© 2007 Capcom
I was afraid that the Devil May Cry anime series would suck when I heard the timing for DMC4’s release (late 2007), and with good cause. Many times such anime or manga is rushed, crappy, and lacking any decent story or plot line since it’s only raison d’être is to drum up awareness and excitement over a game, movie, or whatever else is the real draw.
The first episode introduces us, rather spectacularly, to Dante, the gun touting, sword wielding, smart-mouthed, bad-ass hero of the Devil May Cry franchise. Dressed in his trademark crimson leather overcoat and matching tight leather pants, he serves up pain to any and all demons dumb enough to make an appearance in this world.
All visual awesomeness aside, Dante is a bum. Most of the time he naps in his dingy, bachelor-pad/ store front until his agent shows up (yeah, Dante has an agent) with a job for him.
Usually when Mr. Morrison makes an appearance, Dante’s first inquiry is, how much is the job paying? Not only does Dante laze around like a bum, be has massive debt all over the place and his only hope of ever catching up to it is by taking dangerous jobs that pay well.
Mission One
Today, when Morrison shows up, he brings along a raggedy child and a new job opportunity. This new job Mr. Morrison offers doesn’t pay too well, nor does it seem that dangerous. The little orphan girl, Patty Lowell, is now the heiress to her unknown father’s fortune and it’s Dante’s task to see that she’s delivered safely to her new mansion. After Dante’s reluctance to get off his lazy ass and after some well placed reminders from Morrison about Dante’s debt, Dante agrees to this rather unglamorous job.
Heading out in Dante’s rather stylish ride (if he’s broke, where the hell does he get the money to look so good?), the two begin what will turn out to be something less than a joyride. Demons start to attack the duo, their mission; to kill Patty so she can’t wrest the inheritance from two brothers who stand to lose it if she isn’t eliminated. They also happen to be behind these attempts on Patty’s life.
When the cards are down, Dante’s less than impressive facade falls away to reveal the quick thinking, ruthless, ass-kicking anti-hero we know and love. All laziness and antipathy aside, Dante really cares about the people he’s been hired to protect. He takes down demons with a stylish grace that does the games proud.
Mission One ends on an up note, but I won’t tell you how. Mission two introduces us to that cold as ice femme fatale from DMC3, Lady.
Mission Two
Lady’s been hired by, of all folks, the Highway Department? A demon’s been haunting the highway that motorcycle gangs have been racing on. Appearing as a black clad racer, the demon kills all who step up to his racing challenge.
Lady, however, doesn’t want the job and fobs it off on Dante as a way for him to pay back the huge debt he owes her (good lord this guy’s a bum!) Dante wraps up Mission Two with style and it’s on to Mission Three.
Mission Three
Mission Three involves forbidden love, an overprotective father, and a chance for true happiness. Dante helps facilitate the true happiness bit in an interesting twist and the mission wraps up with no loose ends and a win for everyone involved.
Mission Four
At the start of Mission Four we’re treated with two of the lovely ladies from the games: Lady and Trish. Lady, intent as ever to kill any and all demons makes a move to end Trish. But instead of the usual Dante versus demon Mission fare, the two femmes battle it out throughout the episode. Their impressive battle eventually degenerates into of all things, a cat fight and Dante steps in to smooth things over. The Mission ends with the three joining forces and the two women becoming fast, and fashionable, friends.
Mission five
Mission Five is a departure from the formulaic fighting as well. A waitress at the local ice cream parlor has been crushing on Dante and the beefy guy who’s been eyeing her wants to know what’s so damn special about Dante that his dream girl only thinks of him. Said beefy guy ends up tailing Dante throughout his day and gets a confused glimpse inside Dante’s lifestyle.
I at first thought the anime was all suck. The first episode left a bad taste in my mouth since I was expecting something else. I was expecting, or at least hoping, that Dante’s day to day would have a touch of the grandeur that the games have. I suppose that one can’t always travel into demon territory and fight looming bastions of evil.
Re-watching the first episode in a completely different frame of mind led to me watching, the second, third, fourth and fifth. Now I’m waiting for the sixth episode if not like a complete and utter fangirl, but at least with antsy anticipation.
Thus far, there’s no driving force, no unifying goal that makes the anime go forward. It’s all radial in the sense that all the stories spin out from a central point, and that central point is Dante and his history with the games. I’m not a fan of these radial-style anime since they have the potential to drag on forever without any concrete story or conclusion.
There are 12 episodes to DMC, but I don’t think the number really matters. I have a feeling that anyone, at least anyone with a passing familiarity with games, could watch any given episode and get a feeling of what’s going on. That’s good and bad. Good in the sense that DMC will appeal to a more diverse audience, bad in the sense that we’ll be cheated out of a decent plot.
Madhouse was behind DMC’s animation and they did a great job translating Dante and friends into anime. I couldn’t have imagined any better way to design Dante, Trish, and Lady than what the studio did. The colors were in line with game and so were the demons, for the most part. I, personally, wanted the demons to be much more creatively designed but, meh, what’re you gonna do?
I don’t know how I feel about about the OP for DMC; it’s stuck in my head and I can’t decide if I like it there or not. I must admit that the screeching guitar and heavy riffs complements Dante’s personality to a tee. It’s much better suited as the opening credits to the anime than as the first thing I think of in the A.M. But, good job Rungran for making D.M.C. a memorable opener!
I love the Japanese voice cast. Toshiyuki Morikawa is the seiyu who gives Dante his smooth voice and cool demeanor. Toshiyuki Morikawa was also Final Fantasy: Advent Children’s Sephiroth. Trish, as voiced by Atsuko Tanaka, is another favorite of mine in this anime.
I like the way they make the anime resemble the game with the Episode= Mission set-up. Another good tie-in with the game is the commercial bump featuring the silhouette graphic from the games. The two ladies from DMC1 and DMC3 are a nice touch as well, but I think the whole of the story is that there really isn’t a story, so far.
The first five episodes of Devil May Cry have left me curious about the rest of the series but I have feeling I know how it’ll all wrap up. I like surprises, however, and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that DMC might pull itself together and make itself something more than a glorified promo.
out of a possible four gummies.
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Watch the DMC anime promo! (Windows Media Format, opens in new window)
It sucks… really bad… lame…. end of!!!
huh? never even watched it…inuyasha iz the best
Ths anime is not great it is fantastic. What you said – it doesn’t progress and that is a weaknes it is just not true. It is a show that has head and tail and doesn’t just jump to the point. It reminds me of Cowboy Beb. that to some seemed to be random jobs with no mind at all. Dantes story will have more sence then spikes did… In few next episodes u can see where it is all going but can’t predict how it will end…
And does comments like inuyasha and other children crap anyme are good – jes for 4 year olds…
@Bahmunt, that bad for you, huh?
@animator, Cowboy Bebop was a show that progressed besides its seemingly randomness. Spike wanted to find Julia, that was one of the driving points behind Cowboy Bebop, well, that and defeating Vicious.
I only have one more episode to go with DMC and I’m still not dazzled by this anime, and believe me, I want to be dazzled…
Just remember, every beginning sux!
Yeah, first few episodes, were like “get to the point alrady”, but today, i watched “Mission 11″, and thats the one where things starts to get really exciting, so just stick around for some more episodes, and ull see that its a great anime!
@Raziel, I’ve made it to Mission 11 and, yes it is getting to be more stirring; however, with only one more episode to go, it’s too little too late. They should have placed more emphasis on what’s going on now during more episodes rather than waiting till the end to flesh out the plot.
Watched it all now, thought as series it works well.
I like the way it introduces Sid at the start and you don`t think anything more of him until later on. ALl the time Dante has been going about his normal business whilst the weakest demon has been scheming and Dante doesnt find out until its almost to late. Its quite true to the games in the respect, most of the time Dante is a pawn for someone elses schemes and only finds out what is going on in the last few levels. Keeping Sid hidden was a great idea.
I really enjoyed it
I like it to… but im dissapointed a bit! they cud have siad more about dante’s past and issues. All so it could have been longer! 12 ep is not enough…. hope there a second season to end it off.
I’m a huge fan of this video game series.
I watched all 12 episodes, it was more like celebrity pr0n than an actual series. Infuct, I’d call this the “Devil May Cry 2 anime”, not that it has anything to do with DMC2, but it sucked in a similar fashion.
Dante’s guns never inflict the kind of damage illustrated in the anime.
The fight scenes were brutally weak. They can be summarized like so: shoot or slice, yell, closeup of dante/sword/face, cut, enemy dead.
It was cool they attempted to add some additional story to the game, but, uncool that they had no idea how.
Overall 2/5
The intro is badass though, along with most of the rest of the actual animation.
@Hyper, My thoughts 100% dead-on. I finished the series and feel the same way you do. Overall, it was a case of fanservice for a very small group of DMC fans. I can’t agree more with you about the fight scenes; they had such kick ass animation, why couldn’t they have exploited it to make awesome fight scenes? Brutally disappointing when the series is tallied for all 12 episodes.
i was thinking to buy the DVD CD the other day but i decided that i should see the review first. The way i look at it, it’s not worth buying but i really like devil may cry.
@radena, some fans of the series really liked the anime, but for me the anime was sub par and lacking in the plot department.
A plot is one of those things that should be front and center at all times, and not some after thought when the anime’s wrapping up.
I disagree with all of you said the anime was bad. I thought the anime was fantastic. I’m not a diehard fan of DMC and i have never played the game. The plot was superb and the characters were made natural. Dante is a tough guy he did not seem flawless he had his flaws he is not afraid to show it. The women were drawn like real women and some skinny bimbos. True definition of tough cookies. Overall, the anime was fantastic. End of story.
PS: Mordeus!!! Marry me!!!
I APOLOGIZE FOR MY REVIEW BEFORE THIS MY KEYBOARD IS GOING NUTS. THIS IS WHAT I INTENDED TO WRITE. SORRY.
I disagree with all of you who said the anime was bad. I thought the anime was fantastic. I’m not a diehard fan of DMC and i have never played the game. The plot was superb and the characters were natural. Dante is a tough guy and he did not seem flawless, he had his flaws he is not afraid to show it. The women were drawn like real women and not some skinny bimbos. True definition of tough cookies. Overall, the anime was fantastic. End of story.
PS: I ADMIT THAT THE EPISODES WERE TOO SHORT. THEY SHOULD’VE MADE IT A LITTLE LONGER. DANTE IS KINDA…HOT. XD
I just finished watching the first episode, and yuck. I’ll go with Rachel and Hyper here.
A lot of what I thought has already been said, but I just thought I’d add that Dante is a clone of Alucard from Hellsing, only with his emotional depth removed, but that’s a criticism of the franchise more than it is of the anime, I guess (Although, they even included a straight lift of that shot from Hellsing where Alucard cocks a pistol with his teeth, showing off his fangs!).
On the Cowboy Bebop comparison, I think there’s two major differences; one was that Cowboy Bebop took itself far, far less seriously than DMC (The fridge and mushroom episodes spring to mind…), and the other was that it actually tried to make you care *how* Spike was going to beat/catch the bad guy. Dante just wanders in, shoots some stuff…
Maybe that’s fixed in later episodes, but I’ve never seen an anime series where they put such a huge focus on fights that do absolutely nothing to advance the plot but neatly prove how bad-ass their character is. For a series that could have had so much dark style, the fights were DULL, and that’s unforgivable, even in a first episode.
I really think that you shouldn’t judge the anime based on the first episode because that’s where they start to introduce the characters. Your review is baseless. try going on watching it until the last episode. I am adamant on saying that the anime IS fantastic.
The anime was all syle but no substance.
It looks as though there’s an even amount of people who loved the Devil May Cry anime and the people who thought it sucked. It also looks as though the fans who liked this series, absolutely adored it.
Rachel you are absolutely right. =]
Utter crap. i was so dissapointed with this and i expected more. the fight scenes are so poorly excecuted and its nothing like the DMC game. what happened to they stylistic fight scenes ? all we get to see was a few shots from his gun, a little slash and thats it.
He didn’t even DT at all. What happened to the devil form ? in the last battle he should at least change to a devil form like sparda.
shame really
@thunor, Yes. yes it was
@J3nova, After finishing the series, I felt my predictions for its badness had been fulfilled. The fight scenes, as you so describe, were a huge letdown. And now that you mention it, we totally got gypped outta his devil form! Damn! I was so bored throughout the anime, I didn’t even think it.