anime rec: devil lady
watching anime in italian is its own brand of nice. i've never tried this before, it's actually relaxing; italian is such a musical language, and the voice actors are great!
and no, i don't understand what everybody's saying... but i'm learning! "basta! smetti la!" apparently means "enough! shut up!". see? XD;;
just doing this really because i want something playing in the background while i work procrastinate, and go nagai's devil lady turned out to be my very random distraction. there were no english dubs/subs of it on streaming that i could find, so i loaded up the italian dubs and now i'm enjoying the experience.
i've been recced this series before. i'm relieved to find that it's exactly as advertised. it's a more modern and refined rendering of the original devilman concept, which i loved back in the day. the art is gorgeous and the animation is smooth. also, the reinvented characters are brand new kinds of love.
i enjoyed the original devilman TV anime, but it was really raw and the appeal is really dated; it's not something i can easily recommend. however, i do rec the OAVs primarily for the moody treatment and the kickass BGM - also the sexual tension between fudou akira and his best mate, which i believe the author of the manga himself made no effort to hide. above all else, devilman was the title that introduced me to the concept of supernatural creatures being the natural predators of humans, and of their arrival being an inevitable stage in our evolution as a species. sue me, i was a teenager and easily impressed.
when i was recced devilman lady, i was warned that it 1) was very different from the original devilman series, and 2) contained monster sex.* although not as explicit as in outright hentai, i was warned it might still be disturbing for me. i was not warned that it was yuri. however, this came as a pleasant surprise; the yuri appears to be handled quite tastefully here - so far, at least. i'm fascinated.
the heroine, fudou jun, is supposed to be a female version of fudou akira. however, she starts off a lot more graceful, thoughtful and melancholy - as well as a hell of a lot less useless - than her male prototype. fudou akira is a teenager who's supposed to be so pure of heart he can't even bear to see a bunny get murdered. fudou jun however is past the bunny-protecting stage; she's mature and responsible, working to support herself and a younger brother as a model, though wikipedia says she's actually a fairly "plain" one. she plods on without complaint, the very model of feminine subservience. but a lot goes on behind her sad eyes, and i love how she starts off engaging like that.
sexy mad genius asuka ryou is supposed to translate into asuka ran, and so far she's doing the role justice. she's brilliant, filthy rich, manipulative, openly seductive, and secretly uke for jun. the italian voice actress also made her voice husky and bedroom. i have no complaints.
the character of takiuri kazumi, jun's caring and upbeat best friend, is supposed to be modeled after makimura miki - also known as devilman's love interest-slash-sole liability. i haven't seen much of her, but it seems she's doing a good job, too. she's not that pretty, but she's enthusiastic and endearing, in a "teen cheerleader girlfriend" kinda way, much like miki was back in her time.
the transformation of fudou akira from zero to antihero was a slow and subtle one - i found the pacing wonderful. now it seems fudou jun is going through the same motions. it's fun to watch.
...i'm still streaming, so this post might be edited. in the meantime, though, someone watch this with me? preferably someone who knows italian and is willing to teach poor noob XD;;
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* lies. there was no monster sex, at least not in the anime. there was, however, explicit mutilation. edit: i think i see it now. anyway, standard R rating applies.
PS: three episodes later, i finally find the english subs XD; just some eps though, not the whole series. oh well, i'm already thoroughly enchanted with the italian dub. might watch the english sub side by side with the italian dub sometime, for great love of knowledge.
PPS: started rereading noli again today. also, had lunch at ma mon luk for the first time. they have great noodles and pancit! and the founder actually has a wiki entry, awesome!
PPPS: ARGH WHY CAN'T I LOAD NEOPETS!!