The Hilariously Bad 1987 Devilman OVA Dub (Mary Lee loves Devilman: Part 2)
If you’re up on your anime and manga history, you’ll know that winter 2018’s Devilman: Crybaby is a modernized adaptation of Go Nagai’s legendary 1972 manga Devilman. But you might not know that, before Crybaby, the only legal way to watch a Devilman anime in English was to pop in a VHS tape containing one of the most hilariously bad dubs the early ‘90s had to offer – the 1987 OVA Devilman: The Birth, and its 1990 sequel Devilman: The Demon Bird.
Both OVAs were dubbed by now-defunct British company World Wide Sound and released in 1994 by Manga Entertainment, which had seen previous success with their release of AKIRA. The story is a fairly accurate adaptation of the first half of the Devilman manga, but it’s infinitely improved (in our opinion) by the awkward voice acting that sounds like it could’ve come straight out of a middle school play, but with a heaping handful of swear words and awkward pauses thrown in for no real reason. So without further chattering, let’s explore this mangled masterpiece together!
This article was written for Honey's Anime, so please read it on their site.
