Cyborg 009 VS Devilman

As a fan of the Cyborg 009: The Cyborg soldier -series, I found this quite hard to watch and enjoy. Overall the movie itself looks good, however, it does look a little bit funny when the two art styles collide - they don't quite go together. The characters unfortunately lack character and are just there to make you feel nostalgia - "oh my god! it's the whole crew!". It just didn't feel right; they all just pull off a move or two and then their role is pretty much done. So, character development is non-existing. It was also disappointing, that the whole voice crew (at leastthe 009 side) was totally a re-cast and some of the voices didn't match the faces. The plot itself seems forced and lacks surprises. The ending was quite underwhelming as well. And to those who liked the last fight I say: that was some silly shit. I MUST SPOIL THIS! The last move Joe/009 pulls off should have killed him, since it pretty much is the same thing that gets him dead in the cyborg soldier -series. I would let it slide if this was taking place in another universe, but it isn't; The movie clearly takes place between the Mythos arc and the last arc of Cyborg Soldier (with the human clones, Zattan/Zartan etc.), which brings me to another weird point. For some reason this movie takes the original characters from the Mythos arc and Artemis is not present at all and is replaced with the original Helena; However they used the same model which is used as the design of the 5 cloned sisters in the CS series so it got me confused a little bit, since during the arc that takes place after the movie should include all the cloned sisters, that look exactly the same as Helena (though she shouldn't be confused with Helen in CS). Thus this movie can and can't be placed in between those arcs. They should've used another design for her since most of the other characters (including her brother Apollo) got their appearance re-touched - it could have saved some people from the confusion, if they haven't seen or read the versions before CS. In short, it was disappointing not to see Artemis, since on my opinion she is a lot more interesting character than her original counter part Helena. Overall it was fun to look at but it doesn't give me the impression to encourage other fans of the series to watch this. A good try, but nope.

Short note: If you do not know nor seen either of Devilman and Cyborg 009, then you should look up the source material since this crossover will only give you a short introduction. Not to mention that this crossover is special as it both series are hardly owned by the same company or person. The few things they do share is their message of war and that their authors where buddies and some times assistans on different projects. Story: This story is straight forward, as both series tend to be. The cyborg team notice demons where spotted in Japan. They go investigate. Devilman does he usual brutal hunt forsaid demons. Cyborgs discover a plot to merge demons with cyborgs and they stumble across Devilman. They fight, retreat and both goes separately to the villains and team up at the last act. It feels like it's more focused on the Cyborg and they give them more of a chance. However, it's understandable since they not only cover most of the cast, but they drive the plot forward. One thing I do give it credit for is that they do fight seriously against each other. This is not like other crossover with 'vs' in the title just so that they can have a friendly sparing. Furthermore, unlike other crossover, we have tie but with only a hair breeze. The side plot is welcomed as this is 3 OVA episodes. Art: The Design for both cyborgs and demons are on point of each respected series. Cyborg team does look like the 2000 but with some redesigns. Devilman himself is the best of them all as he is now bigger and more intimidating than before. His design is a mix between the 70's and late 80's Devilman. The only problem is the humans where both Akira and Ryou looks too shounen, and the final villain or boss which is rather dull. Sound: Anything beside the opening and ending is not that noticeable. Some tracks do sound the same, but they are good samples for reviews. The opening and the ending is a duality with the opening have the energetic of Cyborg 009 while ending is more rock/Devilman. The new voice actors for each character in Japanese are fine, with the exception of 006 who originally voiced Ryou in the previous Devilman OVAs. The dub is also okay, although expect names to be pronounced differently and Devilman to sound like a bear. Character: By far this is the best part of the crossover. Most character act as they did in the source material, probably even better. Unlike the rest of the Cyborg movies, where they sit on the bench most of the time, they act as a team even with their leader not around. Devilman character are entertaining as always and do a good job with the time they are on screen. Enjoyment: You will be satisfied if you are either on team cyborg or on team Devilman. With Devilmans brutality, he will make guts and blood rain from an open fresh wound. Cyborg team spirit, they will act with each other and do funny lines while they are at it. This is not supposed to be deep or anything, just plain fun with a message of holding on to your humanity. Overall: This crossover was great, but mostly bittersweet when you consider the possibilities for expanding the series for newer generation. However, if this crossover does help other projects, crossovers or even Devilman related, then this crossover might see more important than what it is right now. But I doubt it since Production I.G are already making another cyborg movie and no further news after one year of its release. Go watch it if you want to see cyborgs fighting demons, OR SEE DEVILMAN WRECK SOME SHIT! And look forwards what’s coming up next.

It's a very pretty What If We Re-did the Series with non-3D animation today for fans of both series otherwise lacking in pretty much any plot of any kind outside of a few tropic elements that are such boring beats in the "story" progression. The art is quite beautiful. The environments are beautiful. The character designs (given the typical visual upgrade tweaks) are great. Yes, they recycled the designs for the enemies. Color me completely unsurprised. They're still drawn really well. Also, I really like the way the Cyborg costumes were redone. I don't really get the point of the colored lights other than aesthetics, whichdoesn't strike me like an important thing to add to a military outfit, particularly given that you don't want your enemy to know that you're doing something. On top of that, they seem to light up for power usage at random times. Still, the lights looked really neat and the entire OVA is quite nice to watch from a visual perspective. I have to wonder if all the budget was spent on the art rather than the writing, which I guess is fine if this was meant to help pitch the idea of a new "Cyborg 009" series (which I'm all for). The Devilman art wasn't the greatest, though. I think there was a good contrast between human world and demon world, and they went the "make everything look really grotesque" route, which most demon/horror stories do, but it didn't mesh well with the clean lines of the "Cyborg 009" content. And the female demon's design was rather pathetic and completely unoriginal. I see a dozen of those things everywhere. Ooh her boobs turn into mouths. Ooh she's a succubus. How creative. They're also some of the most generic looking demons I've seen. Grotesque, sure, I guess, in a weird, kind of cheap old fantasy way. I'd probably laugh if I cared more for them because of how honestly kind of silly their designs are. I'm not a fan of the "Devilman" series; I don't hate it, I've just never read or watched any of it. But I really think this is more of a thing for "Cyborg 009" fans than "Devilman" fans. There's just a lot more screen time given to the "Cyborg 009" elements than there is for the "Devilman" content. Admittedly, the "Cyborg 009" part has substantially more characters than the "Devilman" side, so even though there really isn't any character development or relationship focus (outside Devilman and his girlfriend(?)), the simple fact that we have to be reminded who each character is means that we spend a lot more time with the various members of the "Cyborg 009" section, including not only the 9 titular cyborgs, the Doctor, and cameos of Black Ghost, but also 5 enemy cyborgs and a rogue scientist. Whereas the DM people get the titular protagonist, his sister, his gf, his sniper friend, and a couple one-off demons. Having said all that, I am curious about the Devilman side, enough to watch the series. There's just not much there other than character presence. It really feels like most team-up stories: a tactic to sell more by pulling from multiple fanbases. And it follows pretty much every generic team-up story. Two different parties fight each other, realize they're facing the same enemy, big infodump on each other's capabilities, they band together, beat the enemy, then part ways with someone talking about humanity or friendship. I wasn't expecting anything truly extraordinary on that front, but since the rest of the story is so lackluster, this doesn't really help. The old series are pretty corny, but it's hard to watch a scientist maniacally laughing for an extended period of time while nothing really happens (and it's a REALLY long time) without wondering why the heck you're not watching something else. I don't get the ending. I really don't get it. I thought they were going to do the generic possession thing and then that didn't work out like it normally does, and... I mean it didn't make sense. I'm still confused how they actually defeat the enemy. Or what happened to Eva. There's a lot of deux ex machina in this and I'm concerned that it's because they ran out of time, so they squished them all together and just said "okay now let's do this" without looking behind them much. Your brain while watching this: "Okay now that's a thing. Okay now that's a... What? Why? Okay then." And so. Much. Random. Nudity. I don't know how to feel about this OVA. I liked episode 1 and part of episode 2. Episode 3 is basically a train wreck. A very pretty-looking trainwreck. But a trainwreck. If you want to see "Cyborg 009" in modern animation that isn't 3D, this is the thing for you. The art is, as I said, very nice. If you want to see a good "Cyborg 009" story... well, keep waiting, I guess. And "Devilman" fans, I guess I'm sorry this happened? There's a great bit for you in episode 1 but you're kind of out of luck otherwise. Frankly I think both series deserved new series of their own, not... this.

Wellllll, this kinda sucked lol. Let me ask a question! Who here has actually seen the Cyborg 009 anime? *a few people raise their hands* OK, who here has actually seen the Devilman anime? *Even less people raise their hands* Exactly! Why the HELL did Netflix think it'd be a good idea to have a crossover between these two VERY different series?! I could see Cyborg 009 vs. Android Kikaider (y'know, 2 works by the same author?) but Cyborg 009 vs Devilman?! It's strange enough that this crossover that NOBODY asked for exists at all, but it's even stranger that Netflix would pick this upand think casual anime fans would be interested. This series requires intimate knowledge of BOTH Cyborg 009 and Devilman, neither of which are exactly popular with today's anime fans. Great job, Netflix! This OVA starts out with the best part, a cliff's notes version of the "mythos cyborg arc" from the 009 show, and it's only downhill from there. While it was a cool "what if" thing to see the cyborgs continue on past 0013 from the original with new enemies 0014, 0015, etc. I kept wishing we could leave out the Devilman segments. Akira's world of demons and Joe's world of cyborgs just never gelled together; it's like mixing oil and water! This isn't just me hating on Devilman, I really think the Devilman segments screwed up the tone of the series! We go from a more traditional superhero show for a younger audience with the cyborgs to suddenly women's breasts have mouths and Devilman is ripping off a monster's penis?! Ugh, I hated the inconsistent tone. This is also a show that assumes you already know everything about both Cyborg 009 and Devilman, as they waste no time with character or storyline intros. The OVA even brings in a bunch of new characters to keep track of for both Devilman and Cyborg 009, but even these new ones have very rushed development. I honestly had no clue what was going on by the end. What was the villain's plan? Create a cyborg demon (yes it's as stupid as it sounds) and rule the world I guess? It's just too much of a clusterfuck of characters and stories to keep track of. You can get some much needed backstory for Akira and his friends by watching the 10-episode Devilman Crybaby (also on Netflix), but here's the catch: A) Crybaby sucks and B) That's still only half the background info you need to understand this OVA. You still have to watch the 009 anime too! Even if you watch both you'll STILL be confused!! I must also warn you this anime makes the INEXCUSABLE mistake of spoiling the Crybaby twist that Ryo is actually Lucifer! Seriously, watch the OP closely where they smash cut from Lucifer to Ryo, even though Lucifer form Ryo never even appears in this OVA. (BTW if Ryo has angelic powers why does he keep having to use guns?) Now, there were a few things I liked. I thought Miki's personality here was 100% better than her Crybaby incarnation, where she was a perfect borderline Mary Sue. Miki is tough and sassy as hell and I loved her (assuming this is closer to her personality in the manga). The animation was fantastic and the artwork was detailed (though the 2 styles really clashed when Devilman characters interacted with 009 characters). I liked all of the action scenes, such as when 009 dodged Ryo's shotgun shells and knocked him over by running past him super fast and whipping up wind. I liked the redesigns of the cyborg costumes, such as that glowing that appears whenever they use their powers. I thought Johnny Yong Bosch did fine in the role of 009, though I really miss Joshua Seth from the original and wonder why they couldn't get him back. What was the point of this crossover? Should you watch this? Well, are you willing to watch both the 10-episode Devilman Crybaby AND 51-episode Cyborg 009 just to get all the necessary backstory in order to watch this cheesy, dumb 3-part OVA? I don't think it's worth it! 4/10