Netflix's Devil May Cry: Beautiful Animation Can't Hide Narrative Flaw

Devil May Cry

Many of us have games we played during childhood that have become a part of us. These titles are truly special and irreplaceable to each individual, with most new installations only managing to capture a glimmer of the good ol’ brilliance that made it a timeless classic. Personally, it was the original RGBY Pokémon games that were released in the late 90s that forged a part of my being and made sure I remained an avid Pokémon fan for life. It’s precisely because these titles are so special to us that we become very wary and skeptical of new attempts to recreate them in “a new light.” I am always happy for good new content from my favorite franchises, but somewhere along the line, I came to accept that nothing will be as impactful as the game my younger self was exposed to…

“Devil May Cry (2025)” is an adult animated TV series that aired eight episodes under Season 1 on Netflix on the 3rd of April 2025. The main staff behind the production are Adi Shankar and Alex Larsen, followed by Haruhiro Tsujimoto as executive producer, Romane Belaisch as producer, Kim Gyung-chan, Kyung Min-Ho, and Kim Min-kyoung as editors, and Jarome Harmsworth, Joel Harmsworth, and Power Glove as composers. Featuring stars like Johnny Yong Bosch, Scout Taylor-Compton, Hoon Lee, Chris Coppola, and the late Kevin Conroy, and brought to life by the South Korean Studio Mir, alongside Adi Shankar Animation and Capcom. Based on the popular Japanese video game franchise of the same name crafted by Capcom, each episode has a runtime of 21 to 32 minutes and follows an entirely new story and setting for the known characters. Featuring the genres of action, adventure, urban fantasy, and mystery, it got renewed for a second season after one week of its release.

In classic style, the story follows the life of protagonist Dante, a demon hunter for hire who can’t stand boring jobs and tends to live life by his own rules. Following a brutal incident involving the demonic White Rabbit, our MC finds himself being hunted down by the government organization Dark Realm Command (DARKCOM) under the leadership of Vice President William Baines, where he comes to bump heads with the skilled soldier Mary. With multiple groups scrambling to reach their own objectives, Dante ends up tangled in a plan to bring about a devastating demonic invasion of Earth, heralded by the White Rabbit who seeks revenge on the entirety of the human race…

Before I start, let me clarify that I had not consumed any Devil May Cry content before watching this series. I have heard of it, of course, but I never really knew the main story or the characters despite their cultural impact on gaming. So I went into the Netflix series blind, with reasonable expectations that it would live up to its resounding legacy. This series has a positive start, establishing exactly what kind of character Dante is and his chaotic world, tinted with intriguing bits of mystery that I expected to resolve as the story progressed. However, the middle and final episodes didn’t quite meet the bar that the initial episodes set. I was pretty disappointed by the end, albeit having been entertained differently. I remember seeing a social media post about the series later, stating that the show should have been titled “Prisoner May Cry” instead, and this was one of my biggest gripes with the Netflix adaptation. Allow me to elaborate.

The story is set in a world where the human and demon realms are mostly isolated from each other, but small tears in the medium between them allow beings from either side to cross and cause all sorts of complications. The demon realm is portrayed as a dark, desolate, and nightmarish landscape where even average demons don’t want to live, while the human realm is considered almost perfect. After things kick off with White Rabbit’s declaration, DARKCOM scrambles to catch Dante and get their hands on the pendant around Dante’s neck, which is a precious keepsake from his late mom. I loved the fights that followed because Dante, in his element, is very entertaining to watch and establishes just how good he is. But the next thing you know, the smart, skilled, experienced, and inhumanly powerful Dante gets trapped and tasered down like some amateur by Mary….

This guy was dodging bullets while dancing and was deadly aware of his surroundings moments ago, but he loses it all in the face of this “strong independent woman” who’s honestly not that impressive.... From here on out, Dante is dumbed down and weakened so that the plot can happen, with him being someone’s prisoner for most of the show and not even getting to fight much again. Whatever fights we do get are either too short or dull down everything the human side of Dante is capable of. The demon side of Dante's fighting is bland compared to what we got in the first few episodes, where everything from the fight choreography was nearly perfect, dwindling down to feats of sheer power and nothing more.

Meanwhile, Mary is portrayed as this perfect badass who can always save herself and outsmart everyone; I’m pretty sure Rabbit is eons sharper than her, but even he becomes a somewhat desperate idiot in front of her. Veteran Devil May Cry fans later told me that the original Mary is nothing like this Netflix version; she is a grounded and likable woman who operates well within her human limits. I honestly don’t know why so many shows try to push the girlboss stereotype who outshines the male lead into the story like this, because it ruins the primary focus of Devil May Cry: a tale of two separated brothers fighting a war between humanity and demons. Anyway, it ends with a lot of setup for Season 2, and it truly does have the potential to be a superb sequel as long as Dante and Virgil aren’t sidelined AGAIN. From a story perspective, Season 1 is more about Mary and Rabbit, complete with both of their backstories, rather than Dante himself.

Further expanding on the characters, Dante is hardly the MC in practice, and he is just a guy everyone wants to capture and control to meet their ends. He gets “passed around” multiple times and continuously falls for the same traps repeatedly, solidifying himself as a bumbling buffoon with a ton of power but no wits by the end. His behavior completely clashes with who he was clearly shown to be in the initial episodes and the original Dante he is based on. Moving on, Rabbit was probably my favorite this season, and this is all thanks to relativity and nothing more. He has a tragic past and is painted as a hero turned villain by circumstance, which is fine with me, and he was entertaining to watch on screen, all until the last few episodes. I hated this Mary, though; she is snarky, loud, obnoxious, disloyal, and acts way like something she’s clearly not, yet for some reason Dante falls for her deception every time. Unless they tone her down or reduce her screen time for Season 2, she might as well ruin that as well. And no, her “tragic” backstory didn’t convince me either.

Baines is your typical evil politician who feeds off war and destruction, painted as the true evil by the end. Still, honestly, this dude was just annoying and powerless outside of politics. The other members of DARKCOM are forgettable background characters who only exist to further Mary’s character development. I felt they deserved that when Rabbit’s past came to light. The demon lackeys were all pretty one-dimensional outside of the Shape-Shifter, who I felt bad for by the end, just there to create some fights and showcase the “evil” of demonkind. Virgil barely gets any screentime, which is okay for Season 1, but the whole “my brother is dead” drama of Dante gets spoiled early on when the Shape-Shifter clearly states that he can only assume the form of those alive, and we see him transform into adult Virgil. The remaining characters are largely forgettable and don’t contribute much, except for maybe Enzo.

The art and animation department is pretty good. Dante and Virgil look attractive as ever, and we even get some mild fan service for Dante. The design of Rabbit is memorable and effectively explored later on, while everyone else maintains an acceptable appearance. The artwork is sharp, mature, and striking, so no complaints there either. Backgrounds and camera work are also amazing most of the time, setting a perfect stage for fights that could’ve been better content-wise. My issue is the CG; most of the demons are CG and stick out like sore thumbs against the 2D world and remaining characters. It looks so off, and I feel even the fights could’ve been better if they stuck to 2D. Dante’s demon form was a pure CG disappointment for me. How they can degrade such a hot character design is beyond me. Credit where credit is due, I love the patchy cartoon style they used to showcase Rabbit’s backstory!

In the Sounds and Music department, my biggest gripe is the voice acting for Dante. I watched this series in English, and Dante sounds way too young for his body and character. He sounds like a teen out of high school, the perfect kind to fall for Mary’s betrayals every single time, though, and portrays him as a very self-doubting and emotionally scarred character. I’m sure the original Dante has the same or more emotional scars, but surely he isn’t this level of a wimpy idiot. Mary’s personality made me dislike hearing her, so I don’t think it's fair to blame the VA. Rabbit delivers the best performance throughout the show, being maniacal and calculated every step of the way (give this guy the bazooka, please), and I commend the VA for portraying his complexity at this level. The OSTs didn’t stand out to me, while the opening theme, "Rollin'" by Limp Bizkit, is one I easily skipped after watching once. I liked the ending theme, Devils Never Cry (Power Glove Lullaby Mix), by the Australian band Power Glove, which has a very somber tone and even reminded me of “Bury the Light.”

Overall, I am more or less disappointed with Season 1 of Netflix’s Devil May Cry. The main reason for this is them dissing on their main character, an entertaining and lovable character from the original work. It’s worsened by giving us such a promising start, only to make him more pathetic each episode so that other characters can shine. And no, nobody except Rabbit “shined” in my eyes. They do showcase outstanding production value, and I am definitely returning for Season 2, solely because it MUST focus on Dante and Virgil at that point. But who knows? There are a million ways to ruin that as well, but I hope for the best because the original material is just that good.