Anime Hajime Review: Devils' Line

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Devils’ Line. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

Rumors are going around of people being drained of their blood. Word on the street is, these crimes are the work of frightening creatures known as devils.

For Tsukasa Taira (voiced by Yui Ishikawa), such rumors have little bearing on her. However, she soon discovers that devils are, in fact, very real.

Tsukasa is saved by a mysterious cop named Yuki Anzai (voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka). During the rescue, Tsukasa received a small cut. Upon seeing the sight of fresh blood, Yuki’s identity as a devil comes out.

Yuki’s violent bloodlust manifests, but he manages to control his urge to feast before he can harm Tsukasa. Unexpectedly, though, this encounter didn’t scare Tsukasa. On the contrary, she saw an incredible amount of pain and suffering in Yuki’s eyes.

It was at that moment, Tsukasa fell in love with a devil.

Tsukasa realizes that Yuki and others like him just want to live their lives peacefully without hurting others. Unfortunately, Tsukasa’s way of thinking is not the most prevalent one.

In what appears to be fate, Tsukasa and Yuki become a symbol of peace for both humans and devils alike.

Series Positives

I have a question for everyone who has seen Tokyo Ghoul. While you were watching that series, at any point did you think to yourself, “Boy this is really good, but I wonder what this story would be like if it was an angsty teenage romance and sucked?”

Welcome to the Devils’ Line review.

This series was like a child who always goes outside the lines of their coloring book claiming they are simply expressing their creativity. Too bad in reality, that child is an immature high schooler, and the extent of their creativity is them drawing boobs on all the pictures in their textbooks.

Devils’ Line was sappy and forgettable.  

With that said, despite this being a show I didn’t care for in the slightest, I can genuinely admit I was never bored while watching. Although this story was nothing except utter stupidity, it was the kind of utter stupidity that was able to keep my attention.

Devils’ Line had nothing to fall back on. There was no part of this show that was unique. Before going into this series, it already came off as a lackluster package. Now, as I sit here looking back on the whole thing, it had even less to offer than what I expected. By the time you read this review, I guarantee I will have forgotten most of what happened in this story.

There were a ton of problems wrong with this show. But before we get into what those problems were, and although it may not seem like it, I do have a few positive points I can give to Devils’ Line – kind of.

For starters, there were a handful of scenes in this series that were, for the lack of a better phrase, not dull. This does not say much, but the scenes in question were a step up from this show’s usual brand of blandness. The action of Devils’ Line wasn’t awful.

There were fights in this series which were fast, hard-hitting, and for the most part, worked. Not only that, there were plenty of satisfying instances where some smug jerk got what was coming to them. When you consider all the places where Devils’ Line failed, this was not one of them.

That notwithstanding, it must be noted that although the action in this series was decent enough, these moments, much like everything else in this show, weren’t implemented all that well. For this story to go in the direction it wanted to go, it needed to make things happen. To accomplish this, apparently, it didn’t matter whether or not things had to make sense. Devils’ Line was often counterintuitive.

There wasn’t much to like about this show, and the things that were “good” were more “tolerable” than anything else. In the face of that, I will concede that this series did try to patch together its flaws. Too bad Devils’ Line’s definition of “patch up” meant slapping a band-aid onto a gaping stomach wound. These attempts were more insulting than they were helpful.

Nowhere was this more apparent than with Hans Lee (voiced by Ryohei Kimura). Hans was one of those characters with the habit of making everyone around them look like the irrational, over-emotional morons they truly were. To be fair, Devils’ Line did a pretty good job of having everyone be like that on their own. Hans was just the extra exclamation point.

Our main character, Yuki Anzai, was actually only half devil; as was Hans. Unlike Yuki, though, Hans had far better control over his bloodlust because Hans actually made an effort to not be a whiny baby. What I mean by that is Hans had built up a tolerance to the effects human blood had on devils. 

According to this show, Hans drank a little bit of blood every day, and for some reason, this made him the crazy one. Sure, the blood drinking nature of devils was what made them terrifying to most humans. However, Hans didn’t get his supply through killing. He had plenty of people willing to volunteer their blood to help him, and Hans never took more than what a person could safely give. Nevertheless, characters like Yuki believed that it was pure insanity to think a devil could keep their urges in check. This was amusing since Yuki was also the person who always kept putting himself into situations where he might lose his self-control.

One look at Hans, and it was clear that whatever he was doing, was working.

In addition to this, Hans was able to use basic reasoning to destroy every pseudo-moral dilemma this show presented. With the existence of a character such as Hans, it was almost as if Devils’ Line knew it was pulling things out of its ass.

I don’t know about you, but when a story needs an overpowered counter to its main character’s crybaby, oh-woe-is-me attitude, then maybe that story is focusing on the wrong person.

To give Devils’ Line some slack, had Hans been an outlet for Yuki to grow as a protagonist, then this glaring disparity would have at least served a purpose.

But who am I trying to fool? This show didn’t do that. If anything, Yuki got even more stubborn as this story went on which prompted this series to introduce a second Hans-like character to once again balance out our “hero.”

I suppose doing that was technically solving the problem. Except this kind of problem-solving was like pouring gasoline on a house that was on fire so that it can burn itself out faster. Yeah, eventually that is going to work, but when it’s over, you can’t look at the resulting pile of ash and claim a job well done.

Series Negatives

Where do I even start?

There is a difference between strong story dilemmas, weak ones, and in the case of Devils’ Line, fake ones.

Yuki introduced himself as half devil, half human. This was something he had to deal with his entire life, and when we met him in this show, I would say he was in his early twenties. Regardless, Yuki’s devil side and the burdens that came with that were crucial parts of what made him, him.

For the sake of argument, let’s accept that Yuki was also the experienced police officer this show claimed he was. As such, he would have been very familiar with devil-human relations since he dealt with them every single day. Not only that, he was part of a specialized team which used devils to handle all devil related instances. Therefore, I believe it is fair to say that Yuki had, at a minimum, a solid understanding of the nature of devils.

With all this in mind, is it a stretch to think that Yuki would have, at some point in his life, given some thought to where he came from? Or at the very least, wouldn't he have realized that his mere existence shouldn't have been possible?

According to this show, a.k.a. Yuki himself, interbreeding between humans and devils was an impossibility. Despite that, Yuki still claimed that he was half and never once connected how odd that made his own backstory.

It took meeting Tsukasa Taira, running into Hans, and discovering an underground society plotting to exterminate all devils for Yuki to realize he was an anomaly. Really show, you’re going to make your main character this naïve? Missing something this obvious is like walking down the street and discovering that the sky is blue. This is not ignorance, it’s dumb.

While Yuki’s own lack of critical thinking may have been embarrassing, the rest of his squad mates weren’t any better since they too were unable to put two and two together.

And this was just ONE of the many paper thin details Devils’ Line based its entire story on.

Another particularly frustrating detail was whether or not people knew about the existence of devils. Throughout this show, it was never clear how much information about devils was available to the public. On the one hand, there were some who knew that devils were a thing. There were laws that regulated how humans and devils interacted. There was the aforementioned police unit that specialized in responding to devil activity. There was even a lobbying group fighting to protect devils’ rights in society.

However, on the other hand, there was a radical organization that wanted to kill all devils, and one of their top missions was exposing devils to the world. So, which was it?

The way Devils’ Line tried reinforcing the divide between humans and devils fell apart because this story took place during contemporary times. Devils weren’t some new entity to this world. If I had to guess, they had coexisted with humans probably throughout history. But even if we say devils existed for only a few decades before the start of this show, there are some things people should have been able to figure out. Like what would happen when a devil drank human blood.

Everyone in this series knew very well that devils went into a violent blood rage whenever they saw someone bleeding. People also knew that devils possessed superhuman strength and became even stronger when their more murderous side came out. Plus, bullets could kill devils. Knowing all this, how is it possible that Yuki, the rest of his team, and the general public, who may or may not have known that devils existed, never realized that drinking blood allowed devils to heal their wounds instantly? It’s not like that’s a detail that could be kept top-secret with any efficiency.

RIGHT SHOW?!

This wasn’t clever. This was stupid. People naturally observe cause and effect relationships every day. Not one, but many people are going to notice when something that huge happens when devils drink blood.

And these were just some of the basic pillars of Devils’ Line. We haven’t even begun discussing how awful this show’s characters were.

I liked Hans, and that was it. Everyone else in this show could piss off for all I care. What an insufferable collection of people.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this point because thinking about the cast of Devils’ Line either puts me to sleep or gives me a headache. Therefore, I am only going to quickly focus on our two main characters, Tsukasa and Yuki.

Tsukasa was worthless. She added nothing to this show, and yet she was always around. Why was she around, you ask? I have no idea because whenever she was anywhere, she was in the way. Being a civilian, Tsukasa should never have been allowed to be near anything surrounding any investigation. And she certainly shouldn’t have been allowed to do whatever she wanted while part of an official investigation.

There was a scene which showed a clear police presence. There were sirens and tape and guards outside the building, and yet Tsukasa still found a way to get past all of that. Why did no one ever stop her?

Tsukasa was always the victim. She always needed saving. She was dead weight. The only purpose I can say she served was being the second half of the god-awful romance with Yuki.

Speaking of Yuki, I liked him even less than Tsukasa.

Yuki was quick to action and never took a moment to think. Whenever he did anything, he made every situation way worse. He was completely stuck in his way of thinking and refused to accept anything that might have actually helped him. He also could never understand why his superiors kept putting significant restrictions on devil officers.

I DON’T KNOW GENIUS. I’m sure it had nothing to do with you constantly disobeying orders and going on murderous rampages whenever you saw the slightest drop of blood. Yeah, I can’t imagine that had anything to do with why your bosses were making your job ten times harder.

One more thing, the ending of Devils’ Line can go die in a hole somewhere. It will not bother me at all if this story never gets a continuation. There were a lot of unanswered questions in this show, but I’m certainly not going to be the one asking for a resolution.

I originally planned for this section to be a lot more detailed. I really wanted to get into why this show was terrible. Luckily, I realized that Devils’ Line simply isn’t worth the extra effort. This series was bad, stupid, and I want to be done with it.

Final Thoughts

I wasted my time with this show, don’t waste yours.

As a thriller, this series was weak. As a romance, this story was nauseating. As an action piece, okay, this show was fine. But considering everything else that was either wrong, frustrating, or downright dumb, an interesting fight here and there was no consolation.

This series was bland, the characters were awful, and I honestly don’t know what else I can possibly say.

Devils’ Line is one-hundred percent not worth your attention, and I cannot urge you to skip it any harder.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? What would be your advice concerning Devils’ Line? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.

And if you liked what you read, be sure to follow me on my social media sites so that you never miss a post or update. Also, please share this review across the internet to help add to the discussion.

I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.

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