Review series ‘Devil May Cry’ from Netflix

The discussion about violence in video games remains fascinating for a game expert. The idea that you can compare violence in reality – really violence, brutal and fast and ugly – with the sometimes downright graceful ballet in a game? Simplistic. Especially when we talk about the influential cult games by Devil May Cryin which violence looks more like ice dancing on pounding metal music. The beautiful, deadly movements of the dancers are assessed on score signs.

Even in the game world Devil May Cry (DMC) Unique, a coming together of ridiculous fantasy-pulp, compelling family drama and stylish fights. How the hell do you translate that into an animation series? Producer Adi Shankar, the maker of the well-discussed game animation series Castlevaniahis head officially broke over seven years. It will be unofficially longer: Shankar is such a super fan of the games that he says he says he was « dressed like DMC characters », in black leather and red.

With Animation series Devil May Cry For Netflix he brings a lot of youth baggage: it is a homage to the games that formed him, but also to the era in which those games were born. The time of September 11, the Iraq war, surveillance-and the time of now metal bands such as Limp Bizkit, Evanescence and Papa Roach, who borrowed their music from the series. For Millennials – especially the DMC once played – the series is a party of recognition.

In the Netflix series, a secret army is commissioned by the American vice president of demons. Everything is permitted. When a demon with rabbit head is a museum and runs away with a mysterious amulet, all alarm bells start ringing. Elite soldier Mary Arkham (no stranger to fans, although her story arch will probably call controversy here) and her team has to hunt for the other half of the amulet to prevent the barrier between hell and earth from being opened.

For the enthusiast who sounds familiar to the ears: this series is not a loyal rendition of the games, but a kind of remix of prequel game Devil May Cry 3 Specific and the rest of the games in general. And yes, that also means that we see game hero Dante here in his younger years, as adolescent, flamboyant freelance demon hunter with red coat and white hair. Dante is the owner of the other half of the amulet, but he has no idea that the jewelry is a little more than a reminder of his deceased mother and brother. He becomes a toy that bounces between larger powers.

Elegant dancer

In the first instance, the series unfolds as a action thriller. Both Shankars experience with Castlevania As an animation studio Studio Mir’s experience with The Legend of Korra Outs in spectacular flowing action scenes (except for somewhat stubborn 3D animation pieces), in which Dante certainly glides through the action as an elegant dancer. A feast for the eyes. In the meantime, Dante and Mary bite each other with sometimes sharp, sometimes deliberately silly jokes. The classic Dynamics between these two opposites – the competent, rigid Mary and the casual, sloppy Dante – may work even better than in the source material.