Devilman: Crybaby.
Okay, so I’ve been a big fan of Go Nagai since before I knew who he was, way back when I watched Mazinger Z (known over here as Tranzor Z) when I was, like, 5. Didn’t even know it was originally Japanese. Devilman, Lady-Devilman, Demon Lord Dante, I love that shit. Granted, his stuff is the epitome of style over substance. But there’s just so fucking much style there that it’s easy to forgive. I think he probably would have been better suited to creating heavy metal album covers and music videos or something, rather than trying to tell actual stories. But, you know, the story elements are at least the cheesy enjoyable kindof bad. Not everyone is gonna like hisstuff, but if you have the right mindset going in, it can be a hell of a lot of fun.
So this modern reinterpretation of one of his classics manages tocapture that vibe perfectly. It’s just fucking dripping with that 70s dark fantasy atmospheric coolness. And the animation itself has that very loose, very hand-drawn kinda look that I associate with 70’s animation (both Japanese and Western), only done way the hell better. This time it’s an artistic choice, rather than a budgetary one like the original.
Go into this looking to get caught up in a compelling story, and you’ll be pretty dissappointed. <mod edit - drug use guidelines>