New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

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usamimi
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New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by usamimi »

So it looks like Actas (the studio behind "Girls und Panzer", lol) will be releasing a new Devilman anime series this fall: http://moca-news.net/article/20150416/2 ... ?afid=difa

A quick glance at their work via ANN looks like the bulk of their work over the years has been helping other studios do in-between animation (for example, they helped on that new "Ai Tenchi Muyo" thing....lol XD), but I guess Girls Und Panzer was such a big hit for them they can do another series, huh? The promo image looks kinda cool, but I'm still not sure if I should be excited or not yet, considering how "meh" most of the re-vamps of older titles have been lately. But who knows? If anything, maybe this'll get more people looking into Go Nagai's original stuff, at the very least.
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Re: New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by ParaParaJMo »

I hope they follow it up with a faithful to the manga adaptation of Violence Jack
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Revenge
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Re: New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by Revenge »

So, anyone watched this? The Cyborg vs Devilman anime was globaly launched trought Netflix so I think many people saw it by now. I watched those 3 OVAs (or movie) in spanish before Neflix released it, and I thought it was pretty fine. I was never too much into Cyborg, I only saw one movie, "The legend of the super galaxy", so I knew the characters and a bit more than that; Devilman I watched everything and have the new (2015) french edition of the manga, so I was expecting more from Devilman than from Cyborg. It does it's job as a crossover, ties both stories pretty consistently and adds no plot holes as it can be placed in both series canon. The animation is pretty good, fluid, it's bloody and violent enought, and the character design is made to homage the original works. The OP and ED is from Jam Project so it can only be good. This is made for us old schoolers so give it a try. It has it's flaws, but if you like the genre, it's 2 hours well spent.
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Re: New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by SteveH »

I dunno. I've not heard too much about Devilman Vs Cyborg 009, but it HAS to be better than that odd, sad Re:Cyborg crap that came out not long ago.

I mean, fine, try and do a 'Patlabor Movie' with 9 people who have been transformed against their will into fighting machines and amp up the "I'm no longer human so I cannot be with humans or even relate" angst, blah blah blah.

That's like if Mazinger Z Vs. Devilman had been 45 minutes of Koji Kabuto and Akira Fudo playing chess while Dr. Hell takes a shower. IT WASN'T. It was about BAD ASS DUDES GETTING IN EACH OTHERS FACE ABOUT DOING THINGS!!

And according to Corn Pone Flicks, Ice Cream.

Anyway. I recall Dave saying there wasn't a manly handshake between 009 and Devilman. So, I judge the project a failure. :)
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Re: New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by SteveH »

huh. am I missing something? We can't edit a reply?

Onward. Wanted to say, I'm just not sure the worlds of Ishinomori and Nagai really work together well. Even at its most angst-driven Cyborg 009 still has that "but the FUTURE is COOL" vibe underlying everything. Cars are cool. Video phones are cool. flying battleship submarine secret bases are cool. Long, LONG scarfs are cool.

Devilman, it's just unending horror. To western eyes the Cyborgs should quite their moping about being monsters because they have artificial parts (I think that's a common body horror thing related to Shinto) while Akira Fudo is justifiably messed up because he's possessed, or has possessed, a major demon from hell, a no-s**t horrible for reals hell. It's all good fun back in the early '70s Devilman but it just gets more and more horrible as the years and technology and maturity of animation watchers grows.

It just doesn't quite mesh in my mind.
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Re: New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by usamimi »

I actually thought Cyborg 009 vs Devilman was pretty good! It's on par with those "This Superhero Vs That Superhero" kinda what if stuff. It's def not perfect, and I'd never consider it real canon, but it was a fun thing to spend an afternoon watching cuz it was neat to see these old characters actually animated well & doing what was advertised: fighting!! :lol: I thought the Devilman fights in particular were animated very well. I'd love to see this same team do a solo Devilman movie or something, they had his look down pat.

Music by Jam Project doesn't hurt, either! ;)
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Re: New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by llj »

SteveH wrote:huh. am I missing something? We can't edit a reply?
Read the private discussion forum. I brought this up there a few weeks ago. Suffice to say, no we can't and that's probably not changing,
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Re: New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by SteveH »

llj wrote:
SteveH wrote:huh. am I missing something? We can't edit a reply?
Read the private discussion forum. I brought this up there a few weeks ago. Suffice to say, no we can't and that's probably not changing,
Huh. Well, it is what it is. On the one hand I approve because I've been on boards where people play the game of saying something, getting called on it (or schooled), going back to change the comment and then claiming they've been wronged or misunderstood or they just plain didn't say it. So, keeping people honest, good thing. Hopefully it leads to folk thinking out their thoughts, checking their spelling and grammar and all the things I'm clearly not doing even as I type. :)

OTOH sometimes one writes something that comes off the wrong way, or is poorly worded, or the context can be misunderstood and one realizes it the INSTANT one hit's 'post' or 'publish' or 'submit'. Or maybe one wants to add a further comment that clarifies further or gives more context. Not being able to edit means one has to write another comment, maybe even quoting one's self which is kind of reductive and goofy. :)

Again, but. Not my house, not my rules, this is what it is, so OK.
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Re: New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by Revenge »

I admit I noticed that I was unable to edit a post I made yesterday right after I posted it because I realized it had an error, but it's not the end of the world. Thanks to that, now I review my post 2 or 3 times before post it, I think that makes the mood here a little more serious and not that relaxed mood I see in another foruns, but it's ok, it's not that big deal, it's just annoying.

On topic, and to quote SteveH when he says that Cyborg and Devilman are like oil and water, I remember reading one quote from the producion staff or from Nagai himself that said the same, and the fun of creating this set of 3 OVAs was precisely that. Altough I don't fully agree. Let's see, and focusing on 007, that we can say it's the main Cyborg, he's forced to abandon his humanity against his will, to become a Cyborg, in Devilman, Akira does pratically the same. Later on, both of them protect the humankind in their new forms, super hero-like forms. It's pratically the same concept, but one is focused in Demons and to criticize the humans and their way of thinking, and the other is focused in Cyborgs and robots, and how they contrast with real people. Not too much like water and oil to me.

I don't like the 70's adaptation of Devilman. It's just way too diferent from the original work, and I'm not a great fan of the monster of the week like series. At least, that poor adaptation made Go Nagai-san to give up from giving his anime adaptations to TOEI to animate and to found Dynamic Planning that brought us so many great anime, and great adaptations. Thank you TOEI!
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Re: New Devilman anime for Fall 2015

Post by SteveH »

I look at both 009 and Devilman with western eyes. Can't help it. :)

The key difference is the western view of 'body' and 'soul' and 'what makes you human' and what I perceive as the Japanese (and maybe mainly Shinto) belief of same.

Shinto seems to put great store in 'purity of body', that is, things like scars, tattoos, missing parts, MAYBE even going so far as to the idea of surgery, all these things can make a man 'less than human' if not a 'beast' or even 'demon'.

Here in the west or America, if a person gets cybernetic parts (and we do. Eyeglasses make one a cyborg, on the technical meaning) it's seen as a potentially positive thing. Steve Austin, after some initial angst, really got a kick out of being the 'Six Million Dollar Man'. He didn't spend half of every episode pondering on feeling like he was no longer fit to be with real humans, his life was a sham, a shadowplay, going thru the motions of life that he no longer had a right to and so on.

009 and the others were turned into cyborgs against their will, and they broke free of their 'programmed' role to fight that evil (see also Kamen Rider and I don't know how many other Ishinomori works. :) ). The choice to fight is as much guided by that sense of hopeless loss, that since they no longer have their 'real' bodies they may as well fight the bad guys until they die, whereas in the west, the thought is that the soul, their spirit, is in their mind and that's what makes them human and what makes them really alive.

(and it suddenly hits me that holy crap, Shirow's 'Ghost in the Shell' is a tome of rebellion against Shinto. Huh. )

Devilman, that's some messed up stuff. Akira Fudo gets fused with a no-s**t demon (how and why has changed over time) and his soul is SO strong, he defeats, actually dominates the demon and then goes off to fight the minions of Hell. And also gets all mopey about being a demon but in this case it's 100% true. :)

Akira's occasional crisis (and I may be way wrong, I've only dabbled in Devilman) comes from a fear of Amon (the demon) reasserting his will and taking control (and then going on to end the human world because that's what a demon lord always wants to do) and of course there's that 'what if I lose control when I battle? OH!' thing.

I don't think Koji Kabuto ever worried he'd have too much fun destroying the forces of Dr. Hell that he would go on to start smashing up crap just because he could. :)
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