Devilman Crybaby is a 2018 original net anime series based on Go Nagai’s manga series Devilman. The series was adapted by studio Science SARU, and the staff credits include director Masaaki Yuasa, screenplay writer Ichirō Ōkōchi, character designers Ayumi Kurashima and Kiyotaka Oshiyama, and music composed by kensuke ushio. The series launched on Netflix worldwide on January 2018.
Disclaimer: This unboxing features visual designs and artwork that are that are not suitable for work.
Background:
“With demons reawakened and humanity in turmoil, a sensitive demon-boy is led into a brutal, degenerate war against evil by his mysterious friend, Ryo.”
Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, December 2025.
When Netflix stepped into the anime exclusivity scene with Knights of Sidonia in 2014, many didn’t anticipate that we would reach a point where they would manage to grab more and more anime onto the platform, whether it was for exclusivity streaming rights or full-on original projects. Of the ones that came about in the mid-10s, I would say Devilman Crybaby was the first proper hit for the streaming platform.
Now Go Nagai is a legend in the Japanese anime and manga scene, his works have inspired tons of creators throughout the past couple of decades, and he’s written tons of light-hearted and dark stories for different age groups. On one side you have Mazinger Z capturing the mecha goodness and on the other side you have Cutie Honey with its ecchi shonen fanservice. And of course there’s Devilman with pretty grim themes and an ending that is pretty bleak. It’s the type of story that was perfect to adapt into anime and we have had a few since the manga was written.
The first adaptation, the 1972 series by Toei Animation, was more family friendly and was being produced around the same time as the manga was being written, so for many it didn’t feel faithful. Then came the second adaptation, two OVAs released in 1987 & 1990 by Oh! Production and director Umanosuke Iida, which was more faithful to the manga but only covered the early portions of the story. It’s very good and worth a watch even if you went with the famous English dub that was over-the-top on its delivery. Since then we also had adaptations for Devilman Lady and the Amon: Apocalypse of Devilman mangas in the late 90s to 2000, and pretty much the manga was kept untouched for years until Science SARU stepped in to modernise the story whilst also being faithful, like what Madhouse did with the Parasyte manga for their adaptation.
Devilman Crybaby captured the vibe from the get-go. Science SARU share a pretty unique art direction in contrast to other studios and it shows on the designs of the devil creatures, the violence and the atmosphere from the night club all the way to the climax and destruction. I think Yuasa’s direction was the right choice to make the series stand out from the crowd and avoid the generic or traditional look that many are so used to.
I also want to shoutout the amazing soundtrack from kensuke ushio, who would later work on Chainsaw Man and Dandadan, because the 80s vibe is addictive and memorable from the get-go. Some music pieces are also rather unsettling at places, while others offer the dread and sadness when the series needs it the most. The opening theme song was also great, even if its simplistic in its style.
Now I mentioned earlier that Go Nagai does produce works for various groups and Devilman is definitely not aimed for children despite the 70s series. Devilman Crybaby goes all in on the violence, sex and nudity, and part of that was likely made possible because it was made for Netflix rather than for television, where there’s censorship required depending on the broadcasting stations and timeslots. The first episode also throws in your face all of that stuff so you know what to expect throughout the rest of the series. In fact with only 10 episodes, it adapts the source material really well and made me wish Science SARU would have adapted more of Go Nagai’s works.
Because it was on Netflix, we also received dubs for multiple languages. While I watched all of the episodes in a single day in Japanese, I did take a look at the English dub here and there which features some great voice work from different actors including the main leads Griffin Burns (Kudo in Detective Conan, Fujimaru in Fate/Grand Order) and Kyle McCarley (Mob in Mob Psycho 100, 9S in NieR: Automata). The biggest challenge with the dubs from Netflix is that they’re not cheap to secure the rights for home video, as proven by Sentai Filmworks being forced to release Baki and Hero Mask with their own English cast, and Anime Limited having to lose out on the English dub for Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 for the home video releases because it was beyond reach.
And there’s also another challenge with this series, and that’s Aniplex who are notorious for being picky and selective on what’s allowed for English territories. They have been allowing specific titles to be available from different distributors in the past half-decade but it doesn’t mean it’s still an easy road. In Japan, the series was released as a Blu-ray Disc Box with English subtitles so there was an option available for home video, but it wasn’t cheap to own either. Which is why I find it pretty miraculous that Anime Limited was able to secure the home video rights for Devilman Crybaby for not just the UK & Ireland but also US & Canada in 2024, and with the Netflix English dub as well. We got lucky here and I wonder if its because we had to wait almost eight years for this opportunity to appear.
Deluxe Edition Contents:
Anime Limited have somewhat mirrored the design of the Japanese Blu-ray release for Devilman Crybaby, which was packaged to include vinyls. There’s no vinyls here, but we have a square box design like Blue Giant which works for the artwork.
The deluxe edition release is presented with a rigid box, an digipack case housing the discs, and a 156-page artbook. The artbook includes character designs, concept artwork, illustration gallery, storyboard gallery, and discussions between the original creator and director as well as the staff behind the show’s production.
The rigid box artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The deluxe edition Blu-ray has an unspecified number of units printed (but is expected to be the usual 1000 run) for an SRP of £89.99 ($99.99 for the North American version, which is identical in content). A standard edition is not available at the time of this write-up but may show up after some time as passed assuming Aniplex will allow it.
I pre-ordered the series on its own during Anime Limited’s early bird offer last August for £59.99 (£54.99 with the 10% off Anime Unlimited discount) plus free postage.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork
- Digipack packaging
- Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
- 156-page Artbook
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 8th December 2025
The deluxe edition Blu-ray release for Devilman Crybaby contains all 10 episodes across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode and authoring done by VDMS.
At the start of each disc, you’re given the option to select either English or French, and whichever option you pick you’ll be able to return back and pick the other without having to restart all over. On the English menu, you can choose between the original Japanese audio with English subtitles and the SDI Media English dub commissioned by Netflix. On the French menu, you only have the original Japanese audio with French subtitles.
The white subtitles are locked during playback, and the Blu-ray discs are region compatible with players set to A & B. The English subtitle translation is the same used for the Netflix stream as it credits the translator at the very end of each episode.
Just in case folks are concerned (considering the amount of mature content shown in the series), the series was rated 18 uncut and uncensored by the BBFC for the UK home video release.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | Japanese, English |
| Audio | Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English, French |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 1:
- Clean Opening “MAN HUMAN”
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Devilman Crybaby is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland, as well as US & Canada.
For UK anime fans, the deluxe edition is available exclusively through AllTheAnime Store.
For US anime fans, the deluxe edition is available through Crunchyroll Store.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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