My thoughts on the new Devil May Cry show. WBU?

[Jimbo_McDumbo]

SPOILERS ALLOWED Get out your thoughts below.

I binged it all Tuesday night and came away curious about a second season, but had a bad aftertaste. Some things bothered me, mainly in the writing category. The big bullet points are jokes, how characters were translated, and world building. Spoilers beyond this point, go forth if you dare

Spoiler: my rant

But before I bitch about anything, I'll list off the positives. Animation was good across the board and character designs were clean and readable in the hectic action. Music was mostly stellar with the exception of 2 tracks. Voice acting was great, this is like the fifth "last role" of Kevin Conroy but it was good to hear him as Vice President Baines, Johnny Yong Bosch did well as Dante, and I'm curious to hear more of Robbie Daymond as Vergil.

Now we complain. I think my biggest problem in making this Devil May Cry anime is that it desperately wanted to do its own thing instead of leaning into the Devil May Cry wackiness. I take issue with making Demons sympathetic and trying to explain away the mysticism. I came to the DMC anime not for commentary on how Evangelism was weaponized in the war effort in the early 2000's, police brutality, or the plight of refugees. I came to it for action and charismatic characters. Also one little nitpick that I had was the Merc running up the stairs to catch Dante stopping dead in his track to compliment Adi Shankars music taste, my eyes nearly rolled out of my skull.

Lady and Dante are the leads and that is definitely how the show puts them. I love Lady, she is the best DMC girl. But this show didn't make me care about her because she was "shoot now, ask questions never" super cop. I didn't get the same pathos from her that I got from her DMC 3 counterpart, and before you mention it her flashy PTSD panic attack in the elevator doesn't count as PTSD. PTSD is to this generation of Hollywood writers what alcoholism was to Hollywood writers of the past, a quick affect to make characters seem deeper than they really are. Dante felt more like a side character in his own damn show, mainly because this plot doesn't feel tailored to him and what he can do. This web of political intrigue, double agents, and armies chomping at the bit to bring bloody revolution doesn't suit the Legendary Devil Hunter. Dante is super powerful, but he has no tact or guile. When taking on the case to dismantle The Order of the Sword he didn't work from within or take down vital infrastructure, he jumped through a stained glass window and shot the leader in the face. In broad daylight. In a very crowded room.
In a roundabout way, what I'm saying is that Dante doesn't do well with mysteries or conspiracies. And the games know that, all of the games make his struggles personal and family related. The show makes a half step at this by taking many cues from the prequel, but fails by adding too many plot threads. Plus Dante engages too much in meta humor, where you joke about how you're making a joke or the joke you're making "sounded better in my head" for my liking. Dante doesn't make jokes because he's trying to get a laugh or ease tensions, but because he doesn't take anything seriously. So he doesn't care if what he says is cool or funny, he's just fooling around, which is what ends up making him funny and cool.

All and all I'm curious to see what the second season will do but I have a feeling that my problems with the show will only get more screen time and attention in the following season. But enough about what I think. What are you guys thinking? Are you excited or are you all done with Adi Shankar?

 

[Zerohour2k12]

It sure is wierd... I like that Kevin Conroy's in it. JYB did a great job too. But imo, I'd still prefer the old one.

 

[Neb Lleb]

Like I said in my thread on this show, the show is scared of embracing the silliness found in the source material and instead carves its own, self-serious path in an attempt to be the next Game of Thrones, whilst pandering to returning fans with fanservice in an attempt to convince the inevitable influx of tourists that it's just like the games.

The end results are a try-hard, pathetic show made by a professional poser that is ultimately going to do more harm than good to the Devil May Cry franchise, not unlike the Castlevania TV franchise before it.

 

[Insomnia_ig]

To me the DMC anime seems great for people who've only played 5 or watched the games on YouTube. I say this as a pretty big fan of the Castlevania show btw. and before you ask yeah I've played almost all the mainline games. But idk maybe I'll give the show a fair shot I've only played DMC1 and 2 so idk if I can justfy criticizing it rn

 

[Antilocal123]

It’s fine, didn't expect much from it.

 

[monkun]

I find the use of nu-metal and rock songs a bit too on-the-nose. I don’t know—maybe some of you will disagree—but I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at the licensed music choices. That said, the animation is really cool. Some of the character designs feel a bit bland, but I might need a few re-watches to fully make up my mind. I’m pretty torn on it overall.

 

[Insomnia_ig]

To me the DMC anime seems great for people who've only played 5 or watched the games on YouTube. I say this as a pretty big fan of the Castlevania show btw. and before you ask yeah I've played almost all the mainline games. But idk maybe I'll give the show a fair shot I've only played DMC1 and 2 so idk if I can justfy criticizing it rn

Watched the show and it was pretty fucking terrible actually. If you want to read my thoughts on it here I suppose.

 

[MegaHiro91]

Not gonna watch it. Hate the art style. It looks like Americans trying to make anime.

 

[DanCalibur]

I'll keep to the classic version

 

[Skeetos]

I saw Lady in armor and knew it was bad, haven't watched it yet. My friend liked it but he never played the games. I gotta watch it eventually.

 

[sunofpearl89]

This was all I needed to see

No matter how miserable you are, at least you aren't Adi Shankar.

 

[Bacon Eater64x]

Netflixvania was absolute dogshit to the point i decide to not bother watching Season 2 onwards and seeing the mixed reception of Nocturne, im vindicated. That show was basically Bayformers. In terms of fight scenes and production values great, in terms of story it, it makes me wanna hurl.

If Castlevania Season 1 was Bayformers, DMC is Adi Shankar's equivalent of Age of Exctinction, where there's a point people realize that Fight scenes, sassy characters, and a shitton of random references throw in will not make up for a bad story, questionable messages, annoying characters and a complete misunderstanding of the lore.

 

[Insomnia_ig]

Back once again now that I've beaten all the mainline games. I stand by my statement that it's only good if you've never actually played DMC. I'm going to try and not repeat anything I said before.

Dante: He's Deadpool they just made him Deadpool. And I'm talking the worst version of Deadpool. Dante is confident in the games and even in the novels when he's just started being a merc he was still confident yes Dante says one liners but in the show he's not confident in what he says at all it just makes him come off as unfunny and a try hard. Not to mention Dante not taking anything seriously is because of his trauma from losing his mother and Vergil but don't get me wrong Dante knows when to be serious and when not to be. His mask even slips a few times such as the end of DMC3 or when Trish "dies" in DMC1. Even in DMC2 iirc he comforts Lucia when she's upset about her origin and who made her.

There's also the infamous Devil Trigger theme and I don't think I need to explain why using Nero's theme on Dante is wrong.

JYB does an okay job as Dante however he doesn't quite fit Dante. Still he does a good perfomance regardless

Vergil: While he's not there for long and has like two lines I still want to talk about how he was handled. First of all Bury the Light as a song is about Vergil's story from DMC1 to DMC5. But the show takes place before DMC3 meaning the song has no meaning to this Vergil. It was just played because everyone knows the song.

Lady: I said it before and I'm going to repeat myself but Lady is basically a new character just wearing the face of Lady. Aside from her backstory and design there's nothing about her that's Lady.

Sparda: Y'know the drill. Him being morally grey is stupid. Sparada himself wasn't a good guy but he changed his mind and realised what he was doing was wrong but at the end of the day Sparda is a good guy and a good father he was present up until his death. The show has it so he's a deadbeat and he's probably alive for some reason.

Enzo: They just made him Bayonetta Enzo lol.

The White Rabbit: Okay I did like the idea of himself becoming half demon however I do not care for him. He's such a nothing villian I can't care for him. And speaking of the demons while I don't mind good demons (there are a few in the games like Tirsh for example) it's something that they've pointed out in the games to be rare. I get it's probably to hype up Mundus as someone stupidly evil by making him some ruthless king but Mundus is already a pretty fucking bad guy so I don't think you need to make him more evil.


Also the White Rabbits henchmen are really fucking dumb I mean whatever I guess you can have DMC4 Demons be there but why Cavaliere Angelo? The boss that is a representation of Vergil's trauma from being Nelo Angelo. I do know actually it's for hype moments and aura lol.

The overall story: Terrible lol. It's meant to be an adaptation of the DMC3 manga but it's also trying do it's own thing which causes a jumbled mess of a story. The political message wouldn't be a problem if it was handled well imo but it fails miserably because it forgets it's telling that story. However even if it did, it doesn't respect the source material at all it just wants itself to be cool. Something you'd turn your brain off too. The show should be something that fans and non fans will enjoy but it doesn't do that.

Anyways if you read this all the way through thanks