English Dub Review: Devils’ Line “Dark Side”

Even for a series about vampires, HiDive’s latest anime sucks.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS BELOW)

In the world of Devils’ Line, there’s an entire police squad for vampire (or ‘devil’)-related crime. This premiere episode quickly introduces a recent series of murders with clear supernatural connections: the victims each have bite marks on their necks and are surrounded by blood. Honestly, it seems like there should be an even greater sense of urgency from the authorities.

I found it interesting that our protagonist Tsukasa and her friends are hardly surprised when the news of the murders breaks. By contrast, they’re simply curious as you’d expect from a regular headline, apart from the dismissive Akimura. Given the series’ most significant issue so far is a lack of personality, more worldbuilding will undeniably determine whether future installments improve. I want to know if the general public is aware of the existence of vampires, for how long, and what differences this knowledge would make to history and culture. Although the introduction to Tsukasa achieves its goal of casting her as normal and unassuming, this doesn’t make for compelling viewing and receives too much focus. Moreover, this plot limits the development of every other character, which prevents either of the twists that the episode offers from resonating. Akimura is portrayed as a creep effectively, but the reveal of him as a vampire is forced to follow this too quickly; it’s shocking for Tsukasa because they’ve apparently known each other for so long, but far less so for a viewer with little context. Anzai faces a similar problem, which is particularly concerning if he’s going to be a co-lead in the future. In fact, his ‘half-devil’ nature isn’t brought up at all here, meaning that unfamiliar audiences would likely only glean this crucial information from HiDive’s series summary.

OUR TAKE

Problems with characters aside, as mentioned above, so far Devils’ Line suffers most from being boring. The sequences depicting vampires stalking and hunting their victims are messy and bland, while the choice of shots during the police chase makes it difficult to distinguish characters. Finally, the episode’s ending was perhaps its scariest moment, if only because Tsuaksa and Anzai’s kiss made me remember that Twilight exists.