By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The Super Mario Bros. Movie made over a billion dollars, A Minecraft Movie is halfway there already, but when it comes to streaming, Netflix has the market cornered on video game adaptations and with its latest hit, the company isn’t slowing down any time soon. After winning awards with the League of Legends series Arcane, reviving interest in Castlevania, and turning a Tomb Raider anime into a hit, Netflix has done it again with Devil May Cry. The super-stylish series has already been renewed for a second season, which is especially impressive, as the franchise hasn’t had a new game since 2019.
No One’s Watching Devil May Cry For The Plot
It’s the second time Devil May Cry has been adapted as an animated series, following in the footsteps of the 2007 anime, and both show’s focus on the time period established in Devil May Cry 3 when the half-demon Dante is working as a mercenary (or a “private investigator,” but his investigations all tended to end with someone getting stabbed). Both shows naturally lean on highly stylized fight sequences, while the latest Netflix series makes sure to include callbacks to the first series in the first episode’s showpiece against the demonic Plasma inside a diner, and even the pool balls from DMC 3’s opening cutscene make an appearance in the second episode. The visual call backs are filled with nods to the franchise but as any fan of Dante knows, the most important part is nailing the perfect blend of humor, cockiness, and stubbornness that made the demon hunter an icon in his very first appearance.
Dante is effortlessly cool and should be at the center of all the action in a Devil May Cry adaptation, which the first two episodes absolutely nail, but then he starts taking a back seat to his own supporting cast. Which is a shame, because casting Johnny Young Bosch (Spike from Cowboy Bebop and ironically, Nero, the Dante-replacement from the last Devil May Cry games) was inspired and his take on the character is the best we’ve seen in years. There are some cringey jokes that don’t land, but all in all, this is a fantastic version of Dante that may not be exactly what fans wanted, but once the fighting starts and Devil Trigger gets activated, even the most jaded fans can’t help but enjoy themselves.
The Story Deviates Wildly From The Games
The two most important parts of any Devil May Cry adaptation are the fight scenes and Dante’s characterization, with the plot a distant third in priority. The Netflix series twists the game’s lore by making demons misunderstood (sort of) and thrusting the government’s paramilitary forces into the role of the bad guys (sort of), which is the exact opposite of the games, in which dante’s father Sparda is supposed to be the very rare demon who likes humans. The worst part is that while it doesn’t respect the game’s lore in any way, the show’s plot is good, not great, but good, and every anime fan has endured much worse in their time.
DARKCOM, the government organization hunting down demons, is chasing a demonic terrorist, White Rabbit, when they realize that Dante’s amulet is the secret to finding the demon. This puts Mary Ann Arkham (or as Dante calls her, “Lady”) up against the Son of Sparda, but anyone who’s played the games, or watched any anime ever, knows that, of course, they end up working together. It’s a simple, basic plot with a few twists and turns, but it gets the job done, and it’s significantly better than the plot of DMC 4 and the strange black-haired Dante reboot Capcom attempted.
Another Anime Hit For Netflix
I’ve been a fan of the franchise since the beginning, like any good fan, I’ve never played Devil May Cry 2 past the second level, and I own multiple versions of Devil May Cry 3, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Netflix series. If anything, I’d have preferred Dante to be a little dorkier, but at least the writing knows to treat the insane plot with a level of deadly seriousness that makes line readings such as “I am that storm” so over the top you have to admire the studio’s earnestness. And at this point, Netflix’s video game adaptation track record is beyond reproach.
The streamer is home to not only the award-winning Arcane and Castlevania, but also DOTA: Dragon’s Blood and the Dragon’s Dogma series, with even the worst of them standing head and shoulders above the video game adaptations we had to endure in the 90s. Anyone else who remembers Captain N the Gamemaster knows how bad things used to be. Devil May Cry has already been renewed for a second season, and there’s a good chance we’ll get that before Devil May Cry 6.
Devil May Cry Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.
