Forum - View topicDevil's Line (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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Devil's Line (TV) Genres: action, drama, romance, supernatural Themes: vampires Plot Summary: Tsukasa, a college student, is rescued from an attack by a devil, one of many vampires that can blend in among the human population. Anzai, her savior, is a half-devil who exploits his supernatural gifts as a member of a shadowy police task force that specializes in devil-related crime in Tokyo. As Anzai continues to keep guard over Tsukasa, the two quickly forge a tentative bond—one that Anzai fears will test his iron-clad rule of never drinking human blood. (from manga) |
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mandisaw
 Posts: 140 |
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Episode 1 had a lot of rush-job production issues, so I was really worried for the overall quality of the adaptation. It ended on a love-it-or-hate-it cliffhanger, too, which was either a dumb shock or a brilliant gimmick. This is one of my first-pull manga, so I would hate for this version to suck.
But in Episode 2 they got their act together, both in-story & behind the scenes. No/limited action scenes let them steady up the character designs, and get the lighting issues under control. The backgrounds look really nice, too, although I'd have to rewatch to see if the sound issues are fixed. The cliffhanger gets resolved quickly, and we get a much nicer-paced budding romance than the afterthought-montage from Ep1. All the while, we have our world unfolding, with a look at how non-murderous vampires are treated as essentially citizens with a "special disability". Really liked how they dropped a not-so-subtle hint that safe human-vampire relations are as much the human's responsibility as the vampire's - I see what you did there show. And yeah, we even get a candidate for "humans are monsters, too". spoiler[Still say they should've done something more permanent to that professor.] Man, I can't tell if the show producers are trying to push away people who have assault-triggers, or give them some catharsis. But for her part at least, I think Tsukasa's VA is doing a great job walking that line between "I don't want to be a victim" and "My life is going a bit crazy". Anzai's VA could use a little more direction though - character is supposed to be a bit awkward about women, serious about his job, and a little snarky, but all we're getting is straight-deadpan or rage against the mic. Curious to see what the Eng dub makes of him. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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I just wish Tsukasa was even a little bit more assertive. She starts leaking tears at the drop of a thought, and apologizes to her would-be rapist. Hopefully she'll grow a spine before this is done, the sooner the better.
While I get that the scene accomplished necessary things, her going after him to a crime scene in progress instead of waiting for him to come back (which he obviously would have since, you know, she has his wallet), really felt like all those stupid movie scenes where the no-training, no-weapon, non-super-powered girl is told to stay in the car, and she immediately follows so she can get in the way. I hate that those girls are usually so pathetic that staying in the car is the right thing for them to do, since they can't help, don't help when they could, and just stand around watching and waiting to be taken hostage. As you can see, that whole sequence triggered me. 
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mandisaw
Posts: 140 |
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She doesn't achieve Yona levels of character evolution, but Tsukasa earned my respect in the manga. She's a fairly competent, pragmatic, and assertive co-protagonist, which is standard for action seinen (or at least it used to be). The pacing here seems a bit rushed (maybe because they want to cover a lot of material?) but hopefully the anime will manage to work in some development for her. I really need them to get some of the humor in there though. I like this story because of the smart, sexy, snarky characters. It would be a shame if the anime kept going in the vein of dark = dour. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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If Juliana is the one who's supposed to supply the snarky humor, I'm not feeling it. I just want to slap her for being such a bitch to, well, pretty much everyone, but Anzai in particular. She's going to need one helluva redemption arc for me to like her, which is a shame since I love Miyuki Sawashiro.
I'm not particularly enamored of Tsukasa's loud and in-her-face friend either. The latter is bad enough, but shouting at her while being such a stickybeak is just poisonous, so she needs to be thrown to the vampires pronto. So far I'm not finding anyone in this particularly likeable, though Anzai seems the most rational of the bunch, which isn't saying much. He yells at Tsukasa almost as much as her nosy friend and seems to have control issues. At least she's not totally blind to that. She's just too wimpy to care. 
Criticisms aside, the story is interesting to me, and I do like that part, so I'll stick with it for that...and the cast. >.> |
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raics
 Posts: 7 |
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Yeah, didn't know anything about the source material so I expected some gothic bloodsucking bishounen reverse harem romp. The show is turning out pretty solid so far, it latched firmly onto the watch list. |
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Kaori Makimura
 Posts: 152 Location: usa |
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Julie gets much more likable later on in the manga, I just don't know how far they're going to adapt or what they'll cut. And don't worry about Tsukasa's overly protective friend, she doesn't stick around and makes maybe the odd appearance here or there. (Keep in mind though, that Tsukasa's friends know about the vampire targeting her in the first episode, and the whole school knows that her teacher attempted to rape her.) |
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mandisaw
Posts: 140 |
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Unsurprisingly for a modern seinen series, the women are all pretty complex, although they don't show all their cards in the first round. Tsukasa's friend doesn't do much, besides be the voice of reason (I too would yell at my friend for inviting a strange guy home on the first date). But Julianna has her layers, and she's a good "vampire older sister" to Anzai, even if her teasing always goes to the sexual.
Tsukasa has drawn the short stick, though - the anime's faster pace is skipping over the little moments & non-Anzai thoughts that lend any weight to her character. She's coming across as a lovestruck teen, when she's a bit more self-analytical than that. I'm hoping that the anime takes time to get into character development as the plot unfolds, but as you noted, the story alone is meaty enough to sink your teeth into. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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^ While it's true I don't know you, I somehow doubt that you would practically leap over the table and shout in your friend's face. It wasn't her expressing concern, it was how she did it. And not just then, but almost nose-to-nose demanding the dish on her love-life in her outdoor stadium voice. She just sets my teeth on edge whenever she's "talking," like a female Asta.
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mandisaw
Posts: 140 |
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LOL I think that I have a bit more restraint than that, but I do have friends for whom it's an accurate depiction.
Tsukasa's friend is basically "that one friend", who's too-much, but means well. Here she's sort of a contrast to the all-too-laid-back Tsukasa, who calmly takes far too much in stride. An average person's reaction to the unfolding events is probably something in-between. She is more plugged-in than Tsukasa to outside events - news and rumors alike. That might be useful, as Tsukasa's POV is limited. We still don't know much about how non-cops view vampires. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Episode 5
Well, that certainly escalated quickly. How many new plot threads did they lob in just this episode? Off the top of my head I count five, at least.
This episode now marks the third series I'm watching where, in just this last week, Takahiro Sakurai plays a spoiler[presumed good guy who turned out to be a bad guy.] Weird. |
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mandisaw
Posts: 140 |
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Episodes 5-6
I'm so glad they started getting into the "meat", but geez, it's convoluted as hell. I thought it would be easier to keep track in anime-form, but nope, I still can't remember half the names (or names+numbers for the terrorists). I do like how the VAs are carrying off the spectrum of insanity here. Really when you think about it, almost every character is a bit nuts, and it's just a question of what sorts of actions it motivates them to do. A show where jumping out of windows seems more reasonable than running downstairs, or where spoiler[masturbation] comes off as a considered solution to the blood-lust issue is all kinds of crazy (in a good way  ).
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Yeah, that cracked me up, he was so matter-of-fact about it and Anzai seems so straight-laced.
Lee/Kleeman is probably my favorite character so far.
So, aside from the NRA girl, who seems to live to mess things up as much as she can, our main moles in the PD are Sakurai and Kamiya - I mean, Kikuhara and Makimura? Plus the numbered people in their pocket - I'm not sure who the blond kid with glasses (09) is that just took out Eleven, other than he told Tenjo about Plan B (which I don't remember what that is either) and I guess he wasn't supposed to? I also forget who Katagiri is. He's missing, but I can't think of who I've seen that isn't around now. Yep, complicated.
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mandisaw
Posts: 140 |
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Lee is hilarious, and I think he's turning out to be the ensemble darkhorse among the audience, even though he mostly just shows up when needed like a friendly neighborhood vampire.
And yeah, Anzai is like that really sheltered friend who's hearing all kinds of freaky stuff for the first time, and doesn't know whether to be offended or intrigued. I can't really speak to the cops-terrorists mole issue without a mess of spoilers. Unraveling who the members of the cell are, what their motivations/loyalties are, and how those motivations & loyalties evolve, takes up a huge chunk of plot & character development in the manga, and will probably shape the rest of the anime. That said, so far besides the presumed-good members of F squad, and civilian-vamps Lee & Oryo, we've got Nanako/07/Punisher-chan, Makimura/??, Kikuhara/02, Tech-boy/09, Rich-dumb-girl/11, [Edit: also Camera dudebro], and Sawazaki's friend from Division 1, with another 3-5 yet-to-be-properly-introduced characters from this arc who I've seen listed in either the OP or the credits. The manga volumes each had an evolving who's who character sheet - that might be necessary here, too. And speaking of evolving chars - the OP changed to include Tsukasa's scar, and she's now included with F squad in the Big Damn Heroes lineup. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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Episodes 9-10
Finally got caught up. What a twist there at the end of 10! Daayum.  spoiler[And I was just starting to really like him.] The scene on the train with the blood balloons was pretty harrowing too.
This is really getting good. I'm feeling like it's the Tonkotsu Ramens of this season - overlooked and desperately in need of weekly reviews. Ah well, can't go back and do it now. They're obviously not going to wrap this up in 2-3 more episodes, so I fervently hope it's got another cour greenlit. |
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