// Devil May Cry

The new Devil May Cry series was my first ever experience with the DMC.

Aside from seeing Dante slurping down Pizza in one of the trailers, I knew nothing about the guy. I did come into the show with a vague expectation after seeing the musical direction they were promoting, but nothing concrete.

I was definitely into this show. It’s a fun, bold, bloody ride from start to finish that sets up an interesting premise.

I’ve since gone back and started the first video game. Consider me a DMC fan!

Here’s what stood out to me about Netflix’s new Devil May Cry series.

// Point 1: Blunt but Poignant

Dante is a gun-toting demon hunter for hire. He gets tangled up in a battle between Darkcom – a demon hunting military division – and a demonic rabbit. They both want his family heirloom, a necklace. You see, the necklace is the key to taking down the barrier between the human and demon realms.

Dante’s half-human half-demon lineage is interwoven with this plotline, as you might expect/

That premise alone isn’t anything to write home about. If this were it, the solid animation and soundtrack would be enough to make the show a good show. But they introduce a new angle to the storytelling that elevates the whole thing.

Since this is a spoiler-free review, I won’t go into the details. The humanizes the demons in ways I didn’t expect. It leaves the viewer asking which side are really the bad guys. It asks if causing harm in the name of protecting those who need help is deserving of judgment.

There are obvious parallels to the real world, especially right now.

Darkcom – a unit of the American government – is very American. If you’ve looked at the news recently you know what I mean by that. They love killing dudes who are different from them, and they love doing it in the name of God.

None of this is subtle, mind you. But nothing in Devil May Cry is subtle. The language, the jokes, the exposition – DMC comes at you fast and hard and doesn’t care. I won’t go as far as to say it’s better than it might be with more subtle writing, but in the end it didn’t actually bother me.

The show owns it’s kick-assitude nature.

I think the show goes from a good show to an excellent show as things progress into the second half, and more of that second storyline I mentioned is explored. They do a good job sticking the landing and setting up an interesting premise for future seasons.

// Point 2: Music

The soundtrack for this show is fantastic. I’m definitely biased because it’s filled to the brim with music from my youth. Green Day, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, and even a new track from Evanescence fill your ear holes throughout the eight episode run.

Afterlife by Evanescence is haunting and used to perfect effect in episode 6. The hidden Green Day track is so on the nose you’ll be wondering why you didn’t see it coming when it drops.

// Point 3: Animation

The animation in Devil May Cry is great. Studio Mir uses a combination of 2D and 3D animation to bring the over-the-top fight scenes to life.

The 3D – used mostly for more complicated demons – was a bit distracting compared to the super polished 2D animation, but it never looked downright bad. Some scenes pulled it off better than others.

Dante and Lady blast and beat demons into submission with satisfying fluidity. 

I’d be remiss to discuss the animation of this show without talking about episode 6. This episode dedicates itself to showing off some backstory, and I’ll leave it at that. Narratively this was where the show turned things up from good to excellent.

But the animation was really a work of art here. They took on two new styles of animation that showed off two different storylines happening at the same time. There’s one that is really special. You’ll know it when you see it.

// Point 4: Adi Shankar

Adi Shankar is one of the creators of this series, and he’s no stranger to this type of work.

If you know the name, it might be from Castlevania, Captain Lazerhawk, or Dredd.

There are parallels we can draw to these other works. One being the connection between aspects of Lady’s plotline and Dredd. 

Other more thematic elements would be the effects of blindly following orders, and connections with religious fanaticism. Darkcom doing what they are doing because of the orders of one man following god’s plan are the perfect example.

I’m also not sure if it was the show’s intention, but Lady is just a straight-up bad guy. Her need to follow the orders of her superiors without any consideration don’t leave her in a great light.

I’m very interested to see how this develops. I assume eventually she will see the error of her ways. I can’t imagine they will leave one of the show’s protagonists as miserable as she is all the way through.

You can see similar themes expressed in the Casltevania series, for example.

All-in-all, Devil May Cry was a lot of fun, and took the story places I didn’t expect. It may not win any awards for it’s writing, but I certainly can’t wait to jump back into this world whenever season 2 releases.

In the meantime, you can find me playing the Devil May Cry HD Collection.

Looking for more animated television? Check out our review of Invincible season 3.