Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
First of all, credit to the ‘Devil May Cry’ creators for delivering an entertaining as hell opener for the show: a creepy anthropomorphic Bunny with wild eyes in a black suit massacres a bunch of human hit-men to steal a legendary sword with unprecedented magical abilities.
The creepy Bunny’s ultimate game plan? To open the gates of Hell and allow its residents (basically ‘demons’) a free pass into life on earth. A sassy, cocky, handsome demon-hunter called Dante however holds the key to not just hell but could also be the only person that can stop demons from taking over the world.
Based on Hideki Kamiya’s ‘Devil May Cry’ games, the Netflix animated show created by Adi Shankar (‘Castlevania’, ‘The Guardians of Justice‘) is an entertaining action-fantasy ride, with decent animation, great soundtrack, and a lamentably inadequate focus on primary protagonist Dante. Instead, much of the action is hogged by Mary, who Dante cheekily refers to as ‘The Lady’, a top security officer with Darkcom, a powerful organization that covertly fights against supernatural creatures.
Set in America, most of Devil May Cry is about the U.S. government using Darkcom agents to stop the White Rabbit (the creepy bunny) and his devilish minions from opening the gates of hell, and Dante, of course, gets entangled in this ‘demons versus humans’ battle. But it’s not as simple as hell’s creatures versus ordinary humans; there are gray areas, twists, and a megalomaniac U.S President involved. I won’t expand upon them to keep things spoiler-free. What I will say is that the evil White Rabbit’s character turns out to be a lot more likable than Mary. The latter is a black-and-white, brainwashed killing machine whose survival against the odds is way over the top throughout the show.
Now, the animation quality for Devil May Cry ranges between excellent and plain ‘meh’, especially when it comes to some of the character designs of the demons, some of whom are very similar to the creatures in Castlevania. Some of the beings are quite intimidating and majestic to look at, and then there are characters like the blue one pictured below. He looks like someone cast a spell on Captain Planet (or Doctor Manhattan if you’re more of a DC fan) and turned him into an ugly big blue blob… seriously, the design belongs to a 1990s cartoon show.
Episode 6 of ‘Devil May Cry’ completely switches up the tone of the show, with markedly different animation style, and minimal dialogues, while the story explores the childhood origin stories of two pivotal characters. One of them is definitely not Dante, so it is admittedly a little confusing to watch the edition, that is until the last few minutes make it clear who the other child is. The confusing build-up is worth the reveal.
Dante deserved a more detailed flashback too, but it seems the creators might be saving more of his story for a ‘Devil May Cry’ season 2. Because this edition only scratches the surface in regards to its lore and link between hell and the realm inhabited by humans. Hell is a complex world in itself, filled with different kinds of beings (some of which might remind comic-book readers of characters from Brian K. Vaughan’s epic fantasy series Saga.
Overall, ‘Devil May Cry’ is a fun show, with lots of violent action, exaggerated turns, and some memorable tragic back-stories. And it ends with the killer cliffhanger, one that promises a more dynamic follow-up. Hopefully, fans will get more of Dante, and less of the lady.
Watch ‘Devil May Cry’ on Netflix.
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