Devil May Cry review: "Netflix's anime adaptation is dated and clunky, but does capture some of the anarchic spirit of the original games"

Two episodes into Netflix's Devil May Cry anime adaptation, Dante suddenly takes a shotgun blast to his abs after dispatching multiple assassins with Ebony and Ivory in hand. But anyone even remotely familiar with Capcom's premier demon hunter knows that this won't slow him down — and sure enough, the wound closes almost immediately.

"I heal extremely fast," says Dante to his would-be-killer. "Like a superhero. Not that I call myself a superhero, but your mom does." And with that, Dante punches the guy into a TV screen where Street Fighter's Ken has just dragon-punched a pixelated M. Bison as the word "perfect" tinnily rings out from the speakers.

For better or worse, these ten or so seconds perfectly sum up Netflix's new yet not-so-perfect adaptation of Devil May Cry. There's the smart-ass quipping, the cocksure fighting style, and references to the late '90s/early 2000s where this world was first created in video game form. Yet there's little depth beyond that, and attempts to rectify this are clunkier than any assassin's attempt to kill Dante with just a mere shotgun.

The series can be fun though, just like with the opening credits, which conjure up the PS2 era with an endless parade of skulls, swords, and pepperoni pizza slices set to Limp Bizkit's 'Rollin''. Cheesy in more ways than one, this title sequence and the many fight scenes that follow successfully evoke the original games in all their heavy metal sleazy dive bar realness. In that respect, Devil May Cry is a fitting tribute to developer Hideki Kamiya's now legendary game franchise.

Stuck in the past

Plot-wise, this story of Dante and another hunter named Lady will ring true for longtime fans, remixing various game installments into a new but familiar bootleg version where they team up to stop the demon realm from pouring into our own. The problem though is that this adaptation is very much stuck in the past, rather than paying homage to it. Devil May Cry reveres the original games to a point where it's almost too devoted, capturing their spirit without updating the story itself for modern audiences.

This wouldn't sting as much if showrunner Adi Shankar hadn't already managed to do that with much greater success in his previous Netflix series. Made right before Devil May Cry, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix remixed several Ubisoft games to fashion a post-modern multimedia celebration of gaming as an art form that surpasses Devil May Cry in just about every way . That's not to say Shankar's latest show needed to reinvent the wheel to that extent, but it's bizarre just how dumbed down Devil May Cry is at points.

"Our goal wasn’t just to pump out another animated show," said Shankar to Netflix prior to release. "My goal is to make one of the best shows on the Netflix platform — period." Yet Devil May Cry doesn't even match up to his own previous efforts, let alone other Netflix shows. It feels like Devil May Cry was written much earlier as a precursor to superior shows like Castlevania, except that one arrived eight years beforehand.

That's why it's so surprising that Devil May Cry couldn't air hike its way to greatness, taking a big step back rather than forward. The character designs are a mixed bag, for example, especially compared to previous Shankar shows, although the villainous White Rabbit and one plant lady demon do stand out.

The fight sequences fare even worse in comparison to Castlevania, a show that was renowned for its giddy, innovative approach to swordplay and magic. Devil May Cry should excel in that regard, reaching even higher heights than that series, yet the climactic fight here just feels like your run-of-the-mill scrimmage for fans of Shankar's earlier work.

Devil 'Will' Cry

It's not all bad though. Some moments do thrill, like a bazooka sequence early on and a scene where Dante slams his motorbike into two demons with Papa Roach's 'Last Resort' playing in the background. Glimpses of the show Devil May Cry could and should have been (even if the bike doesn't split into giant buzzsaws) are then undermined however by these demons responding with the words, "Damn, he's cool."

That's not the only time it feels like Devil May Cry is trying to convince you of Dante's coolness, rather than simply showing it (although that is the most cringe example of that by far). "Our bullets don't affect him," says a soldier at one point, describing Dante's DNA as "different, a new evolution". Another is stabbed through the chest, impaled by a comically large sabre, and his final words? "An energy sword. Fascinating."

For every zinger that does land, another two or three don't, like the bullets regularly shot Dante's way. However, Johnny Yong Bosch – who plays Nero in Devil May Cry 4 and Devil May Cry 5 – elevates all this with the requisite charm and showboating, replacing Reuben Langdon from the games.

Based off vibes along, Bosch nails the part, as do most of the cast, ably giving it their all in a script that's often lacking. Chris Coppola is pitch perfect as Dante's unsavoury sidekick, Enzo Ferino, and it's always a pleasure to hear Kevin Conroy, who voices VP Baines here in one of the last roles he recorded before his death in 2022. The biggest standout though is Warrior star Hoon Lee who embodies The White Rabbit with grandeur and deliciously evil malice.

Praying for Mir-cy

Said grandeur comes to the fore in the sixth episode which detours from the main quest to provide some much needed backstory for Lady and a mysterious new character who ends up being far more intertwined with her journey than we're first led to believe. The animation ambitiously plays around with different styles here, shifting between hand drawn scribbles and a storybook-like visage to color in between the lines.

Studio Mir (The Legend of Korra, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf) do a decent job with this, as they do throughout the series, and it's commendable to see Devil May Cry break away from formula in this way, but Lady's half in this episode is far less compelling. A timely refugee metaphor falls short too, lacking the finesse needed to do an issue like this justice. By the end, you're left with the feeling that this experiment should have been more stirring than it was, and that rings true of the show as a whole.

Teenage me would have gone to hell and back for an adaptation like this that clearly holds so much passion for the original games. It's a shame that the lack of sophistication in the writing undermines this devotion though. Vibes alone will only get you so far, after all, but that hasn't stopped Shankar from planning a multi-season arc anyway.

Assuming Netflix sees the same potential we do in that fun but somewhat predictable cliffhanger ending, there's a strong chance that Dante will be spinning back into our lives again sooner rather than later. Let's just hope things improve enough to justify its existence when so many better Netflix shows are cut short in their prime. Otherwise, this latest version of Devil May Cry could go the same way that the 2007 anime did, giving us not one but two dated adaptations that ended after just one season

Devil May Cry is out now on Netflix. Find out more on how to watch with our Devil May Cry release schedule. And for more, check out our picks for the best anime on Netflix.