On April 3rd, Netflix released the animated series Devil May Cry, directed by Adi Shankar and written by Alex Larsen. It is based on the game series of the same name from the Japanese studio Capcom. The season consists of eight episodes in a style familiar to streaming service viewers, similar to “Castlevania,” “DOTA: Dragon`s Blood,” and “The Witcher: Siren of the Depths.”
Devil May Cry is a beloved franchise with millions of fans, and it`s undeniably iconic. Many already have a defined stylistic vision, and expectations for the screen adaptation were high. It`s daunting to imagine the pressure on the creators during production. However, director Adi Shankar, by his own admission, had a very positive outlook on the project.
The script for the entire first season is ready. I had the opportunity to work with a very talented writer, Alex Larsen, on the story. The script is very cool, and I wanted fans of the series to be proud of it. The series is made by DMC fans for DMC fans.
The anime`s plot is partly based on the manga prequel (Devil May Cry 3 manga) but also serves as a spin-off to the series. Story elements and characters are taken from the original material.
Here, a young and inexperienced Dante is yet unaware of his brother Vergil`s situation. He hasn`t opened his demon-hunting agency and works as a mercenary for the shady Enzo.
A mysterious rabbit with a monocle, reminiscent of “Alice in Wonderland,” appears and steals a legendary sword from the Vatican Museum. According to the rabbit, this sword can finally unite the human and demon worlds. The sword lacks only an amulet, one half of which is with Dante, and the other with Vergil.
Thugs gather to capture Dante to obtain the coveted amulet and receive a hefty reward. Among them is Lady, who here is still Mary—a member of an elite demon hunter squad. The rabbit sets his cunning villainous plan into motion and hunts for the protagonist`s blood, while poor Dante simply resists everyone to prevent a global catastrophe and restore everything to how it was, just like his father, the demon Sparda, once did.
The result is a decent action series to pass the time. It will especially appeal to those who have never played the franchise games and only vaguely know about the series. It has a coherent plot with a relatively interesting, justified antagonist and a charismatic protagonist. There`s some lore and even (a stretched, like a ceiling in an apartment) drama.
There`s a very energetic soundtrack: Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit in the opening credits, and generally a lot of surprisingly good rock music. Even the famous “Bury the Light,” which includes “I am the storm that is approaching,” is a pleasant nod. Yes, the selection isn`t entirely in the style of the original game, but it`s still substantial.
There are some references to the original games, a very cool, vibrant opening sequence, and… that`s it.
Unfortunately, the positives of the anime end here, and the problems begin. The main and most glaring issues can be described with a quote from the animated series: “You know what I felt when I killed your brother? Nothing,” says Dante, and how right he is. The protagonist hits the sore spot of the entire series, which evokes absolutely no emotions. Neither towards the main characters, nor towards the mass and rather bloody killings on screen, nor towards the story itself. This is hard to accept when you realize that everything for achieving maximum empathy had already been prepared by Capcom and its game series.
There`s reason to believe that the appeal of the games lies in an incredible cocktail of coolness bordering on cringeworthy, stylish combat, super-sexy main characters, and deep, albeit maximally simple, drama. How it was possible to lose almost all of this in the anime is known only to God. It became clear that the fun was over when 90% of screen time was occupied by the dullest conversations and 10%—at best—by amusing combat moves of the gray-haired protagonist.
The setting of the original games was also lost. All the elements of the Victorian era and small inclusions of modernity, the unified clothing of the main characters, monster designs—these carried a significant portion of the storytelling. The creators of the anime (which in reality is not anime at all, but a product of Korean outsourced animation production and American executives) exchanged the well-thought-out original for a strange mix of futuristic costumes, modern America and its values, and agenda-driven themes. To give you an idea, a deliberately accented American flag in the last episode of the first season appeared almost every frame. Phrases like “God bless America” and “ironic” jokes about “we live in the society” occasionally slip from the antagonist`s mouth. There`s also a whole capture of hell by Americans, which is either an attempt to process Vietnamese cultural PTSD (judging by the terrifying “photos” of American soldiers with demon children under tank treads or with the skulls of horned “creatures” on car hoods), or a desire to squeeze drama out of thin air.
Obviously, the old guard will not appreciate such a substitution, and fresh blood… Maybe someone will like that Devil May Cry has suddenly become a center of political squabbles, but it`s doubtful.
Instead of a unique storytelling where each hero has fighting characteristics that define them as a personality, in the Netflix product, we got a beat-`em-up for the sake of beating-`em-up. There is no more of Dante`s chaotic fighting style, no more of Lady`s graceful and confident movements. Everyone somersaults more or less coolly, but they do it somehow the same (and, by the way, not always cool). The fight choreography is nothing particularly memorable, the pseudo-dynamics (which, by the way, often consists of stills with flashes coming out of pistols) is truly baffling when there seems to be real carnage on screen, and you feel nothing. Not even childish joy from seemingly adult content on screen.
I want my animated series to be as visually inventive as the original source material itself. I strive for a style that can depict `beautiful chaos` and at the same time become an ode to Capcom`s brainchild. In my vision, this style should be elegant and at the same time pompous, and such a project can achieve such multi-layeredness only if its creator puts their soul into every stage of creation. This is exactly what I have done and intend to continue doing while working on the project.
If the game deliberately didn`t go into details, and gave information in extremely measured doses, so as not to spoil the coolness with boring reflections on the heroes` past, the series went all out in this regard. Incredibly long clip montages of dramatic moments, strange, sepia-tinted excerpts from Dante`s father`s past and the like. There even appeared a huge silent flashback where the animation style changes for the sake of a story from the past. The problem is that none of these clips grab you, don`t connect you to the characters, although they try to fulfill their main function: to create unreal drama.
The characters do not fulfill their role as characters, but remain in memory only as functions. Rabbit—a supervillain with initially good intentions, simply destroyed by society. Mary, obviously a love interest for the protagonist, a machine for producing curses and killings, whose dramatic storyline is not connected with her father, but with members of her squad. Enzo—a guy from whom you don`t expect heroism, but it happens. Dante—kind of a cool guy with a hint of awkwardness, but ultimately some kind of upstart-bumbler. There is a feeling that for a deeper understanding of the character, it is enough for you to watch the opening cinematic of Devil May Cry 3, and not all eight episodes of the anime. The very one where Dante coolly eats pizza.
There is a head of a corporation, who seems to act for the good of the people, and seems to be the real main villain, an unironically genius Indian scientist is present. Golden classics of cookie-cutter characters, which for some reason you want to shove into every average series. Mary`s family history is generally copied from Batman: exactly like in “Batman Begins,” where the Wayne family with little Bruce leaves the theater because the boy was scared by bats.
In general, the creators clearly tried to make a kind of more or less classic product with recognizable characters and style for the franchise, but framed in the usual series format. And this, unfortunately, did not work. What emerged was a mediocre, boring, and emotionless template-like something that completely lost the charm of its ancestor. Devil May Cry from Netflix is definitely not the series you`ll want to ponder over for a couple of hours or rewatch someday. If you really want to immerse yourself in the franchise not through games and get enjoyment, it`s better to watch Devil May Cry from Madhouse 2007. There is indeed something to be happy about there.