General Anime/Manga Discussion 15: The Beach Episode

[Weimann]

I watched two anime this season: Devilman Crybaby and A Place Further than the Universe. It's interesting how these two contrast with each other, because they both do pretty much the exact opposite thing to each other.

A Place Further than the Universe is certainly one of the most solid anime I've ever seen. It's easy to watch because it's so finely tuned in each aspect of its production. It managed to hit me right in the feels almost every episode, and managed to make all the main girls interesting and appealing (at first, I liked Hinata the best, but at the end I think I preferred Shirase). I personally got mostly hooked on the witty manuscript and the creative use of background space. It's bound to go into anime canon as a perfect example of how to mix moe with adventure, and it certainly deserves it.

That said, apart from (and I want to underscore this) all of it being exceptionally great, it's also kind of normal. It's certainly a very watchable, very recommendable, safe for everyone show. I wanted to mix it up with something different, and since I heard good things about it, I also watched...

Devilman Crybaby. Ho boy.

Right, to begin with, Devilman Crybaby is absolutely a good show, but it's good in very different ways than A Place Further than the Universe. It's darkly sexual, unabashedly hyperviolent, and (I'd argue) tragic in a classical sense. All of these are points in its favour in my mind, particularly in the context of today's anime scene, where it provides a... well, I'd say refreshing alternative, but I don't think DC is refreshing. It's grimy, bloody and unsafe, and it really succeeds in making me feel that way.

I think DC has interesting things to say: about suspicion and being an outcast in society, about the treatment of those different than you, and about the backside of "normal". It also dares to deal with sex and carnal desire, particularly in the absence of love, which certainly strengthens the sense that the characters are mostly teenagers. While it definitely doesn't paint sex in a good light, at least it's not erased or trivialised into "he saw my panties blush blush". Also, nothing really is painted in a good light in this show, so it does fit the theme.

Hm, between DC, Darling in the FRANXX and Citrus, there's really been quite a few shows looking at sex this season, hasn't there?

That said, some have said "instant AOTY" about DC, and yeah, not for me. It was a thrilling diversion, a look into an age of copied OVA cassette tapes that was never intended to get airtime. But sometimes during the episodes, the ultraviolence just made my blank over. Some shots are shocking, and I really did feel sick now and then, but I just got tired of it. The final episode was less epic climax, more "right, get it over with already".