Vampire Cops: Thoughts on Devils’ Line
Devils’ Line (デビルズライン)
Anime (2018)
Studio: Platinum Vision
Created By Ryo Hanada
Devils’ Line is a mixture of Vampire Knight and Twilight but in this series, we are dealing with vampires acting like cops.
Devils’ Line is a dark fantasy manga series created by Ryo Hanada.
Yūki Anzai is half-human and half-vampire. He works for the police force where he hunts aggressive and out of control vampires. During one of his investigations, Anzai encounters a young college woman, Tsukasa Taira, who was being sought after by a vampire. Anzai saves her and the two end up forming a close bond after the incident. Anzai and Taira’s feelings for each other become more romantic, but Anzai fears to get close to her due to his vampire nature. Despite these factors, Taira continues to stay by his side.
One of the major issues that Devil’s Line discusses is the treatment of vampires in society. Vampires are looked down upon and feared by humans, and so radical groups are desiring the genocide of all vampires. We can view vampires as representing racial and social minority groups in our society. One way we can apply vampires as minority groups in our society is how in this world, vampires do not have the same rights as humans and the justice system sees them like criminals even if they unintentionally harm another person due to their bloodthirst tendencies. In our society, we can see the mistreatment of certain races in our justice system when it comes to how drugs, gun violence, and sexual harassment lawsuits are handled—race still continues to be a factor in how punishments are given. Also, it is taboo for humans and vampires to have relationships with one another, but there has been movements and laws being processed to allow such relationships to happen. In this drama, aside from the intimacy and emotional issues between Anzai and Taira, the two must help in the fight for vampire rights and peace between the two species.
Devils’ Line tackles some interesting concepts, but the anime fails to execute a compelling story to convey those topics. There were so many storylines that the show introduced but the writers fail to give any satisfying conclusion to the subplots and issues brought up. The ending left us with no resolution to how vampires and humans unite, and there is uncertainty whether or not Anzai and Taira will remain together.
In fact, the ending was a bit cynical. The overarching message that was brought to the viewers’ attention was that there is no hope for peace amongst races. You can’t change the mindset of every individual. You aren’t born with values of discrimination and prejudices: you are taught these values by others and the environment you live in. Thus, even though some people’s viewpoints changed, there will always be someone who will discriminate because such values and ideology are still being passed down from generation to generation. The ending of this anime viewed humanity in a pessimistic manner. There seems to be no effective, long-term solution against discrimination and so, there’s no hope for a more accepting society, instead, we will always live in this hostile world.
Furthermore, the ending felt rushed and left the reader with more questions. For example, the series introduced some principal characters like Anzai’s parents, but the series didn’t further elaborate on their roles. If you are going to introduce key characters, you should follow-up on them. Since the anime focused a significant amount of time on Anzai trying to figure out his origins and past so that he can control his vampire powers, I would expect his parents’ involvement more towards helping him trying to understand himself. Overall, this series introduced so many subplots but didn’t tie them together in a nice conclusion. It left us with more questions and I doubt there will be a second season since the first season didn’t do the manga justice.
3/5
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Hmm, too bad about the ending, but overall I like the sound of this one to be honest. Vampires acting as cops is a pretty nice concept. I will add this one to my never ending list of things I need to watch lol. Great post! 😊
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The concept is interesting but don’t expect much from the anime. The manga has already been completed so I am assuming that the manga has a better storyline than what was presented in the anime.
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Thank you for the review,, this will save me some time and rather then dip into the anime i’ll delve into the manga itself. I love vampire storiies, your commentss, mention a gripe that killed many anime for me. I think I will enjoy reading this one in bed, rather than staying up to watch the anime! Thanks for the review
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No problem. I haven’t read the manga, but i think it will most likely be better than the anime.
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I was very interested in this one when I first read about it and then when it came out I just found it lacking. The visuals really didn’t work for me but there were a lot of interesting ideas. I kind of wish it had been done better because there’s some real potential in the idea.
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I totally agree with you. The concept is interesting but the anime didn’t do it justice. Also, the visual reminded of a webcomic vibe.
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I’ve heard a lot of good things about this series but your own critiques are enough for me to wait on starting this. It stinks that it was left so open ended
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Yeah, it isn’t like a must-watch. It had a lot of potential but the anime was a disappointment. However, the manga is already completed, so I’m gonna assume that the story’s ending is more complete there.
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I hope the manga is much better I keep hearing so many promising things about it! Are there any darker anime you’d recommend instead?
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LOL. I haven’t heard a lot about it from people, but it was one of those sleeper anime that seemed interesting to me. Umm.. I haven’t watched a lot of dark anime except for Psycho Pass and Tokyo Ghoul this summer.
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Haha for sure I never even realized the manga existed until a while ago. Oh okay cool! I still haven’t finished TG
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I thought Tokyo Ghoul was a disappointment. It was too hyped for me.
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It was that bad? Hmm I didn’t enjoy what I did watch anywhere as much as the manga. Was it just a bad adaptation?
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Naw, for me personally, it wasn’t my style of a story.
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Oh I see 🙂 It is rather violent and disturbing so I get that.
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It wasn’t that. It was more like I was expecting more XD
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Fair enough haha the anime isn’t what I was expecting
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I thought the anime was pretty alright overall. There are problems with the show having uncompleted plot points but that’s because it’s an adaption of a manga that was ongoing by the time the anime was airing. There’s a lot of plot that continues in the manga’s story, but because the anime is a 12-episode single-cour series, it wouldn’t be able to cover everything.
With the plotline regarding Anzai’s parents, it did get covered in an OVA, which is about Anzai’s past and how his parents met and got together.
Also, I’d argue that the ending finished on a positive note. Close to the end of episode 12, there’s a scene of Ishimaru and Miwako meeting Tsukasa in the hospital. Miwako tells Tsukasa that seeing Hans help save her changed her initial negative opinion on devils to a more positive one and Ishimaru believes that both Anzai and Tsukasa could be seen as a symbol of hope for those who desire coexistence. So the anime does end with a hopeful message that humans and devils can someday coexist peacefully.
If you’re interested enough in the anime’s story, characters or themes then I recommend that you try out the manga. It’s better paced, there’s more character development and world-building and the story is overall more solid as compared to the anime adaption.
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Yeah, I assumed that they made this anime while the manga was still being published. And I would like to see another season of it but from the looks of it, I doubt that they would give it another season and so we won’t get a proper conclusion that it deserves.
I haven’t watched the OVA, but that’s great that they gave a more fruitful backstory of his parents. For me personally, I would have wanted the writers to tie in that story more into the series since we see that “sexual relationships” plays a huge issue in the anime.
Now I agree with what you said that Anzai and Tsukasa represent the hope that humans and vampires. However, they only changed the view of a small portion of people. I still think there is still dark truth that change can only happen if you change the ideology of an entire generation/region but that is a tall task to order.
I am interested in the manga since it is finally completed and it has an interesting story. I think they should have waited until this manga was completed to make a series. This series deserves more justice.
Thanks for commenting!
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The anime was a terrible adaptation that didn’t do the manga series any justice. The anime series left out one of the best parts of the manga and that is the inclusiveness of Queer diverse characters. There is rep for Asexual, gay/lesbian, bisexual and aromantic identities and none of that was shared. Instead it depicted this insta-love trope and left out everything else that helped to add some cohesive to Anzai’s romantic relationship. As you said, it rushes through the narrative as well, and the finale was disappointing. The world building, conflicts on co-existence, and added depth to the characters–main and side alike–were all missing. I mean, the manga is one of my favourite seinen titles, so I was very disheartened by the anime.
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Dang, I wish I could read the manga because it sounds way more interesting than this series or at least, they should have give this series more episodes.
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