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On April 4th, Shitmeister Adi Shankar dropped on us his magnum opus of crap, Devil May Cry, or as I like to call it, Netflix May Cry. As you can tell, when I watched it on Netflix (using my mother's account before it got blocked again due to the bogus rule involving accounts on certain internet hubs), I was thoroughly, THOROUGHLY pissed. Before, I was actively worried that it would be the second coming of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li due to certain factors like initial trailers not showing the plot, the opening being set to Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'" rather than something that fits with the universe, and the fact that I had seen another entry in Netflix and Shankar's Bootleg Universe, Captain Laserhawk, a very loose adaptation of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon that was utter pants.
Once I saw the first episode, My fears completely proven right.
What casual viewers and Devil May Cry fans got was a trainwreck that epitomised everything bad about the Bootleg Universe: An in-name-only depiction of the franchise with severely derailed characters, an overload of cringe inducing immature "adult" content (read: obnoxious swearing and gore porn), hamfisted far-left political messaging, and one of the worst designated heroes of all time, Mary Arkham. I lasted one episode (coincidentally, before Mary shows up) and I wound up calling it quits and voicing my frustrations on this site. In fact, I even consider it the embodiment of Modern Western Animated Television and everything that makes it mostly terrible believe it or not.
Now, five months have passed. The second half is set to drop in the future, and people are dreading it. And I think this is because in only eight episodes, Netflix May Cry has done a lot more harm than we'd like to imagine.
It goes without saying that the Devil May Cry franchise is still moderately popular, and it's for this reason why the show exists in the first place. However, Netflix May Cry isn't out to be an adaptation or a way to let gamers interact with their favourite property in a new way: It's out to be a "prestige" show with delusions of grandeur. And why is this, you may ask? It's because the series is, at it's core, a product of a millennial mainstream edgy culture that is incompatible with the real world.
Basically, mainstream edgy (aka. safe edgy) is a culture that became so widespread due to the rise of millennial writers and creatives, especially in places like western animation, music, film and TV: Typically, mainstream edginess involves everything being played as unbearably over the top as humanly possible, an overabundance of things that millennial creatives think are "cool/funny" in any particular order they like: gratuitous swearing, forced self-awareness, subversion of familiar tropes for the hell of it, degenerate amounts of sex, offputting violence, etc., all without a sense of sincerity and/or restraint that make normal people gravitate to other works that feature some of this content, and last but not least, an unbearable sense of self-righteousness and ego that permeates throughout the work. A lot of creatives were born from this trashheap, all of them with egos the size of Arrakis, and one of them was Adi Shankar. Creatives like Adi think that their shit don't stink and that they're too "cool" for admittedly silly stuff, so they tend to use pre-existing properties as a test-bed for their schlock in an attempt to "fix" what wasn't broken because whenever they try to make an original property, it tends to flop and they can't handle it.
And that's precisely what Netflix May Cry is: A shameless, infuriating attempt to fit a beloved property into a new, more soulless mould which appeals to no-one but the lowest common denominator because the property was given to a person obsessed with a culture that is literally incompatible with the real world. In fact, most people defending this show seem to have to either tear down the Devil May Cry games to paint it as "superior", misrepresent the intent of the show to paint it as "deep", or even pretend that Netflix May Cry is canon to the original DMC universe in order to make it look like a proper adaptation. Why? Because they're tourists and posers: They're people who have been brainrotted by terminal internet addiction and couldn't care less about the property, so they will stop at nothing to defend the show they've latched onto. And casual audiences... are sick of all of this. They're sick of creatives like Adi Shankar who make terrible, self-righteous, delusional gunk that try so hard to be adult and cool that they often end up appealing to terminally online autists who are mentally twisted. And I type this as someone who is an autist himself.
I know this will seem odd to bring up, but earlier in the year, Sony Pictures used Netflix to release their newest animated film, a magical girl musical titled KPOP Demon Hunters, about a South Korean girl group who are also demon-fighting superheroines. I was genuinely put off from it by the premise, and the more I saw articles about how the film was "THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FILM ON A STREAMING SERVICE!!!111" and saw an influx of merchandise, I was believing the film was being astroturfed and its success being manufactured.... Until I realised that KPOP Demon Hunters was a genuine success.... Because it was a silly premise that played itself with sincerity. The film had become a smash hit... because people are sick of mainstream edginess and the creators who push it. People are fed up with obnoxious "adult" content, egotistical writing, and especially unbearable irony and self-awareness and will happily support works that are sincere with their treatment of the subject and the audience.
Viewers don't want to see edgy Tumblr OCs masquerading as demons dropping the F-bomb 5 times in a row whilst having gratuitous sex before launching into a poorly sung, equally edgy and obnoxious musical number about how good their sex was (the Hellaverse), they want to see Huntr/x, a girl group-cum-superhero team, perform their new single "Golden" in front of an adoring crowd as Rumi, their leader, begins to lose her voice due to having actual demon blood in her veins (KPOP Demon Hunters).
Viewers don't want to see a mass murdering, gun toting Batman who brands people so they could get shanked in jail going up against a brooding Superman who is one step away from going mad and destroying the world before stopping as they realise that their parents share the same name (the DCEU), they want to see a Superman who is kind and noble talk about his taste in alternative music to Lois Lane for comfort, before voicing his opinion that in this cruel world, the act of being kind has become the new punk rock (Superman 2025).
And yes, Viewers don't want to see Mary Arkham, an F-bomb dropping girlboss, lead Darkcom into war against the White Rabbit whilst being untrustworthy and treacherous... they want to see Dante and Nero, sons of Sparda, going on adventures, saving the world from the forces of evil and uncovering a new part of their heritage in the process. They want Devil May Cry, and Shankar gave them the very embodiment of the Mainstream Edgy culture he, and the creatives of these various properties I mentioned for contrast with more sincere fiction, are a part of instead.
THAT'S why I think Netflix May Cry has done so much damage in a record amount of time: 2025 will be remembered, in entertainment terms, as the year when viewers worldwide stuck two middle fingers straight up at Millennial Writers and the Mainstream Edgy culture they've cultivated, and as they reject it in favour of embracing the sincere, "Devil May Cry" will no longer mean the game series that redefined action adventure, but rather one of the biggest examples of what they're rejecting: A spiteful, try-hard, subversive, obnoxious work of trash fiction, made by an egotistical, delusional smeghead, and aimed at that very demographic too. And that is very damaging to the brand when something that once meant something with an actual pedigree behind it will now be a by-word for hubris and ego. When Resident Evil gets a bad adaptation, we know that the series will still continue because it's not leaving any time soon. When something like Devil May Cry, which was on ice for god knows how long, gets a bad adaptation, especially one that's this smug, this shameless and this egotistical... It won't last much longer.
(apologies to those who actually like the properties I was using for contrast when discussing the casual/mainstream audience rejection of millennial writers and their culture)
Once I saw the first episode, My fears completely proven right.
What casual viewers and Devil May Cry fans got was a trainwreck that epitomised everything bad about the Bootleg Universe: An in-name-only depiction of the franchise with severely derailed characters, an overload of cringe inducing immature "adult" content (read: obnoxious swearing and gore porn), hamfisted far-left political messaging, and one of the worst designated heroes of all time, Mary Arkham. I lasted one episode (coincidentally, before Mary shows up) and I wound up calling it quits and voicing my frustrations on this site. In fact, I even consider it the embodiment of Modern Western Animated Television and everything that makes it mostly terrible believe it or not.
Now, five months have passed. The second half is set to drop in the future, and people are dreading it. And I think this is because in only eight episodes, Netflix May Cry has done a lot more harm than we'd like to imagine.
It goes without saying that the Devil May Cry franchise is still moderately popular, and it's for this reason why the show exists in the first place. However, Netflix May Cry isn't out to be an adaptation or a way to let gamers interact with their favourite property in a new way: It's out to be a "prestige" show with delusions of grandeur. And why is this, you may ask? It's because the series is, at it's core, a product of a millennial mainstream edgy culture that is incompatible with the real world.
Basically, mainstream edgy (aka. safe edgy) is a culture that became so widespread due to the rise of millennial writers and creatives, especially in places like western animation, music, film and TV: Typically, mainstream edginess involves everything being played as unbearably over the top as humanly possible, an overabundance of things that millennial creatives think are "cool/funny" in any particular order they like: gratuitous swearing, forced self-awareness, subversion of familiar tropes for the hell of it, degenerate amounts of sex, offputting violence, etc., all without a sense of sincerity and/or restraint that make normal people gravitate to other works that feature some of this content, and last but not least, an unbearable sense of self-righteousness and ego that permeates throughout the work. A lot of creatives were born from this trashheap, all of them with egos the size of Arrakis, and one of them was Adi Shankar. Creatives like Adi think that their shit don't stink and that they're too "cool" for admittedly silly stuff, so they tend to use pre-existing properties as a test-bed for their schlock in an attempt to "fix" what wasn't broken because whenever they try to make an original property, it tends to flop and they can't handle it.
And that's precisely what Netflix May Cry is: A shameless, infuriating attempt to fit a beloved property into a new, more soulless mould which appeals to no-one but the lowest common denominator because the property was given to a person obsessed with a culture that is literally incompatible with the real world. In fact, most people defending this show seem to have to either tear down the Devil May Cry games to paint it as "superior", misrepresent the intent of the show to paint it as "deep", or even pretend that Netflix May Cry is canon to the original DMC universe in order to make it look like a proper adaptation. Why? Because they're tourists and posers: They're people who have been brainrotted by terminal internet addiction and couldn't care less about the property, so they will stop at nothing to defend the show they've latched onto. And casual audiences... are sick of all of this. They're sick of creatives like Adi Shankar who make terrible, self-righteous, delusional gunk that try so hard to be adult and cool that they often end up appealing to terminally online autists who are mentally twisted. And I type this as someone who is an autist himself.
I know this will seem odd to bring up, but earlier in the year, Sony Pictures used Netflix to release their newest animated film, a magical girl musical titled KPOP Demon Hunters, about a South Korean girl group who are also demon-fighting superheroines. I was genuinely put off from it by the premise, and the more I saw articles about how the film was "THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FILM ON A STREAMING SERVICE!!!111" and saw an influx of merchandise, I was believing the film was being astroturfed and its success being manufactured.... Until I realised that KPOP Demon Hunters was a genuine success.... Because it was a silly premise that played itself with sincerity. The film had become a smash hit... because people are sick of mainstream edginess and the creators who push it. People are fed up with obnoxious "adult" content, egotistical writing, and especially unbearable irony and self-awareness and will happily support works that are sincere with their treatment of the subject and the audience.
Viewers don't want to see edgy Tumblr OCs masquerading as demons dropping the F-bomb 5 times in a row whilst having gratuitous sex before launching into a poorly sung, equally edgy and obnoxious musical number about how good their sex was (the Hellaverse), they want to see Huntr/x, a girl group-cum-superhero team, perform their new single "Golden" in front of an adoring crowd as Rumi, their leader, begins to lose her voice due to having actual demon blood in her veins (KPOP Demon Hunters).
Viewers don't want to see a mass murdering, gun toting Batman who brands people so they could get shanked in jail going up against a brooding Superman who is one step away from going mad and destroying the world before stopping as they realise that their parents share the same name (the DCEU), they want to see a Superman who is kind and noble talk about his taste in alternative music to Lois Lane for comfort, before voicing his opinion that in this cruel world, the act of being kind has become the new punk rock (Superman 2025).
And yes, Viewers don't want to see Mary Arkham, an F-bomb dropping girlboss, lead Darkcom into war against the White Rabbit whilst being untrustworthy and treacherous... they want to see Dante and Nero, sons of Sparda, going on adventures, saving the world from the forces of evil and uncovering a new part of their heritage in the process. They want Devil May Cry, and Shankar gave them the very embodiment of the Mainstream Edgy culture he, and the creatives of these various properties I mentioned for contrast with more sincere fiction, are a part of instead.
THAT'S why I think Netflix May Cry has done so much damage in a record amount of time: 2025 will be remembered, in entertainment terms, as the year when viewers worldwide stuck two middle fingers straight up at Millennial Writers and the Mainstream Edgy culture they've cultivated, and as they reject it in favour of embracing the sincere, "Devil May Cry" will no longer mean the game series that redefined action adventure, but rather one of the biggest examples of what they're rejecting: A spiteful, try-hard, subversive, obnoxious work of trash fiction, made by an egotistical, delusional smeghead, and aimed at that very demographic too. And that is very damaging to the brand when something that once meant something with an actual pedigree behind it will now be a by-word for hubris and ego. When Resident Evil gets a bad adaptation, we know that the series will still continue because it's not leaving any time soon. When something like Devil May Cry, which was on ice for god knows how long, gets a bad adaptation, especially one that's this smug, this shameless and this egotistical... It won't last much longer.
(apologies to those who actually like the properties I was using for contrast when discussing the casual/mainstream audience rejection of millennial writers and their culture)
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