing that becomes clear near the end: the countless deaths, the conspiracies, the whole war, it was all built as a stage on which the characters can bloom to the climax of their role. Obviously this is a choice originally made by the author (assuming that the anime is true to the manga, which I haven't read yet), then disguised as if it’s made by the characters themselves. You can be annoyed. You can blame him. But then you have to accept that choice, if you want to enjoy the anime.
Besides that, there are anyway digressions that I found interesting, as well as certain captivating dynamics between the characters. I particularly enjoyed episodes 6 and 7, which are focused on the siege of the Hellsing mansion, with Seras and the mercenaries being the last line of defence.
Speaking of the characters, their design is fascinating, as well it is the whole atmosphere in which they are immersed. They’re a bit stereotypical, but that doesn’t mean they’re flat – as I said, the scene is purpose-built to let them shine… or darken. They are here to play a role (which usually involves cool action sequences resulting in bloodbaths) and they do it well. Sometimes I truly felt like I was watching a theatrical piece, probably the way dialogues are written contributed to that feeling too. And I don’t mean it in a negative way. Sure, this anime betrayed to some extent my expectation, but it was no difficult for me to give up on expectations and enjoy the show for what it is.
Finally, the pacing is not so well balanced, but when I realised that the 10 OVAs had been animated over a period of 6 years by 3 different studios, it seemed even too good.
That said, I can’t give it an extremely high evaluation, nor recommend it to everyone. The vote you see is what I truly think it deserves, and you should watch it if you are thirst of gunfights, bloodsheds and supernatural monsters as I was.
[English is not my native language, I'm sorry if this review is poorly written]
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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