Devils Line
Devils Line is a 12 episode series airing during the spring season of 2018. This anime was made by ‘Platinum Studios’ a relatively new studio starting in 2016. Devils Line isn’t your standard vampire love story, I’m looking at you Twilight, but deals with similar themes. The premise contains elements of romance, sex, and violence of a young devil and his life in the police force. The following may contain spoilers, but I will try to exempt spoilers relative to the plot.
The Story
Devils Line focuses around the lives of Anzai and Taira. The world they live in consists of humans and devils trying to live together. Taira, a human girl, is saved by Anzai, a devil working for the police force, from being attacked. Anzai refuses to drink blood and wants to use his devil strength for good. Anzai keeps watch over Taira and saves her on multiple occasions. The two hit it off together, but the struggle of a human devil relationship is not fully accepted. Each episode continues to get more and more dangerous for Taira and Anzai as they deal with snipers, spies, and the blood-lust devils.
The Characters
Yuuki Anzai
Anzai is a 21 year old hybrid male meaning he is half devil half human. He works for the police force under F-Squad in Division 5. Anzai struggles containing his rage and blood-lust as both cause him to transform into an uncontrollable demon. Anzai hates devils due to an experience in the past and refuses to drink blood. Instead he uses sedatives that have to be injected into him. After meeting Taira he vows to change the way he is for her, but struggles to balance his life as a police officer as well as personal relationships. Anzai feels that he is constantly putting Taira in danger whether she is with him or not.
Tsukasa Taira
Taira is a 22 year old female human. She studies hard in school and lives an ordinary life that was all changed one night. After an encounter with a devil she is saved by Anzai. Despite being human she believes that not all devils are bad and that they can co-exist with each other. Taira is especially hopeful in the case of herself and Anzai. Although they have their share of hardships, she believes that they are whats best for each other. Taira accompanies Anzai in missions whether he wants her to or not. She is a free spirited girl that is willing to do anything to stand by Anzai.
Art, Animation, and Sound
The art style in Devils Line isn’t too far out of the ordinary. Characters have soft faces and the colours mix in well with each other. The anime splits it’s time being indoors and outdoors and priority at night when outside. It’s rather dark which adds to the theme of vampires, devils, and darkness. This also allows emphasis when a brighter colour appears on screen. The biggest example of this is when we see blood. Blood is prominent throughout the series and when it is shown on screen it is usually the focal point. The choice of having dark background and bright blood throughout the show makes for great continuity.
Expressions are shown well of major characters, but a lot of the devils have the same expression or idle faces. The same toothy smile is used in just about every devil other than Anzai. One thing I was looking for that I was pleased to not see is that there is different blood patterns used in different episodes. For example, minor spoilers, when Taira gets a cut on her face halfway through the story she bleeds a certain way. When the cut is reopened and her face bleeds a different time, the blood doesn’t flow the exact same way, nor do we see a repeated shot.
The music chosen for Devils Line is very fitting and compliments the aura of the show well. The opening theme is ‘Eclipse’ by Souta Yanagawa commonly known as Shouta Aoi. The ending theme is ‘Sotto Tokete Yuku You ni’ by Mamoru Miyano, a very well known name. Both are well known for their works in the past and another job well done is presented here. Interesting enough, for an anime that wasn’t considered ridiculously popular, Devils Line has some well known voice actors. The voice of Anzai is done by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka. Notable works he has done are ‘Sora’ from No Game No Life, ‘Kirito’ from Sword Art Online, and ‘Izumi Masamune’ from the controversial Eromanga Sensei. Taira is voiced by Yui Ishikawa. Notable works she has done are ‘Mikasa Ackerman’ from Attack on Titan, ‘Tomoe’ also from Eromanga Sensei, and ‘Violet Evergarden’ from the very popular Violet Evergarden.
Overall Thoughts
Devils Line was a good anime from a season that was full of good anime. At times typical anime logic is used to fill in plot holes, but characters are very likeable and villains are fairly disliked. I enjoyed the pacing of the show as police missions weren’t crammed in each episode. One main mission is the entire series and a few side missions are accomplished along the way. If you are a fan of devils in anime like I am then I would recommend this to you. The only thing that keeps Devils Line from being a great anime is that the show itself defies logic. At its core, Devils Line is about a bunch of vampires that try to live without drinking blood…the main element of being a vampire.
Rating - 8/10
An interesting story of devils and humans trying to live together. Elements of Tokyo Ghoul can be found, but a clear difference between devils and ghouls. Overall it is hard to get over the fact that these devils are essentially vampires that are trying to not be vampires and drink blood.
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