Devilman (Debiruman) (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Featurette-Making Of Featurette-CGI Development Theatrical Trailer Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	110:41 (Case: 112)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (71:13)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Hiroyuki Nasu
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Hisato Izaki Yűsuke Izaki Ayana Sakai Asuka Shibuya Ryudo Uzaki Yoko Agi Ai Tominaga Bob Sapp
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    When comic book-based movies became all the rage, it was never going to be long before Japanese producers started sinking serious money into churning out silver screen versions of the Manga classics. What better place to turn for source material than Gô Nagai's body of work? Nagai may not be a recognisable name to most of Western society, but his 40 year career in Manga and anime have made him huge in Japan and a cult figure throughout the rest of the world - he even had a cameo in The Toxic Avenger Part II! Nagai's work tends to veer all over the place, but one thing guaranteed is a rich story and unusual characters. The original Devilman Manga and 1970s TV series is no exception. Unfortunately, this proved to be a little too much story for this multi-billion Yen production to handle.

    The basic gist of the story is that a group of scientists drilling in the Antarctic have accidentally unleashed a colossal force of demons. These demons have spread out and taken human hosts all over the world. After taking a host, the demons set about eating people and generally causing mayhem up to the point that it forces nations to war with one another and government demon patrols roam the streets rounding up anybody they suspect is a demon. Comparisons to the holocaust in World War II are there to be made, although themes of that depth are rather lost in this filmed version. Akira, a high school senior, is one such individual who has been possessed by a demon but, for unexplained reasons, he has managed to keep his human heart and soul. Akira decides to try and defeat the demons and save humanity, only to find out that his best friend Ryo (who was always a bit wacky to begin with) has been taken over by Satan himself.

    If the basic plot doesn't sound meaty enough, a ridiculous number of inconsequential sub-plots are crammed into the story. The demon who possessed Akira is called Amon and he has an ex-lover demon who wants to fight him. There is another girl at school who has turned into a demon with a human heart and she has decided to run around protecting a little boy. Akira lives with his girlfriend Miki's family, who get involved with hiding the "good" demons and pay the price for it with a vigilante mob.

    No part of the story is explained to a satisfactory degree, instead the general plot threads are just jumbled together in order to link the action sequences together (which still doesn't stop the movie being rather boring). This wouldn't be so bad if the action sequences were any good. Unfortunately, they're not. The action pretty much entirely consists of cheap-looking CGI, comparable to that you would expect to find in a mediocre video game. If you would believe the "making of" material, this is actually what the director intended but that still doesn't make it a good thing! The only real plus side to the tacky effects sequences is that they take the woeful J-Pop idol actors off-screen for a time.

    Originally released in Japan in 2004, Devilman has taken a while to reach our shores. It wasn't worth the wait. Devilman is a dull yet convoluted movie that stands as little more than proof that Hollywood is not the only town that knows how to produce big-budget stinkers. Anybody looking for a good crazy-Japanese-comic-book movie would do better to check out Cutie Honey (reviewed here), another recent film based on a Gô Nagai Manga albeit a much more successful effort.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is a tad on the soft side, thanks in part to a significant degree of low level noise being present. This low level noise also spoils many of the darker scenes and shadows.

    The colours on display are quite bright and generally suit the tone of the film, however the low level noise issues make a lot of the colours appear paler than they should and give some of the blacks a green tinge.

    Small film artefacts present themselves fairly frequently, although there is rarely more than one artefact visible per frame. A small degree of macro blocking and mosquito noise can be noticed in many parts of the film, although it is unlikely to be distracting unless you are watching closely on a larger display.

    The English subtitles are generally pretty good, although there are a few awkwardly translated lines in some of the more convoluted plot explanations.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer break occurs at 71:13 but was not particularly noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features a Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) track and a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps) track.

    The dialogue is well synchronized throughout and clearly audible.

    The music is a fairly crass orchestral affair that suits the movie well (and would do even if the concept had been more successfully executed). The mix of the score has a good level of depth to it.

    The surround channels are used reasonably well throughout the film, particularly throughout the action sequence. Alas the subwoofer does not fare so well, providing minimal assistance in the mix even when it seems like there should be a lot of rumbling.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Making Of Featurette (10:40)

    A fairly minimal, press-kit "Making Of" featurette that mostly comprises interviews with the cast and crew and very little real "making of" info.

The Visual FX of Devilman (40:01)

    An overlong montage of the CGI development featuring excerpts of the films score played in the background. There is no narration or explanation beyond a handful of title cards, just raw footage of the CGI character and environment generation put to random music. Rabid CGI enthusiasts may get a little something out of this lot, but it will be pointless padding to most viewers.

Theatrical Trailer (1:26)

    A theatrical trailer for the movie. Much more entertaining than the movie itself.

Madman Trailers

    Trailers for Azumi 2, Death Trance, Cutie Honey and Shinobi follow the usual anti-piracy trailer.

    Devilman has not been released in Region 1 (US) or Region 2.

    Several Region 3 releases have appeared, although none have had English friendly extras (in fact, the release typically found on import sites has nothing at all). This one is a winner for Region 4.

    A dreadful attempt at turning a classic Manga tale into a big budget live-action film. There is very little that can be recommended here.

    The video transfer is fair, but is marred somewhat by low level noise. The audio is good, but lacks grunt in the bottom end. The extras are sizeable, but likely to only appeal to a very limited subset of viewers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall