Devils’ Line: Review

Devils’ Line is the anime adaptation of a famous manga which was produced by studio Platinum Vision in 2018. The series has been brought to Blu-ray by MVM Entertainment.

It tells the story about Tsukasa Taira who is a grad student and is acquainted with a devil and have no idea about his true identity. Devils live alongside human as there is no difference and keep their identity hidden but when there are exposed to blood they go crazy and ends up killing humans. They are triggered by the sight of blood or sexual arousal which turns them into monsters with big fangs, red eyes and long pointed nails. While being turned into devil form, they lose control over themselves and till the time they regain their consciousness, it become too late.

Tsukasa’f friend Akimura is a serial killer who is being chased by police and before he could kill Tsukasa, she is rescued by Yuuki Anzai who is a special task force. Yuuki is a half devil who chases devils and stops them from hurting anyone.

He keeps checking Tsukasa for few days after rescuing her. They eventually become good friends and later become lovers. Anzai ic concerned about Tsukasa as he tends to transform in her presence. With devils surrounding the city and his concern for Tsukasa they get caught up in some troubles but Tsukasa is not willing to leave Anzai no matter what.

When they start dating, Tsukasa is always in trouble and ends up being rescued by Anzai. This is something that can be seen as a flaw in the series. Most of the scenes is about Anzai saving Tsukasa from being hurt either by a devil or a human.

Anzai is an interesting character. There is more depth in his character. There is a long back story behind him being half devil. Since he has no clue about his birth and the true nature of his bloodlust for Tsukasa, most part of the story revolves around him trying to figure that out. When it comes to Anzai’s story and the work of task force chasing devil criminals while keeping them as a secret, Devils’ Lines is very interesting and good anime series.

It’s not just the characters that makes it flawed but the other bigger problem with this anime is that the story doesn’t catch up to the climax of the manga as it was in continuation while the series was being aired. Now that the manga has ended, it’s not satisfying but is still better than anime.

As far as the animation is concerned Studio Platinum Vision has done a good job and the animation is good according to its dark theme. Even with most of the dark scene, the animation is pretty much clear and understandable. There is too much violence in the anime and some scenes can be very intense in terms of violence.

The background music is good but not much appealing. The opining theme, titled Eclipse, performed by Shouta Aoi and the ending theme, titled Sotto Toketeyuku Yo ni performed by Mamoru Miyano suits the series well and good to listen as well. The anime is available in both Japanese and English dub. Luci Christian has voiced Tsukasa Taira in English dub who has voiced Reg Made in Abyss and Hiro in Fruits Basket. The voicing doesn’t seem to give much life to the plain character. While for Japanes audio Yui Ishikawa has voised Tsukasa and she has done a better job than Christian. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka voiced Anzai in Japanese audio and did pretty well in playing his role. Both human and devil part of his character are handled pretty well.

All in all Devils’ Lines is an interesting and amusing anime if you are into dark supernatural anime. The story could have been better without repetitive rescuing scenes. Those who have read the manga may like the anime but those who haven’t may not like it.