Hello, my name is Nitsuj and welcome to Project Nitsuj. What I hope to do with this blog is give you the reader a fair and honest review of anime series I have seen. Anime continues to grow here state side and with so many animes out there it’s difficult to decide what to watch and even harder to find the time to watch them. That’s where I come in; I will give a full review of an anime series giving a full analyze of the series and then giving it a score out of 10 at the end of it. Before I begin I would like to stretch three things. One, the reviews are entirely my opinion so feel free to agree or disagree with me; all I ask is that you respect my opinion and the opinions of others. Second, my reviews will contain some spoilers, so read at your own discretion. I’ll try to keep my reviews spoiler free as much as possible but just know that you’ve been warned. Third, don’t let my review stop you from watching the anime. Even though I may give spoilers away, reading about them and seeing them are entirely two different things. Plus there are times when I may overlook things because I didn’t understand or couldn’t explain them entirely. With that being said let’s take a look at an anime based off a popular game series that’s getting a reboot Devil May Cry.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t played the Devil May Cry games but to be fair I’ve heard good things about it and everyone I’ve talked to who’ve played the games liked them. The story revolves around Dante a demon hunter who is half human/half demon who runs a paranormal agency called Devil May Cry. It was created by Hideki Kamiya and developed by Capcom (aka Cashcow, Crapcom, or the Megaman Killers). The game was originally meant to be a squeal to Resident Evil but since the game was a radical departure from the series it was developed as an entirely new series and has since then had 4 successful games considered to be one of the best series on the PS2 with a reboot coming out next week. The series has two light novels written by Shinya Goikeda, a manga that explains the story of how the characters came to where they are at the beginning of Devil May Cry 3 and rumors have been going around of a possible Devil May Cry film that centers on the origin of Dante. With all this success and Japanese heritage it’s only natural that it would get an anime to promote the series. Now from what I understand the anime takes place between the first Devil May Cry game and Devil May Cry 4 and directed by Shin Itagaki who has directed a lot of comedy/action/horror based animes throughout the years so he’s in his element. While I’m giving out info I would like to say that I’ll be using material from the dub version of the anime. I know, I usually prefer sub over dub but this is one of those rare occasions where I actually like the dub over the sub (that’s not to say the sub is bad or anything).
Let’s begin:
The Opening/Ending theme
The opening theme is called “DmC” by rungran. The song is very hard rock based which matches the style and setting of the series. I’m not really a big fan of rock music but I admit this opening theme is very good. There’s no lyrics it’s just music playing that sets the mood perfectly with images matching the song and almost conveying the emotions and mind of Dante. The ending theme is called “I’ll be your home” by Rin Oikawa. It’s a soft sung song that isn’t bad but really doesn’t leave that much of impact on you. That and it kinda feels out of place given the subject matter and plot of the series.
Episode 1-4
So our story begins with Dante voiced by Justin Cause (aka Reuben Langdon) who also does the voice of Ken Masters in the Street Fighter video games (man how cool would it be to be Dante do a shoryuken?). Now stop me if you’ve heard this joke before, a demon hunter walks into a bar full of demons and orders a strawberry sundae, what happens next? He opens up can of whoop ass on those demons! It’s within the first few minutes of the show that we see what the series is going to be all about. Demons, swords, guns, badass fight scenes, and strawberry sundaes. Dante easily defeats the demons and walks out of bar but not before stabbing a butterfly, the bartender (who is a demon) and giving a few words of wisdom. While it’s on my mind I’m not entirely sure what the butterflies are, are they demons are they sprites or something? Well whatever they are their only in the first episode so I’ll let it slide (scene here: https://youtu.be/QzuK8lL-juA). The next day Dante gets a job from Morrison to guard a little girl named Patty Lowell an orphan who’s going to claim the family heritage but only if see arrives at the family mansion by 6pm the next day (if I’m not mistaken). Dante hesitates saying that this isn’t his line of work but is ultimately forced to do it because of a huge debt he owes Morrison. While taking Patty to her destination the two are constantly attacked by demons trying to kill her and Dante killing them everytime they appear (scene here: https://youtu.be/qpPY0PLkMmE). They also come across a demon named Sid voiced by Chris Ayres but more on him later. Dante gets Patty to the mansion but it turns out she was just a patsy used by the real Patty Lowell to take all the media attention off her so she could arrive at the mansion safely. The episode ends with Dante defeating one of the brothers who became a demon, the real Patty Lowell apologizing for her mistakes, and Patty the little orphan redecorating Dante’s office and eating his strawberry sundae. Get use to her folks she sticks around throughout the anime. The second episode introduces us to a lady named Lady (easy to remember) voiced by Melissa Davis who you might remember as Shiina from Angel Beats. She’s another demon hunter who’s being hit on by none other than Vic Mignogna (can’t say I blame him). Lady quickly disposes of Vic who turns out is a demon responsible for murdering several females. She is then hired by the Blue Brothers (they’re on a mission from God) to take out a motorcycle demon that’s been causing trouble on the highways. She forces Dante to help her because he too owes her a lot of money (okay Dante you are seriously horrible when it comes to money) and through a series of events he gets into a motorcycle race, somehow goes supersonic on the motorcycle, destroys a bridge (What, was he trying to upstage the Mothman?) and finally kills the motorcycle demon (scene here: https://youtu.be/SaA1k8dDIi0).
Moving onto the third episode we see Dante being forced again to do a job for Morrison (are you starting to sense a pattern here?). It turns out Dante is getting paid by the mayor to kill his daughter’s boyfriend (geez, talk about strict parenting, whatever happen to the make my daughter cry and I’ll kill you talk?). Actually, the mayor believes that the boyfriend is a demon in disguise and it turns out he’s right (good eye mayor). The boyfriend turns out to be a low level demon in disguise whose demonic powers can heal people. He was sent from Hell to make preparations for his master to be summoned in the human world but he fell in love with the mayor’s daughter so it’s basically your Romeo and Juliet situation. We then cut to episode 4 where we get a good cat fight between Lady and Trish voiced by the lovely Luci Christian who also voiced Nagisa from Clannad. Yeah, wrap your head around that one for a minute. We don’t get to know much about her except for the fact that she was Dante’s former partner and a possible love interest (scene here: https://youtu.be/tWW1rZsQw-c).
Episode 5-8
Episode 5 takes us for a change of pace where instead of following Dante around we follow this random stranger from a bar that Dante goes to frequently whose trying to uncover Dante’s secret so that he can impress a local waitress. While this may not sound all that exciting or badass the situations that he sees, his reactions and even at one point where he actually tries to run away from Dante by skipping town and Dante follows him just makes for a good laugh. In episode 6 Dante gets hired by treasure hunters to protect them while they rummage through an abandon mansion. We also get to see a more personal side of Dante in this episode as he shows his appreciation for rock music and how a female demon has possessed the body of a former rock star who just happens to be the singer for Dante’s favorite song.
Episode 7 is probably my favorite in the series. The story starts off with a man fishing up a demonic mask who will grant him any wish he desires but only a wish the demon finds worth wishing (than what good are you?). The man inadvertently wishes his best friend was dead and gets thrown into a prison said to be impossible to escape. Dante is then hired by the man’s sister to save him and after a street fight gets thrown into the prison. How he escapes and what he exposes in that prison I won’t dare spoil for you but trust when I say it’s a fun episode to watch (I will however show you this cool fight scene: https://youtu.be/H7VPV9SOZp8). Continuing onto episode 8 we meet a man named Ernest who believes Dante is his childhood friend from 20 years ago Anthony. He’s obsessed with proving that Dante and his mother weren’t responsible for a devil destroying their small town 20 years ago. Dante denies that he’s the “Anthony” Ernest knows, but Ernest continues to believe that he’s Anthony and is even prepared to summon the demon that destroyed his hometown 20 years ago to take revenge on it. Dante defeats the demon in style like always and Ernest turns on Dante saying that it was his fault that their town was attacked by demons and that if Dante ever came back he would kill him. Good luck with that buddy, didn’t you see Dante just own that demon like a boss? He’ll make you his bitch.
Episode 9-12
Episode 9 is the most intrigue and mystery driven episode in the series. The episode takes place on a ship where Dante is in a poker game trying to find a gambler by the name of King whose killing anyone who loses to him. The problem is nobody knows what King looks like and as each player dies one by one and the game becomes more intense and dangerous for each passing round it all leads up to a surprising twist of who King is and how he meets his end. Episode 10 is probably my least favorite out of the series because nothing really happens in this episode. The story centers around a character named Basura, a former servant of Dante’s father Sparda who wants to fight against the Legendary Dark Knight (no, not Batman though I have to admit that would be a good fight). Basura’s brother Modeus tries to stop Basura from fighting Dante but fails to stop them and sees his brother killed by Dante. Filled with anger and seeking revenge he charges at Dante only to be killed by him (scene here: https://youtu.be/qPMNWFmD5Qw). I guess the reason why I’m not a big fan of this episode is because it just feels pointless and empty. It feels like they were running out of ideas at this point the series and they just put this episode to prepare for the finale. The only thing I will say I liked about this episode is that Dante actually shows a hint of sadness and pain in this episode. It’s as if he was remembering the struggle and turmoil he had with his own brother.
Episodes 11-12 are the only episodes where we get an actual plot in the series. In the first part (Episode 11) Dante encounters Patty’s mother who put Patty up for adoption in order to protect her. It turns out that Patty’s mother is the descendant of a human sorcerer that once sealed away an ancient demon lord named Abigail. She has a pendant that contains the key to unlocking Abigail’s power and is constantly being attacked by devils because of it. She hands the pendant over to Dante hoping that she’ll be safe and comes across Patty. This is where Sid comes in. Okay, Sid is actually a low level demon that Dante met in the first episode but didn’t kill him. Why? Because Sid poses no threat to anyone at all. He’s a low level demon who barely has any demonic powers. In fact, he tells us that his powers are so low he can’t even shape shift into a human, he has to literally kill a human and steal their skin in order to disguise himself. Ever since making his appearance he’s been harassing Dante throughout the series and plotting to obtain Abigail’s powers by collecting all kinds of demon artifacts such as the demonic mask from episode 7 and Basura’s gauntlet from episode 10. Sid captures Patty’s mother and forces Patty to hand him the pendant to complete his ritual. Dante shows up too late and fights Sid in his new demonic form and out right destroys Dante leaving him unconscious and crucified to a cross (there are so many things wrong with the sentence I just wrote). In the final episode Patty ventures into the demon’s dimension to retrieve Dante while Lady and Trish fight off Sid’s demon army from you guessed it, trying to take over the world (https://youtu.be/1W7c8QghPxk). Patty revives Dante and returns to defeat Sid easily (no seriously, he shows up, fully revived and just owns Sid liked he owned every other demon in the series. This does beg the question of how the hell did he lose to Sid in the first place!? It would have been different if he actually struggled against Sid during the second fight but no, Dante just runs right through this guy. Scene here: https://youtu.be/bw8UswJlo68). The series wraps up with Patty going to live with her mother, Dante, Trish, and Lady off racing to a job and Patty returning to Devil May Cry where she begins to clean up the mess Dante left.
Final Thoughts
In the end Devil May Cry is actually a very good anime. I was worried that since I didn’t play the games I would be lost but they honestly do a good job at making it watchable and understandable for first time viewers of the series. The animation is also nice and the fight scenes are intense and action packed that feels natural from the games. The characters are great as well. Dante is just a total badass; Reuben Langdon does an amazing job voicing Dante getting his tone and expression down perfectly. Patty is a comic foil for Dante; she’s like his little sister who’s more mature and responsible then him but is still look at as a child. A lot of people found her annoying which I can understand why but I thought she was alright. She can be a little annoying at times but not to the point where you wish she would just die. The only two drawbacks on this series are that we don’t get to know a lot about Lady or Trish. I’m guessing it had to do with time but still I think they could have found a way to work an episode that focused on Trish or Lady and explored their past. The other drawback is there’s no consistent plot in the anime until the last two episodes. Each episode has their own self-contained stories which are good but I think the anime would have really grabbed your attention if it had a consistent story through the series.
Final score
The final score for Devil May Cry is a solid 7/10. Despite the two drawbacks it is an amazing anime whether you watch the sub or the dub packed with action, horror, and little bit of comedy that you the viewer will enjoy. If you’re looking for a good action/horror anime check it out it’s definitely worth your time. Now if you’ll excuse I’ve got some Devil May Cry games to play. Thanks for reading and look forward to the next project.
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