I want people today to feel the impact I had with "Devilman. The "enthusiasm" that Masaaki Yuasa received from Go Nagai -- Interview with the director of "DEVILMAN crybaby

The anime series "DEVILMAN crybaby," one of Go Nagai's 50th anniversary works, will begin simultaneous worldwide distribution on Netflix on January 5, 2018. The original "Devilman" anime and manga were released at the same time in 1972, each with a completely different ending. While the anime version depicts the battle between humans and demons, the manga version exposes the demonic elements hidden within humans through horror and brutal depictions, and the story reaches a shocking conclusion, a historical masterpiece. The story of "DEVILMAN crybaby" is based on the manga version.
Director Masaaki Yuasa is still fresh in our minds from his 2017 theatrical animation "Dawn Tell Roo's Song," which won the Crystal Award for Best Feature Film at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, but this film differs from his refreshing style in a way from his past works such as "Mind Game" (2004) and "Kemonozume" (2006). (2004) and "Kemonozume" (2006), which were artistic and druggy in nature. We asked him what kind of chemistry Director Yuasa's auteurism created with "Devilman" and how it led to this anime adaptation.

Sexual Violence Allowed Only on Netflix

─ ─ "Devilman crybaby" is based on the manga version of Go Nagai's "Devilman" story, but the setting and setting have been changed to the present day. What did you keep in mind when creating it?

Yuasa: I first read Mr. Nagai's manga around 35 years ago, and I felt a sense of contemporariness. I made various efforts to make the viewers of today feel that "this could be happening today" by using the SNS and cell phones, as well as replacing the "bancho group" with rappers as characters. The "Banchou Group," which was realistic at the time, does not exist today, and people who are called "delinquents" do not confront you with their opinions face to face. So, I wondered who would be the ones who would disrespect me head-on in a toothless manner nowadays, and I thought it would be rappers. They also seem to have a sense of discipline, and when they think, "I can trust this guy," they follow him, and since they express their situation lyrically, I thought they could act like a bard in the modern age. In the manga version, Akira Fudo was the only Devilman who was on the border between demons and humans, but in "Devilman Crybaby," I thought it would be better to portray Devilman in a more complex way, with some going to the human side and others to the demon side, so I also portrayed a shifting existence.

─ ─ How did you reconstruct the character images of the main characters, Akira Fudo and Ryo Asuka, for this anime series adaptation?

Yuasa: I heard that Mr. Nagai himself started the manga version of the story not thinking that the characters would end up like that, but after rereading the story and thinking about the meaning of the final scene, I wondered if he had included the characters' backgrounds, which were not depicted in the main story, in his depiction of the characters. I was shocked at the time, of course. Of course I was shocked at the time, but I also felt that I did not have a clear understanding of the character of Asuka Ryo, so I made it so that I would complement that for the viewers this time. For example, I clearly explained why Ryo likes Akira, including his background, and I described the connection between the two and clarified the differences in their personalities. Because of his roots, Ryo only thinks big and rationally, and is unable to understand trivial things. Because of his lonely upbringing, he has decided on his own that there is no love and is unaware of his own feelings. Ming also made it clear why he was chosen as the main character. He is a philanthropist who is kind to everyone, even to the slightly dangerous Ryo, and is therefore well-liked. Furthermore, he is a person who feels other people's emotions and cries, which is a new setting. So Akira is the only one who knows from the beginning that Ryo is crying, and he keeps trying to tell Ryo that "you must be feeling it too".


─ ─ Akira Fudo and Miki Makimura are in the track team as a new setting in this film. What was your intention behind this?

Yuasa: That is one of the complements, to give us a better picture of what Akira and Miki were trying to protect, and what was conveyed to Ryo and what was not. Ryo, in his big thinking, thinks, "Humans are slower than dogs and cats when they run, and how many seconds off their time is meaningless. Therefore, the intention was to clarify the significance of what Ryo does not value and what Ming and his team are betting on. By repeating the passing of the baton, I am passing it on to someone else, and even if someone falls down, it will lead to the next one, and everyone is trying to pass it on to Ryo. I first thought that it would be easy to see the difference in physical ability when they run side by side.

─ ─ What did you do in the composition of the first episode?

Yuasa: I gradually brought out the already disturbing movements in this world and depicted the story up to the point where he becomes Devilman. There are boys looking at girls in a disgusting way on the track and field, there is a bewitching atmosphere, and there are also people with malicious intentions who try to use young people for business. I thought that if I made the atmosphere seem less safe than it is today, and there are festivals called "sabbats" held here and there, and people jump in themselves to get power, the bad atmosphere of the manga version would become more familiar. There are quite a few violent and sexual scenes in Sabbat, but this is a part of the story that we were able to create because of the Netflix medium. Recently, foreign dramas (distribution and cable) have been depicting quite explicit scenes. We did not make it soft just because it is an anime, but rather we tried to create an atmosphere in which the audience can come to such an extreme level because of the intense human nature that is laid bare.