In the beginning of Devils’ Crest – the new anime based on the light novel written by Sword Art Online author Reki Kawahara – protagonist Yuuma, his sister and their two friends are in what is now a familiar setting: almost skipping as they travel effortlessly through a fantasy world cloaked with magical powers and heroic swordsmanship skills.
Devils’ Crest doesn’t bother selling you on the idea of full diving into a virtual world. Instead, it offers it up to you like it’s an everyday occurrence. Indeed, the kids (and the soundtrack) are carefree as they battle monsters and make their way through dungeons, until they finally face a stronger monster that puts up a better fight.
It’s almost as though the concept of fully diving into a video game is commonplace – even when over a decade ago when the Sword Art Online anime first released, it felt groundbreaking enough for the anime to expend significant time explaining and justifying itself to the viewer.
Watching Devils’ Crest through the eyes of how the anime and light novel industry has transformed since a little web novel project exploded first onto print, then onto TV screens, movie theaters – and before long, streaming – makes that story feel as though it’s come full circle.
It also telegraphs what is going to come: in this new video game world, players don’t vanish into nice shards of crystal. Now their deaths will be gruesome to behold. Legs will be bent out of shape, limbs will be used as weapons, and angelic looking girls will be transformed into hideous demons.
Surely we’re not in Aincrad anymore…
A darker take on the Sword Art Online experience
It must be strange, as a creator, to be the person responsible for beginning a new era not only for one medium, but two different ones simultaneously, only to then reenter that very same medium once again with a need to subvert it.
And both light novels and anime are very much in need of subverting the overdone Isekai tropes that have flooded the market in the years since Sword Art Online first took the world by storm. Indeed, in Japan at least, audiences are experiencing an “Isekai” fatigue. They’re growing weary of the endless slew of stories that – like Sword Art Online – focus on ordinary, every day people transported into fantastical worlds.
Indeed, Kadokawa – the original publishers of Sword Art Online that pioneered the Isekai craze of the last decade – have themselves noted the need to venture beyond the Isekai formula as they have seen profits from their publishing arm drop by over 50% this year.
Kadokawa is also the rights holder to Demons’ Crest – and this is one story that at first glance appears to be delivering on their promise. Devils’ Crest does not appear to be any playful romp in another world where unexpected heroes are adored by a circle of female characters.
Instead, the world of Devils’ Crest is immediately a bit horrifying, with children becoming devilish creatures, while others are brutally murdered.
The much darker approach to storytelling is notable when compared to Kawahara’s other works. While Sword Art Online does have bloody moments, and Accel World (also by Kawahara) has some edge to it, neither have scenes as frightening as the first two episodes of Devils’ Crest.
The opening montage that sees four kids battling monsters Final Fantasy style and having fun doing it feels like more than a foreshadowing: it’s almost a nod to the earlier days of Isekai – brighter days filled with shining heroes and grand adventures.
Devils’ Crest feels poised for a post “Dark Shonen Trio” world
Almost from the get-go, Devils’ Crest feels engineered to speak to the current wave of anime fans who are captivated by much darker themes than those of a decade or more ago. The anime of the late 90’s and through the 2000s were mostly stories of heroism, hope, and overcoming adversity.
While they were edgy compared to much of the “cartoons” you saw on TV at the time, they pale in comparison to the dark themes present in popular anime today. The anime that tops the charts now include the likes of Chainsaw Man, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen – all stories with far darker moments than SAO ever had.
While many of the core tenets of SAO are here – characters even sort of look the same, and they are also in a death game – the rules of the death game have changed since a certain hooded and cloaked figure appeared over a group of 10,000 frightened players and told them that “this is not a game you play.” Devils’ Crest is also playing in a world with different rules – one that has less patience for the magic of being in a different world alone.
Everything Devils’ Crest gets right in its first two episodes
Thematic framing aside, Devils’ Crest is an enticing anime so far even without the SAO comparisons. The first two episodes move slowly and quickly at the same time. While we’ve already seen Yuuma and friends battle a massive and mostly CGI dragon, we know very little about the greater world they inhabit, or why the VR game they were testing has suddenly burst into the real world.
Reality has clearly broken, but all that we know of why are strange glimpses at eyes floating in space, and cryptic flashbacks that fail to reveal much.
The focus on suspense and scenario/world building without bald exposition is a welcome change in pace from other contemporary anime that tend to be a bit heavy-handed with explanations within the first few episodes.
Indeed, even SAO had a massive hooded figure emerge from the sky to essentially deliver what the plot would be to you. And while we do get something akin to this when we see a flashback of Yuuma and gang prepare themselves for the full dive experience, otherwise the story leaves out exposition almost entirely, making it feel like you are right there with those kids as they face their own reality forever changed and marred by whatever it is “Actual Magic” has unleashed.
I also particularly enjoy Yuuma’s sister, Sawa, who already seems to act as a foil to her more serious and thoughtful brother, while Yuuma's ability to summon magical creatures via cards immediately caught my attention.
Where there’s room for improvement
While the slower setup is a welcome change, if we don’t get more of an idea soon as to where the story is headed, the anime could lose some momentum. Again to turn to the SAO example: that anime was excellent at establishing the core premise of the story from the very first episode.
As of right now, we’re already past the first two episodes and know very little about the world we’ve spent that time in other than characters can apparently die “in game,” can access their powers in their reality as well as the game world, and a few other things mostly already mentioned in this article.
Based on what we’ve seen so far, however, I’m very intrigued to find out what happens next, and I think most viewers will be – regardless of whether they’ve seen SAO or not.
The next episode of Devils’ Crest will air on Prime Video on November 13, 2026.
