Anime: Devilman Lady 4t1b5x

Note: This review is based on ASS fansubs which are a good choice if you too are a person to waste your life on a show like this.



Originally created by Hirano Toshiki (Angel Heart) Devilman Lady[/b] is best described as a show about big monsters laying waste. The plot revolves around a charismatic supermodel, Fudou Jun, who supposedly has some sort of "evolved" genes giving her an ability to turn into a monster at will. Her unusual condition doesn't go unnoticed and she soon finds herself working for a secret organization dealing with the extermination of other unfortunate individuals who have a tendency to transform into big vicious creatures and lay waste to whatever architecture they can point their claws at. The show follows episodic monster-per-week formula with few hints at character development up until the last few episodes which round up the story in what would appear an epic conclusion if not for the laughably bad monster designs and failures at suspension of disbelief.

Frankly, it's been awhile since I've seen a show so devoid of anything interesting as Devilman Lady. I must say the poor production values and premise of this show kind of reminds me of those old big monster movies, like the original Godzilla. Seeing a city getting destroyed by an overgrown thing might be fun once or twice, but it certainly gets old fast. Imagine the pain when it goes on and on for over twenty episodes and you will understand what Devilman Lady is. The only redeemable part of this show is its steady character development and some peculiar hints at monster shoujo ai. Unfortunately, neither that development is particularly well done, nor characters themselves are any interesting. The best thing this show can ever do is pulling out some barely above meh reactions during its most dramatic moments. Seriously, Devilman Lady is a show steady enough to be above the "so bad it's funny" kind, unfortunately all it achieves with that is being bad and boring without any fun whatsoever.

Animation: 5/10

Animation done by Kyokuichi Tokyo Movie is, as could be expected from a show made in 1998, outdated. While I can't really say that detail in backgrounds is particularly lacking, the dark gray/black color palette makes the world of Devilman Lady come off as sleep-inducing rather than the likely intended depressing. This is particularly true to fights between the monsters which take place during the nights, their black brownish designs blend with the dark grayish colors of the backgrounds and sometimes you find yourself having trouble to see what's going on in there at all. Which brings me to the monster designs which are quite bad to boot. While generic monsters are forgettable, blend in the background and have about 1/2 probability of being taken seriously, the design of the main character is one of the most stupid I have ever seen in my entire narrative art otaku career. She looks like a naked woman wearing black animal fashion slippers and having an overgrown bat stuck on her head. I guess there is little need to confess that it was quite hard for me to take her seriously.

Ironically the designs of humans might be the best part of this anime as most people are moderately detailed and attractive if needed. The realistic style kind of makes the designs come off as bland and you can notice some slight deformations here and there, but for the most part people do look plausible if not memorable. Fluidity for simple movements looks okay for the most part, but battles between the monsters are not choreographed well and thus appear very anti-climatic.

Sound: 3/10

OP/ED combination is only slightly below average in of memorable music, you'll likely forget them, but at least they wont make your ears bleed... Unlike some themes in background music composed by Watanabe Toshiyuki (Agatha Christie). While I it there are some bland tracks which work to maintain the depressing atmosphere of the show, there are also tracks, particularly the ever-so-reused "transformation" melody, which make you wish you were deaf. No wonder the guy never composed music for any mainstream show given his... peculiar sense in music, bleh.

Voice-acting, while not particularly nerve grating, is quite below-par of what you usually hear in your anime. Iwao Junko who voices the main heroine here is the only notable seiyuu in the cast. She doesn't sound particularly good or anything, however, and her performance in this show is hardly memorable.

Story: 3/10

The bigger first half of the show is plagued by episodic monster-per-week episodes which if not particularly painful to watch are simply sleep-inducing. Save for some half-assed character development and some really lame monster battles nothing really happens in the first twenty or so episodes. It takes the last episodes of the show to finally put the story in tracks, and while I can't deny it had the potential, the damage by the boring first half was already done and, frankly, it is sometimes hard to take even the last part seriously. I must say that the creators of Devilman Lady have a peculiar comprehension of what evolution is, from what I had observed these monsters are in all ways inferior to humans in of adaptability, not to mention they'd die from the lack of food before even getting a chance to mate. Anyway, not much happens in Devilman Lady and I can't really find a single thing to label as fun in it... so yeah, that's the grade.

Characters: 5/10

Character development is certainly here and the struggles between instincts of monstrosity and reasoning of humanity in Fudou Jun are relatively interesting to observe. However, neither Fudou Jun, nor anyone else in the side cast possess any special traits which would make them distinguishable from the masses of fictitious characters. I'm not too fond of archetypes, but I still can enjoy some of the more quirky ones in my anime. While boring girl living boring life is not really a stereotype, it's still the worst attribute in my book. Unfortunately, it applies to pretty much all cast present in Devilman Lady. Maybe with an exception of the mastermind behind monster hunting, Asuka Ran, but it's not like you haven't seen her type done better somewhere else before. Development of the hardly interesting main heroine is carried out well, but both she and the whole cast of this show still stay more or less unmemorable.

Myers-Briggs personality type indicator:

Fudou Jun - ISFJ (D)
Ran Asuka - ENTJ (D)
Kazumi Takiura - ESFP (E)

Show Spoiler

Value: 3/10

The biggest villain you'll fight when watching this show is sleep... and unless you need to cure your insomnia you shouldn't watch this show at all. It's already deleted safe and sound from my HDD and all I wish is that I wouldn't meet another dose of sleep pills masked under anime cover anytime soon.

1. Conclusion[/u]:[/b] While Devilman Lady is not an extremely flawed show the ratings would lead you to believe, it's still boring as hell. Frankly, it wouldn't have been fun even if it was flawless as, well, there is a limit to what you can do with an episodic city trashing monster show. You want to watch something good? Search elsewhere. You want to watch something fun? Nope, not here. You can't sleep? Yep, this one might help. Otherwise, let this boring pile of dung rot in the forgotten depths of anime realm and stick with your Godzilla movies.

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I don't normally find the time to review anime, even the ones I particularly like or dislike, but Devil Lady is one of those that begs for me to criticize it no matter how much I'd rather put it out of my mind. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it, I just thought it could have been more. Not just better, more.

Animation: It was good for the time. The transformations were always great, and the fight scenes never ceased to please. I also never felt overwhelmed by the fighting and special effects nor did I feel like they skimped on either one to save budget; everything was well balanced. There were a few times where objects ed through each other but it was never enough to distract or irritate me.

Sound: Nothing special. The opening set the mood and the music throughout did the same; no more and no less than that. When you were supposed to be scared, the music let you know. It didn't make you feel scared, it just let you know you were supposed to be. The voice acting could have been better but it wasn't horrible, just sub-par.

Story: Leaves something to be desired. This is the part of Devil Lady that really irritates me. So much of the story could have been better from the plot holes to the overlying theme. For instance, the background on how people started to become beast is never clearly explained. I wouldn't have a problem with it if there weren't whole episodes dedicated to it and major parts of the storyline hinging on it. Its like they beg the question, start to give the answer, and (like someone with alzheimer's) move on to a different part of the story without skipping a beat or giving it a second thought. For someone who tries to pay attention to every detail, like me, it left me in the final episode with my jaw in my lap going "WTF?!". The overlying theme also troubles me in that it never really agrees with itself. It seems like throughout the story the theme is about humanity and its dark and light sides, but its hard to distinguish between the two. This wouldn't be a problem if it didn't seem like there was supposed to be a clear difference. In the beginning there are the beasts who have lost their humanity and kill everyone, including family, without hesitation and Jun and the people she works for are killing them to protect the people. Jun herself is a beast, but she keeps her humanity and controls the beast so... she's good. The beasts kill without question so... they're bad. In the beginning you are really brought to believe this and somewhere along the line (without spoiling anything) that changes. And it doesn't just change, it doesn't even matter anymore. And you're not even told why. The route it goes from there isn't necessarily bad, it just bothers the hell out of me that the theme just changes without reason or explanation.

Characters: One word: Depth. Whats great about the characters, and whats kind of the show's saving grace for me, is that the they are so dynamic. Anyone who has taken a 6th grade lit class knows that their are two main types of characters: flat (or static) and round (or dynamic). The main difference between the two being that round characters change or show more than one aspect of their personality throughout the storyline (in other words: they grow). So many of even the main characters of 100 episode long series show no real growth that finding an anime where the protagonist is somehow different in the last episode is like finding buried treasure for me.

Value / Enjoyment: Will probably re-watch. Normally I can appreciate a show for what it is; no matter how dark or depressing. As long as it does what it sets out to do, I can respect and appreciate it. The problem I have with Devil Lady (as I said before) is that it doesn't know, or at least doesn't let me know, what it was setting out to do. With all that said, I still enjoyed Devil Lady andsomewhere down the road I'll watch it again even if its only to try and understand it more. I'd also recommend it to anyone, especially those who like dark action/drama's.