There have been several successful adaptions of video games into animation, from Castlevania on Netflix to the Super Mario Bros. movie. The Devil May Cry animated series on Netflix is the latest video game adaption into animation and it is a fun adaption with a lot of flaws.
This season starts off kind of weak. Dante, the main hero, comes off as a stereotypical “cool loser’’, a hero with some cool action scenes who sometimes comes off as a doofus for comedic effect. I think the attempts at awkward humor with Dante in the first couple of episodes are rather unfunny. Dante is paired up with Enzo Ferino, his handler/merc employer, who is a rather unfunny comic relief character. Perhaps the most grating character in the early episodes of Devil May Cry is Mary Arkham AKA ‘’Lady’’, who is a tough-as-nails anti-demon warrior. Lady seems to swear every 7th word, making her seem very unserious. Frankly, the novelty of having characters swearing like sailors in animation has long lost its charm for me.
The best character in the season is the main villain, the White Rabbit. At first, the White Rabbit seems like just a fun, demented, charismatic villain who seems to just want to cause chaos for fun. However, White Rabbit is eventually revealed to be a tragic villain, a human in a costume pretending to be a demon. White Rabbit is an orphan raised in an orphanage where he suffers near-constant abuse. White Rabbit discovers a portal to Hell and enters it. He finds that the demons that inhabit Hell are called Makai and most of them are harmless.
A Makai family takes in White Rabbit and treats him with more kindness than any human has. Hell is ruled by a brutal tyrant called Mundus, is filled with predators that kill weaker Makai and has toxic air that kills White Rabbit’s adopted sister. The White Rabbit uses tech to create portals to Earth to lead the Makai away from the dangers of Hell. However, the Makai is attacked by the anti-demon organization DARKCOM, to which Lady belongs. With the Makai refugees being killed by the paranoid DARKCOM agents, White Rabbit goes mad and adopts his villainous persona.
The episode featuring White Rabbit’s backstory is the best of the season. When the White Rabbit enters Hell, the animation style changes, going from an anime-like style to something akin to a Western fantasy series like Hilda. This episode also goes into Lady’s backstory, with her family surviving a demon attack. Mary Arkham’s father, John Arkham, becomes obsessed with demons. Mary’s father manages to turn himself into a demon and kills her mother, leading to Mary accidentally killing her father and cementing her hatred of demons. This makes an interesting parallel between the backstories of Mary Arkham and White Rabbit. Mary Arkham’s character grows throughout the season while tracking the White Rabbit to an apartment building populated with Makai who didn’t want to harm anyone, and one Makai family hides her from the White Rabbit’s goons. This results in Mary having to rethink her fanatical anti-demon beliefs, being forced to see the Makai as people rather than just evil monsters.
Dante remains the most static of the main characters, he remains a jerk with a hidden heart of gold throughout the season. Some people may see presenting demons as refugees as rather ham-fisted social commentary, but I can always appreciate an attempt by the writers to say something interesting. Though a straight plot where Dante has to fight evil invading demons could have fun too, this metaphor is what informs the White Rabbit’s backstory and makes him more interesting. Enzo, who was mostly an annoying comic relief character, heroically sacrifices himself to save Dante from the White Rabbit, showing that he is something beyond a comic relief archetype.
The voice cast is excellent in the series. Johnny Yong Bosh, known for playing anime heroes like Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach, plays the heroic but cocky Dante. Hoon Lee, known as Splinter in the 2012 TMNT series, plays a completely different character, going from the wise Splinter to the demented White Rabbit, showing off his range. Hoon Lee can go from making the White Rabbit be reasonable and timid in the past to demented and determined in the present. The late, great Kevin Conroy also plays a character from different Batman, playing American Vice President Willaim Baines. Baines seems reasonable at first, but by the end of the season, Baines is revealed to be an anti-demon fanatic who has no concern for his country or his fellow humans and is the true villain of the season. Baines created DARKCOM, the organization that killed White Rabbit’s Makai followers, leading to his madness. The animation is pretty decent, with a similar style to Castlevania, the only that is weak in terms of animation is some of the CGI creatures.
The season has a rather dark ending. Dante and Lady defeat the White Rabbit and stop his scheme to merge Earth and Hell. However, Lady knocks out and captures Dante, believing he is too dangerous to remain free. Baines opens a portal to Hell and starts throwing missiles into Hell, having his soldiers massacre Makai civilians and enslave Makai civilians to take their resources. There is a cliffhanger, when Dante’s brother Virgil, who was thought dead, is in fact alive and working for Mundus.
Devil May Cry is not the strongest adaption of a video game into animation, its not as well written as say Castlevania. However, despite a weak start, it has a somewhat strong finish, with a great villain in the form of the White Rabbit and some of the more annoying characters like Lady and Enzo get some character development that makes them better later on. Devil May Cry season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.
