Anime Meta-Review

       
                 
                 
       

Devilman, Original TV

       
                 
                 
 

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Title Info

  • seen: 1-2
  • type: TV
  • grade: archaic
  • genre: magic_war
  • people: Go-Nagai
  • Series state: Don't intend to watch more.
  • made: 1972
  • Review created: Recently, but I didn't record the date.
  • mod: none

This is the anime that caused this category to come into being. It also shows just how long Go Nagai has been involved in anime, although I believe this show is considered to very different from his source material. Anyway, the story considers Akira Fudo who has been possessed by the most powerful warrior in the devil family. As such he has been sent to bring doom and destruction to the people of the world. However, there's a problem, his girlfriend won't let him. Yep, it appears Akira's affections have survived, and as a result the most devilman can acheive is being a bit rude and the school bully. Of course the devil family is less than impressed, so it looks like there is no shortage of monsters for devilman to fight.

This the true historical stuff. From the strangely primitive opening chorus giving devilmans attacks ("His chop is powerful, His Kick is destructive, His Beam is of Heat") to the loud voices and simple stories it all seems so strange to the modern anime fan. On the other hand it is so simple it goes straight into the subconscious. You might find yourself singing the chorus (and scaring passers-by) and it is really easy to imagine young (and not so young) kids acting out the special attacks. The combats involve some tactics, because devilman had better be injured before he transforms, as well as massive destruction when devilman transforms into giant form. The element of his human girlfriend opens for some involvement with normal life and horror elements, but it is all secondary to the devilman vs. monster punch em ups.

In talking about the production what do you expect? The animation is fairly primitive with really simple coloring, simple linework and low detail. There are some scenes with a lot of detail but these tend to have very low framecounts and not work very well. It is interesting that the lines don't look as `solid' as modern anime, making it look much more `hand-painted' and rough. The character design and appearances are strange with certain characters (such as akira's adoptive parents) looking normal while their child and the school characters are in an almost super deformed mode. It summary it is terrible, primitive and strangely intriguing.

I didn't really expect the pages I source from to have a review of this title. Likewise anipike did not reveal any good sites for this.

       
                 
                 
       

Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:17 WST 2009