Let’s face it: Netflix does not exactly have a perfect record when adapting existing material to their shows. As a huge fan of The Witcher, their show made me cancel the Netflix subscription once and for all.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for writing original material that would add unto an original. Make new characters, write a new story, show me something I haven’t seen. However, changing established and loved characters, their stories and personalities just to make them fit your own narrative just screams “people won’t watch my original story unless I leech of other writer’s work” to me. This show is no different – exchange the Sparda brothers and Lady with original characters and it would be an okay way to pass the time, had the writing and animation were halfway decent. More about that later.
The animation level is just bad.
Let’s quickly get this one out of the way, because I’m not some kind of animation nerd. I had no issues watching Amazon’s Invincible, even though the web is full of criticisms for its animation, but Netflix’s Devil May Cry was noticeably bad for me. The fighting scenes that are supposed to be flashy and cool are just a mess that you can’t figure out because of the low framerate and constant cuts to different camera angles. Films make an excuse for this by claiming that fighting choreography is hard to reliably act out – wonder what’s the excuse for animation in our case?
Adding insult to injury, even the main characters are sometimes so badly detailed that you’re just left to wonder if Netflix are aware who the main character in the show is. If you’re a Devil May Cry fan who already watched the show, you probably see what this sentence is foreshadowing.
"Okay Google, what is Devil May Cry?"
There’s no other way to put it. Everything about this show points out that its writers researched the franchise by making Google searches. After seemingly getting to the DMC Wiki page, they have for some reason skipped the reading, or perhaps they are simply prefer pictures. Who knows?
That being said, any person who actually experienced Devil May Cry 3, also known as the game where Lady’s backstory is told, would known why she’s called Lady and not Mary, or why she’s refusing to be called Mary, let alone correcting Dante when he calls her Lady since she won’t give him her name.
Speaking of Lady, who might as well have been the main character of this show, and I honestly wouldn’t mind, if the show was about her. That is not the case, unfortunately, and Dante is still present to what seems to be a supporting character to Lady being, I’m typical Netflix fashion, an all-capable girlboss who’s easily killing demons that knock Dante on his ass as well as slapping Dante around the whole duration of the show. Yes, I know. That Lady who’s purpose is Devil May Cry 3 is to be a boss fight so easy it will drive Dante’s character arc by showing him how weak humans are and that he needs to protect them.
This, of course, doesn’t happen, though it probably wouldn’t matter if it did, as Dante is written to be about as intelligent as a pebble, in addition to being unable to kill any demons. While most of the demons are easily killed by Lady, Dante does get some lesser ones here and there throughout the show. That, however, isn’t really surprising, considering he couldn’t withstand a hit with a woman’s purse in the head in the very first episode. Yes, this Dante:
I’ll just move on. No, I will not say anything about Vergil because if I do this article will never see the light of day.
The marketing campaign regarding the soundtrack was a scam
Not much to say about it. I was as excited for the soundtrack as anyone since it was posted well before the show aired.
What would be a very fitting soundtrack to the series is, ironically, a very fitting soundtrack to the series, as most of the songs mentioned are soy gen z remixes of the originals that completely ruin the feel of the songs.
Honestly, the writing is fine
…for people who don’t mind plot holes, inconsistencies, love when narratives don’t make sense, or simply have amnesia attacks in between episodes. Gottem.
Nothing makes sense, weird narrative choices aren’t explained (simply because there is no possible explanation of how it would be possible), characters don’t have any arcs (except for Lady of course, her character arc is getting over her hatred for demons, except there are no good demons, but we’ll get to that).
The amount of times this show contradicts itself is honestly hilarious. I especially like that one time when in the beginning of the show Lady unmasks a demon who tried to infiltrate her unit because “she can literally smell demons”. A weird writing direction, but who am I to judge. Except 2 episodes later, a demon… *checks notes*… infiltrates her unit by disguising himself as one of her teammates. Yup. Not sure if the writers had a collective amnesia attack in between writing episodes 2 and 4, or just expect their viewers to not be able to follow whatever is shown on the screen.
“The visionary” episode 6, of course, takes the nonsense to a whole new level by transporting a human child into Hell, where apparently the air itself is so toxic even to indigenous population of demons that they feel the need to migrate to earth. As this inconvenient narrative was explained by the show beforehand, they felt the need to make the child cough twice before completely disregarding the whole “toxic air” thing for another 15 or so years of the narrative, while said child makes a high tech portal opening device out of… *checks notes*…nothing. My guess would be from a combination of hopes, dreams and the power of friendship with the indigenous demons of Hell, though if you are a writer of this show feel free to correct me.
The dialogues in this show are simply horrible. I don’t see a crumb of possibility that anyone of solid mind would write whatever is said by the characters most of the time, especially Lady. All the unnecessary cursing aside, whoever got paid to write the dialogue for this show, I would demand for my money back plus interest for the damage to my few remaining brain cells.
Fiction is supposed to be fun
You know what will make your fictional story REALLY FUN? The one thing everyone across cultures unanimously agrees on being the most fun thing in existence! I’m talking about politics, obviously.
Yup, when it comes to Netflix, even a show about a half human half demon guy protecting earth from demons invasions couldn’t pass unnecessary cringey real life political agendas to shove down its viewers throat.
You see, a story about a half breed demons struggling with the essence of his heritage is just not deep enough. You know what it needs? Whatever you just guessed, it’s wrong. It needs the director’s childhood immigration trauma dump. And let me tell you, even I, who unwillingly moved continents at the age of 10, didn’t sympathize with this one.
Confirmed by the shows director Adi Shankar in an interview, the whole “demons from Hell are harmless refugees” narrative is indeed an analogy to his immigration story from India to the US. To be honest, I’m not even sure what’s weirder: the fact that this is the main narrative in a Devil May Cry show, or the fact that this guy compares his countrymen to demons. Regardless, something about it is deeply disturbing and were not even considering the fact that he said that the White Rabbit, the Messiah of the demon immigration in the show is his self insert.
The show is, of course, written in a way that tries it’s best to sympathize with this villain, even if I’m personally not buying it, but you so you. The character that the show is making out to be the villain is an American Christian white guy politician, but I’m sure it’s pretty much to be expected from Netflix at this point.
Just stop. If you want to be a politician, go be a politician. Either leave our escapism fun alone or write it well enough for it to make sense. You’re not Hideo Kojima lil bro.
You're not the creator of Devil May Cry, Adi
Can’t believe I have to say this. If you’re gonna do a promotion of your Netflix show, at least have the decency to not mislead people. I don’t care that your show sucks, it’s your show. But calling yourself the “creator of Devil May Cry” is just scummy behavior.
Netflix's Devil May Cry Review
An unnecessary waste of time for fans and newcomers alike. Subpar animation and bad writing are being “compensated for” by cringe political agendas of people who don’t respect the franchise they’re trying to adapt.
