Devilman Crybaby

running wasn’t something humans were capable of, but we evolved and adapted, in the name of survival, we learnt to run from predators. but now, in the modern day, we run for different reasons, we run for glory, for bragging rights, we run away from our emotions, our mistakes, we run away in rebellion, in hopes of finding something, in a noisy and chaotic world we don’t understand.  “Why do you run?”in the same way running is an innate reaction from deep within our hearts, crying works in the same way, the same way tears flow from the corner of my eyes, down my cheek, when kukun confesses his love to miko through rap, when akira had to kill his parents, when miki hugged and believed akira when the whole world seemingly doesn’t, when miko confronts miki about how she hated being in the shadow of miki, when miko runs together with miki one last time, when miki and miko are heartlessly killed, when ryo feels human emotion for the first time, all these uniquely human scenes, conjure and manifest a fluid we associate with humanity. this is just two of the many well executed and well explored metaphors of humanity in this retelling of a classic that has inspired so many works of art. there’s so many ways to interpret a work like devilman, where its core message is that love triumphs all and we should learn to have more empathy and compassion for one another because in the end, the land that we occupy, the colour of our skin, the languages that leave our mouths, don’t matter at all. i’ve decided to watch this after reading all the manga, spin-offs and side stories, written by nagai go and many other people, and the entirety of devilman spoke to me on a deeply personal level that words fail to even explain.  devilman crybaby is the evangelion rebuilds for devilman fans, which is kinda funny cause evangelion was inspired by devilman, but in many ways evangelion inspires crybaby. all the episodes that starts with rapping also feels reminiscent of the bard in rose of versailles, that catches us up on the french revolution in the same way devilman catches up on its own world.  as a queer person and ex-christian, devilman felt like a religious catharsis to me, with all its demonic depictions and hyper-sexually erotic scenes, with all its innate queerness, filled me with a sense of relief and safeness that i’ve never felt before. and as a devilman fan, it’s so refreshing to see characters i’ve grown to love and new characters in a new setting with modern sensibilities. the characters were teenagers, learning to figure out their emotions and place in the world, and as pretentious as it may seem, rapping, running, crying were their way of rebellion, was their way of making sense of a world they were inheriting that is a product of, albeit good or bad, the adults that surround them. i have so many thoughts and so many ideas and angles on how i view the entirety of devilman, that i don’t feel like writing down, but devilman has definitely changed my life and i love devilman with all my heart and tracing back influences to devilman will be something i look forward too!