Dante (Johnny Yong Bosch) is a devil hunter with a thirst for revenge and an even bigger appetite for savage comebacks. We meet him in this iteration of Devil May Cry right in the middle of the action, on the eve of destruction. A portal between the human and demon realms has ripped open, allowing some lesser demons to slip through—but it’s only a matter of time before the bigger bads show up, orchestrated by the menacingly suave White Rabbit (Hoon Lee).
Our fave white-haired vigilante is caught up in the battle for the world, dragging him into the path of a fellow demon hunter Mary AKA Lady (Scout Taylor-Compton), who has a dark past of her own and a score to settle, and VP Baines (Kevin Conroy) who wants the job done no matter the cost. Along for the ride is also Enzo (Chris Coppola), the eternal middleman who finds himself in scrapes more than deals. Oh and for the diehards, don’t worry, Dante’s brother Vergil (Robbie Daymond) is around here somewhere (though on which plane of existence, we cannot say).
If you played the original Capcom game back in the day, Devil May Cry is a visual treat that brings the beloved characters to brutal, bloody, deadly life. You’ll delight in the OG characters’ callbacks and mannerisms, and the new additions help to connect some of the gaps left in translating the medium of the story. While it’s hard to do every character justice with this much lore, the adaptation gets the main beats down. Dante’s gritty sass fuels the show and often spurs its characters to even greater heights of annoyance against him (what can he do, he was born this way). It helps to balance the show’s more bombastic heights, where demons and devilish tricks threaten to consume everything.
Of course, much like the games, DMC is action-heavy, spitting out fight scenes like there’s no tomorrow (and in this world, that may very well be true). The blood—oh, the geysers of it—literally floats through the air when Dante and his associates really get their murder motors running. It’s all at once gory and stunning to watch, showing the high price each character must pay while intertwining the dark magic surrounding them. The dynamic animation style sells it well, keeping the fluidity of the video game action and making it feel like you’re the one in control.
The anime feels very much cemented in the early 2000s, back when the first video game came out, and leans into it, hard. The dialogue can be a little cheesy, with action-hero one-liners always primed and ready. And the soundtrack is a glorious blend of nu-metal that ruled the airwaves for a hot minute back then—Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Evanescence—which may just give you emotional whiplash. If this was your childhood, this kinda vibe will be working for you, babe.
With that said, the characters feel far from one-dimensional video game assassins; the eight-episode run explores the depths of the major players to raise the emotional stakes. One of the standout episodes is “The First Circle”, a flashback vignette told without any real dialogue, led by its soundtrack and visuals that change in art style depending on who it focuses on. Using this narrative break to show us the characters’ backstories and traumas adds a nice layer of complexity to the show, proving that it’s not just the high-flying action that powers the DMC franchise.
From the creative vision of Adi Shankar, Devil May Cry is another feather in Netflix’s cap of video game to anime adaptations. If you’re a fan of the video game franchise, get ready to relive the hard-earned action. Or if you’re a fan of gory, gritty action delivered by compelling & morally grey characters, this one’s also for you. DMC is an exciting adaptation that I hope gets more time to expand as there is so much story left to tell.
