Netflix’s latest foray into animated video games is a new spin on Devil May Cry, a great series of Capcom’s great character action games that began in 2001. When I saw the limp opening set on Bizkit’s 2000 Nu metal banger “Rollin’,” he said, “Yeah, this show is for divorced dads.” For some reason, when I wasn’t looking, Devil May Cry became “old” and apparently, I did too.
While Capcom’s gaming franchise has been around for decades and received the highest ever entry in 2019’s Devil May Cry 5, the 8-episode run of the Netflix series feels a lot of the game’s original early 2000s era. Yes, the needle drop in edgy AMV bait songs like Papa Roach’s “The Last Resort” was a song that resonated with people who have never played one of Dante’s demonic genocides and people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t resonate with people who don’t re I’d appreciate that Netflix’s spin on the series is slowly committing to a busy multi-season setup after it stopped me from existing.
Most of the important parts of Devil May Cry are here. The young splier version of Dante, played by Johnny Yong Bosch (playing his nephew Nero in the game), finds himself in the crosshairs of two factions. The white rabbit aims to tear the barrier between the human and demonic worlds, allowing the underworld demons to pour into the rest of the earth. This version of Dante was orphaned at a young age and only knows the story that her mother told him about where they came from. He is just a demon hunter and I don’t know why literal hell is rising around him.
Longtime fans know where this all leads, but given how simple everything is in the game, I was surprised at how detailed the show’s web of intertwined characters had been explained by the end of the season. Devil May Cry is a busy show. Dante is at the heart of it all, but there is a big strip of eight episodes focusing on the supporting cast, including the fan favorite woman, the rest of her demon hunting squad, and the religious enthusiast Baines, played by the late great Kevin Conroy. The first half of the show is a bit off to establish a new set-up, and only goes into meat that matters in the middle of the show. By the time the second half was reached, the show had lost a ton of dead weight and began to focus on what Devil May Cry fans were probably looking for. I feel that much of this long-term setup is designed to lay the foundation for future seasons, but the finale clearly tees up, but in a series known to do a lot with so little, having such a huge ensemble doesn’t give much favor at first.
It’s a bit bloated to start, but Devil May Cry is still a fun time that shakes and shakes while you’re reaching the good stuff. Dante is stylish, rough and enjoys watching the Reck Shop with Demon. Devil Make Cry’s actions are sublime, vibrating rapidly from Dante’s distinctive Campy Swager to a dramatic hyper viol in a drop of hat. It’s always at ease in early episodes when the gunman swordsman is temporarily dismantled by a scene of Dante facing a small pack of poor bastards who don’t know what he can do. The second half of the season then brings all that violence into context, lending and even cathartic to launch new dramatic weights.
Devil May Cry’s first half isn’t bad at all stretches, but the show takes longer than it needs to find its footing. I’d like to know how non-fans react to this show. Although adaptations of previous games like Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Castlevania have brought people who have never played these games, it feels like Dange May Cry knows nods and winks to those who were playing Dante’s demonic adventures 20 years ago. Will the edgy 2000s camping cheesy time capsules appeal to modern teenagers? That’s not me, so I can’t say for sure. But Devil Mary Cry showed me that way. And now, I’m down for the second round as it cleared the space for the more traditional Dante story next season.
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