The adaptation kind of ends on a weird spot. Sure, everything works out for Anzai and Tsukasa, but everything around them has fallen apart. Lee is now on the run, because he had to reveal himself to the world in order to help Tsukasa save Anzai. F Squad has been completely disbanded with Sawazaki being assigned to a desk job. The adaptation doesn’t even bother to give Jill another line of dialogue. She’s simply been reassigned. And according to Makimura, there is a huge conspiracy out there. CCC isn’t just some random organization that sprung up overnight. It has deep government roots. Last but not least, the latest incident resulted in even more stringent laws for devils. According to Miwako, Tsukasa’s best friend, some people’s opinions of devils have improved, but the status quo remains largely the same. A large percentage of the populace still wants to exterminate all devils. So sure, it’s great that Anzai and Tsukasa can declare their love for each other. But the situation is worse than it has ever been, and it’ll never get resolved. The bad guys pretty much got what they wanted. Anzai is banned from seeing Tsukasa for a while, but we see them reunite after the credits. I assume the time skip has taken place. Again, this is a happy ending for them, but just them. As a result, Devils’ Line tells an incomplete story.

Final grade: D+

Misc. notes & observations:

— The biggest problem with this adaptation is that the original story is too big to be covered by a one-cour adaptation. As a result, the anime ends up introducing way too many characters. We can’t cover them all, so for the vast majority of them, there is no sense of closure. Hell, we straight up have no idea what happens to some of them.

— For instance, Nanako (a.k.a. Zero Seven) could’ve taken Kikuhara out herself. Unfortunately, he has a strange hold over her, so she just can’t pull the trigger. The girl has serious issues that need to be worked out, but we have no clue what happens to her after this. We have no clue whatsoever. I’m not saying that her character deserves better, but it feels weird when a story thread suddenly cuts off with no sense of finality. That’s exactly what happens here.

— Anyways, Lee gets Tsukasa to Anzai, and she tries to cut herself with a shard of glass. Unfortunately, Anzai needs 400 cc of blood in order to survive, so a small trickle of blood from her arm is not going to do the trick. As a result, she shoves one of her arms into his mouth and starts begging him to bite down on her. In his fevered dreams, he somehow sees a naked Tsukasa floating before him. I guess this makes him horny, and whenever he’s horny, he transforms. So back in the real world, Anzai has gone full devil on Tsukasa. But hey, she’s saving him, so that’s love for ya.

— Even if the wound heals up, don’t they need to get the bullet out…? Ah, whatever.

— After the deed is done, Lee gets Tsukasa to safety, but he pretty much has to go into hiding. Unfortunately, the adaptation kinda glosses over this.

— At one point, Makimura gets on the police radio and warns everyone that CCC is government-born. In the manga, he also wants Mayu (a.k.a. Zero Eleven) to ignore people who picks on others for their looks. This is a really long and drawn out side plot that has been completely left out of the adaptation. Why? Well, Mayu apparently no longer exists in the anime. Basically, Mayu is an average-looking girl from a beautiful family. As a result, she is insecure and develops a serious complex against beautiful people. More importantly, she is in love with Kikuhara simply because he’s a manipulative asshole. Makimura is trying to get her to realize this.

— In the anime, it’s unclear whether or not Makimura survives the incident. After all, he got shot twice and we don’t get to see him again. In the manga, he ends up being rescued by Mayu’s family, then there’s two whole chapters dedicated to him spending time with her and her family in some cabin in the woods. She’s totally in love with him, but he’s unsure about his feelings towards her. He just knows that he wants her around. As of now, that side story remains unresolved. They’re sort of living together, but they haven’t even kissed.

— As Anzai remains unconscious, he starts to see a memory from his youth where Kikuhara had taken him to see his father. That’s it, basically. I feel like Anzai is too old to be carried around like this, but whatever. The incident scarred the hell out of Anzai and is probably the reason why he hates himself so much.

— But as you might expect, the adaptation leaves out a ton of information. I’ll just mention the most notable part that they left out: Kikuhara’s origins. Apparently, his mother practically ignored him completely when he was growing up… up until he became a teenager. All of a sudden, she found him more beautiful than any man. Yep, that’s incest. After they slept together one night — yo, I’m not even joking — he saw her standing on a balcony. For some reason, he was overcome with the urge to kill her, and so he did. Naturally, Kikuhara felt no guilt from the incident. Rather, he felt as though he had been freed from her “curse.” Due to time constraints, we don’t see this at all in the adaptation. Kikuhara barely has any backstory in the show.

— In fact, it seems as though the evil conspiracy forces has assassinated Kikuhara. This same car explosion happens in the manga, but the guy survives it. In the anime, however, it looks pretty fatal. Unless, of course, that’s not him in front of the car. But hey, if there isn’t going to be a sequel, then it doesn’t really matter if Kikuhara survives the explosion or not.

— After Anzai wakes up, he despairs over the fact that he had lost control of himself and bitten Tsukasa. He thus loses faith in the idea of a human-devil romance. At this point in the manga, Kano gives him a phone so that he can speak to his own mother. His mother tells Anzai all about his father and why she fell in love with him. Essentially, Anzai’s father was completely A-OK up until some bastards killed his human girlfriend. As a result, he took revenge on them, but the deed made him lose himself completely. He then went on a rampage and killed more people. So he’s a bad guy, but there are reasons for it. Uh-huh.

— In the anime adaptation, however, Anzai doesn’t speak to his mother at all. Instead, they have Kano tell the guy all about his father. See, if you’re going to include this scene anyways, why change it up? Why leave out the conversation with his mother completely? I don’t get it. She gives him the courage he needs to continue loving Tsukasa, so I really think the anime should’ve kept their conversation.

— Right before the ban goes into effect, Anzai and Tsukasa meet one last time to confess their love. I just find it hilarious, because he looks so fucking angry during his confession. Seriously, does this look like a guy who is in love?

— So the credits begin to roll, and afterwards, there’s a time skip. Again, the adaptation skips over a ton of events to get to this point. Plus, I think it’s lame that they’re still blushing at each other at this stage of their relationship. But no matter, the story here is essentially over. The only context you need is that Tsukasa has now found a purpose in life: she’s going to devote her life to researching and understanding devils.

— If you’re curious about the rest of the story that takes place in the manga, it gets pretty fucking wacky. At some point, Anzai and Tsukasa want to do it. After all, they’re in their twenties, so why wouldn’t they get horny and bang like rabbits? But doing it with a devil is dangerous! So what happens? They go back to ONLO where Anzai’s mother helps facilitate the fucking. Yep. In fact, Anzai has to be all tied up in order for any copulation to take place. And as a cherry on top of this creepy sundae, his mother gets to watch.

— In fact, she even gives Tsukasa love-making tips. After all, Anzai’s going to be tied down, so the girl kinda has to do everything. I’m sure this would have looked funny as hell in anime form, but alas, we’ll never get to see their lovemaking animated.

— I scanned through the manga a bit. Personally, I’m more of a fan of the relationship between Makimura and Mayu than the main couple. As a result, it kinda sucks that the adaptation left it out. But either way, Devils’ Line is kinda mediocre even in its manga form. It has its moments, but it’s still forgettable. At the time of this post, the manga is still ongoing. I have no clue when it’s going to end, and I don’t think I’ll stick around to find out.