Devil Lady, The Volume 1: The Awakening - AnimeDaze
- AnimeDaze
- Sean McCabe
- 08/11/03
- click here
Devil Lady
I love this series. It's the greatest thing I've ever seen, and I would personally give it a 5.0. But this is an objective review, and I quite recognise that this series is not for everyone. But this is an excellent, non hentai horror series that offers something greater than just a lot of violent battles. It's a horror story that that makes you like and care for the main character before forcing you to watch as her life is torn asunder. That is real horror.
Jun Fudo is your ordinary, hard working model. She is just a little shy sometimes. She also seems to think someone is always watching her, a little paranoid. But then a blonde stranger take her to a warehouse, and sets a lupine demon upon her. The beast in Juns soul awakens and she kills the creature, but then the true horror of what has happened hits her and her life take a turn for the terrible, forced to kill other beasts to keep what she is hidden.
Then her young friend Kasumi becomes embroiled in the middle and Jun has to hide her dark side, but this can only go on so long, and eventually, the beasts shall collect in their droves and the war for humanity will begin. This story sounds dark and believe me, it is. It uncompromising darkness is what is most admirable about it. A true work of genius.
The animation is rather limited and old fashioned, but the design work is imaginative and the way the image of Devilman lady is constantly different, sometime she looks like a real monster and other times almost human adds a lot of depth. The shadowy world of night time Tokyo makes for a perfectly realised setting and the backgrounds are beautifully drawn.
The music is excellent in every respect, from the latin choir of Oh Fortuna! and the dark images combine to create a truly atmospheric intro, and the classical and jazz music used to set scenes from horrific to erotic, it just ties together. The techno rock melody that accompanies the credits is different, but perfect nonetheless. A real accomplishment.
Shawn Sides and Junko Iwao were both critically acclaimed for this demanding roll. Jun Fudo is a character who is supposed to represent human emotion, who opposes herself against Lan Asuka, a character as emotionless as they come. The voice acting acting in the English Dub ranges from good to great, but the script sometimes falters. The Japanese, however, is flawless.
The symbolism of this series may offend some people, but it does not set out to be blaphemous. Instead, it is a portrayal of raw human emotion fighting against the cold, calculating intentions of ambition and power. Jun Fudo is the most fascinatingly realistic character to appear in this sort of anime, and her role will definitely please female viewers and male viewers who wish to see a character they can understand the actions of and reasoning.
Excellent
Posted on Monday, August 11, 2003 (Archive on Thursday, September 11, 2003)