Devilman: Tanjou-hen

For any fan of the recent Anime Devilman Crybaby and wondered if you should give this OVA a try, this review is for you. At this point, you’ve probably seen a couple “Devilman dub is gold” or “Devilman dub is a treasure.” The sheer quirkiness of some of the dialogue has made these videos become incredibly popular. After it being brought to your attention, you might wonder is Devilman: Tanjou-hen worth watching? Story (5/10) The story of Devilman: Tanjou-hen (also known as Devilman: The Birth) is much the same of the devilman you already know. Akira, young weak boy meets up with his good friend Ryo. Ryotells him about the existence of devils, turns him into devilman. We all know this basic plot, it’s the premise of Devilman Crybaby, but it’s the summary of Devilman: Tanjou-hen. In Crybaby, there was plenty of time to go beyond the basic premise and tell the story, Tanjou-hen on the other hand seems to act more of a prequel. Of course, it is important to note that Tanjou-hen has a sequel, but rating it on it’s own values shows that the plot is shallow. Furthermore, the entire OVA, save for the last fifteen minutes, serves as buildup for the OVA, but never managing to go further than the premise. The pacing of the OVA suffers because of this fact, too long when there is no action and right when the OVA gets to a part with high intensity it ends. Speaking of the pacing, there are some real weird moments of Akira and Ryo just standing and staring at each other. Not an intense mid battle stare, just standing there. There came a point where it became uncomfortable as a viewer as it seemed that the stare passed the ten second mark, which is an awful long time to stare. Of course, the story that it does include is well done and enjoyable. The story does not gain praise nor scorn. It’s mediocre at best. TLDR: Not much to speak of on the story, the premise of Devilman is what you get and no further. Pacing issues. Art (7/10) It’s always hard for an old anime to age well, and especially looking in the retrospective it is easy to be critical of art. That being said, I will try my best to put bias aside and give a fair review. The art for this OVA was good. The landscapes at the beginning are nice, albeit run of the mill. I think where the art shines through is when the characters faces are drawn. There are some very quirky lines in Tanjou-hen and the visuals accompany it. While I’m sure that people will say that the lines are bad, and therefore so are the visuals, it is important to remember: regardless of what you thought of the lines the art did a good job representing it. One of the notable, yet unimportant, characters of the show was the goofy gangster. His movements and facial expressions mimicked how his character was weird and mocking. Even Akira’s facial expressions were very good in more comedic moments. The monsters were creative and interesting. What I think took away some of the points that the art earned was again the weird stare downs. When flashing between two characters faces with no change in expression, it is hard to get new information. TLDR: Nice art for the time, landscape was run of the mill, but the characters motions and facial expressions shined through. But again the weird stare downs were a problem for me. Sound (6/10) There were few times when I actually noticed the sound/music in the OVA, but that wasn’t a bad thing. It fit the show well, but it didn’t hold any particular impact for me. There were moments that I would hear soft creepy music playing in the OVA (there is a lot of that type of music) and would think, that’s nice. It didn’t distract me from the show, but it definitely added to the experience, even if in a minor way. TLDR: It was Fine. Character (7/10) The characters of Devilman are iconic, and while Tenjou-hen misses some of the nuances that might have been there in another adaptation, it still nails these fun characters on the surface. Akira is still weak and Ryo is still an asshole, but each has a bit of humor attached to them. Akira’s desire to escape situations, disbelief, and awkwardness that lead to the comedy in his actions and reactions. For Ryo, it’s his dry nature and sarcasm that carries the moedy. TLDR: No nuance, but fun characterization with humor. Enjoyment (8/10) I truly think that enjoyment is the most important category for this show in particular, especially if you are tempted to watch this show after watching a youtube video or two on the dub. I personally watched the dub, because of the youtube videos I watched as well as that was the method that was most accessible to me. I think watching this is a bit similar to Ghost Stories as there is no genuine reason why it's good, but you enjoy it nonetheless and you can’t say the dub isn’t entertaining. If you’re willing to watch a whole fifty minutes worth of an OVA to catch ever nugget of gold in the dub, to listen to every single casually dropped curse word, then this OVA is for you. If after watching a single youtube video, you think had enough of Tanjou-hen, then I wouldn’t go on to watch the entire OVA. TLDR: The quotes from this show make it so enjoyable Overall (7/10) The OVA was something good and incredibly enjoyable for me, but was nothing spectacular. If you are wanting to watch the OVA in a serious fashion, I don’t particularly recommend it since that is not the part of it I enjoyed the most. If you are looking for laughable moments in an otherwise serious series and don’t mind spending 50 minutes to further immerse yourself in the world of Devilman and some of the memes behind it, then go for it, the OVA is for you. TLDR: If you’re in for a fun time, go for it. Don’t expect anything too serious or phenomenal.

If you are a tad bit cracked in the head and you are a fervent Go Nagai fan like me, this film may be the most faithful interpretation of his work that you will ever see. While the film adds and subtracts a tad bit of scenes, it is as if many of the panels and dialogue from the first volume of Devilman are literally animated onto the screen. The animation is a little wonky at times but is overall, very good for 1987. And true to Go "My Father Died" Nagai's work the film is sort of awkward and the dialogue is down rightbizarre at times. However, it still manages to create that depraved, trippy, unnatural atmosphere that colorizes Nagai's horror manga.

well....i´ll guess it was COMPLETLY my mistake that i took this anime quite ´lightly´ back in 1999,as a 13 year old to find this kind of anime in a bargain bin on vhs and at first it din´t look that scared, till i watched it afterwards, in those days it was like `anime´s forbidden fruit´ to younger kids . The ´anime master of horror´ Go Nagai ( with respect ofc) seemed already made a t.v series of devilman in the 1970´s and a movie called Devilman v.s Mazinger Z wich both i never saw aired and over the decades made short horrorstorie´s or ova´s likeViolence Jack that was some sort of culthits among older animefans like this one . The story itself to me was quite interesting ( although the 1st 5 min or so with the demonic slaughter intro made me a bit wondering), it was´nt too complex luckely, though it really started to be very dark for me .Animationwise it´s sooo 80´s u can´t miss it with some faults here and there as usual but at parts well made, i like handmade anime its just how u look at it today.Furtheron in the story after some gruesome scene´s some Makai ( demons) turn up to silence the two protagonists and at that point the late 80´s tracks start to kick off, but only for moment, moving on to the last 15 min of the ova. After seeing some good action scene´s and saw the explenation of the story, i remember the bit in the rockdisco where a socalled´ ritual supposed to be held , and that one of the two protagonists wanted to start to kicking it off by slashing everybody for a certain reason ( no i´m not gonna spoil THAT much) and well.... the violence was soo damn filty, soo much red and soo much brutal demonslaughter i almost choked out for a minute and was totally scared afterwards, i hardly slept . i had had first some sort of filthy disgust against akira ( the main person) because WHY had he killed those demons so brutal and inhumane, but seeing the 2nd ova part even how sickminded and terrified i was i understood part of why he turned into a sickening demon, together with the ova series and short movie wich came years later, that are overall softer somewhat. but man oh man did i had a harsh time with ths one, thumbs up

So, you've probably seen Crybaby if you found out about this. The big question is "How's the OVA's?" The answer? "Eh?" This OVA takes basically the first part of the manga where our wimpy hero becomes the hero that Japan deserves, Devilman, and drags it out ad nauseum. Crybaby had the right idea condensing the part this OVA adapts to a single 20 minute episode, because its littered with boring exposition and flashbacks that you are likely to skip. Despite the lengthy runtime, we don't get a whole lot of development from our main characters, much less side characters like Miki, who were absolutely spoiled inthe Crybaby adaptation However, the presentation is actually pretty good. Action scenes are smooth and have surprisingly good impact and it still looks really good despite being from 1987. Not to mention the delicious amount of gore. This is the 80's after all. If you are to watch this, watch the dub, because the excessive swearing and one-liners is what most of the enjoyment of this otherwise mediocre late 80s slugfest comes from. However, when the characters aren't being more hammy than a Boar's Head, particularly during parts with exposition or parts where the plot is making an attempt to be serious, the delivery is quite wooden. At these points, the Japanese dub is actually much better, and some parts where the dub overdid it, such as the "I'M DEVILMAAAAAAAAAN" scene, the original actually sounds really cool. But the original language, without the swearing and overacting, just makes the underdeveloped characters and plot in this simultaneously bloated and thin OVA more obvious. So just pop a cold one, turn your brain off, and enjoy the condensed 80s in this pretty fun romp.

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