Devilman Crybaby
Anime fans are still grappling with this season’s breakout show Devilman Crybaby, one of the most “extra” anime to have ever been made. It’s a rare masterpiece, grabby with its demon-filled story and brash, sometimes shocking sexuality. It’s also the most recent in a long line of masterpieces by director Masaaki Yuasa.
Masaaki Yuasa has been melting brains since 2004. Dipping your toe into his psychedelic body of work is the anime equivalent of hearing Pink Floyd for the first time. If you haven’t seen any of the anime he’s directed, perhaps you’ve noticed his cameos in mainstream cartoons, like Adventure Time‘s “Food Chain” episode:
Adventure Time
He also animated Samurai Champloo‘s famous weed episode:
Samurai Champloo
If you’re at all familiar with the way anime has looked over the last few decades, it’s clear that Yuasa’s work is something else. He forgoes lots of anime traditions — large eyes, for example — for a kind of visual elasticity.
He doesn’t have a distinct “style” so much as he’s got a distinct brand of “flow.” Melting, falling, popping, ingesting and shifting backgrounds are all ways he moves between scenes. Protagonists’ smallest emotions and experiences are visual odysseys. There’s a lot of absurdism, but everything is polished and purposeful.
Yuasa’s latest work, Devilman Crybaby, landed on the largest platform he’s seen yet: Netflix. If you were intrigued and want to see more, we’ve got you covered:
Kaiba
Kaiba is a short sci-fi love story unlike any anime I’ve ever seen. In its dystopian world, memories can be stored on chips which are sold to the rich. Memories and bodies are interchangeable. The rich and the poor are stratified, with their realms separated by a storm cloud that clears people’s memories when they pass through it. It looks a little like an an old Disney movie on acid.
Tatami Galaxy
Tatami Galaxy is a wild ride of a show about a mundane, nameless, third-year college student. In the anime, which is separated into four parts, he repeats his third year at a slightly different university and in a slightly different club. Each time, he encounters a devilish boy named Ozu, who entraps him in some questionable (but mostly nefarious) misadventures.
Mind Game
There’s a scene in Mind Game where a 20-year-old loser is shot in the arse, ascends to a computerised afterlife where he meets God, races a jaguar and then returns to his body. I don’t know what else needs to be said about it.
Ping Pong: The Animation
Ping Pong laughs in the face of sports anime. It’s about two table tennis aficionados — one, reserved and the other, extraverted — who compete to become the best. Yuasa inserts drama into each game with exaggerated, amoebous ping pong balls and absurd shifts in perspective. Part of me wonders whether Yuasa picked this up just so he could show off freaky-looking games of ping pong.
Comments
8 responses to “If You Loved Devilman Crybaby, You’ll Love These Anime, Too”
Oh man, I LOVED the original Devilman in the early 90’s ( I was an early anime adopter) but I grew off anime as I aged and it became globally popular (because that’s the kind of elitist jerk i am). I even imported the chibi version OVA, which was just the first three episodes of the original series done to look cute, but with an identical story.
It was disturbingly good.
I think I need to catch the flu and force myself to watch the reboot.
I too am not a Weeaboo, I watched Devilman & Fist of the Northstar as a kid, OVAs too, I said Devilman is Violence Jack & got shouted down by the new generations of Devilman fans, I will be a elitists because i am right, Violence Jack & The legend of the Overfiend are my type of “non cutesy” anime. I haven’t watched this new Devilman because i’m scared it could be a “last Resident Evil game u played was Resident Evil 3/ You just played Resident Evil 6 & wept” Type of situation .
I too enjoy Urotsukidoji! I mean, if you put the rapey shit aside, it’s got a great concept and fantastic character designs. One day I shall be Chojin.
Lol, We were kids at the perfect time for anime . The golden years.
Also, Project A-Ko.
I had to google Project A Ko but then was hit with nostalgia, Was Project A Ko a pre cursor to Sailor Moon? Like Violence Jack’s action a pre cursor to Dragon ball.
Nah, it was mostly a precursor to the “So, are these guys lesbians or not?” genre.
I mentioned this more in depth in the earlier Devilman thread, but bears repeating: Kaiba is awesome, awesome!