Warning: This article contains spoilers
The popular video game series Devil May Cry gets a new adaptation in the form of an anime series released on Netflix. The anime is an eight-episode series that aired on April 3, 2025.
The show centers around the legendary devil hunter Dante, who is half-demon himself, and his efforts to stop the White Rabbit’s plan to destroy the barrier between the Human and Demon Realms.
The show also puts much emphasis on another character, Mary, more commonly known as Lady. She struggles to trust Dante while also trying to stop the White Rabbit – with the help of Dark Realm Command (DarkCom) – which is an organization headed by the vice president as the main line of defense from the demon threat.
The series features the posthumous voice of the legendary Kevin Conroy, most famously known for voicing Batman on many occasions. Conroy was cast as the voice of Vice President Baines. This role is one of Conroy’s last recorded roles before he lost his battle with intestinal cancer; the first episode pays tribute to Conroy before the credits roll.
Johnny Yong Bosch stars as the voice of Dante. He previously voiced Nero, Dante’s nephew, in the games Devil May Cry 4 and 5.
The anime was written and produced by Adi Shankar, known for Dredd (2012) and another Netflix anime, “Castlevania.”
As this article is being written, the series is ranked #4 on the “Top 10” list for the week it premiered on Netflix’s official insider website, Tudum. The show has 5.3 million views.
Background & Main Characters
The portrayal of Dante is fairly accurate to the games he comes from. However, he isn’t as “stylish” in the series as he is in the games. Dante does bring a lot of goofiness to the series, as shown by his dance scene at the end of the first episode and the quips he says throughout the series.
The title of the first episode, “Inferno”, pays homage to the inspiration of Dante and his brother Vergil’s names, that being “Dante’s Inferno” written by Dante Alighieri in the year 1314.
At the start of the series, Dante doesn’t know he is a half-demon and believes he is like a superhero. He finds out that he is half-demon as the events of the show go on. He gets a power-up midway through the series known as Devil Trigger, where he unleashes his demonic power while falling out of a plane to save hostages after a battle with the demon twins Agni and Rudra.
The character of Mary, mainly referred to as Lady, is a very different depiction of the character as seen in the games. In the series, she works for DarkCom and is one of their most reliable members. She is portrayed as an arrogant, irresponsible character whose hate for demons fuels her decisions.
Lady ends up having more screen time than Dante, the main character of the show. This is one of the main problems of the series since it’s supposed to focus on Dante and his journey.
Lady doesn’t fully trust Dante by the end of the series since he is half-demon, even though Dante has proven many times that he is on the side of the humans. She does have a realization moment when she infiltrates what DarkCom believes to be the base of the White Rabbit. She gets her whole team killed by rushing in and is left all by herself until she finds a family of refugees from the Demon Realm who are human-like and show compassion towards her and themselves. But Lady ends up getting the refugees killed when she believes that DarkCom will take them to safety but they eventually end up getting an order from the vice president to execute them all.
The White Rabbit is the main villain of the series. He was a human who traveled to the Makai, the Demon Realm, as a child and lived there with the Makains, who are the human-like residents of Makai.
At the beginning of the series, it is theorized that Makains were ancient humans who traveled to the Demon Realm and, over many years, evolved to survive in the harsh conditions of the Demon Realm. White Rabbit wants to bring the Makians to the human realm to save them from the toxic air of the Demon Realm and ends up turning himself into an artificial demon by infusing his blood with demon blood.
He also has the ulterior motive to get revenge on DarkCom for murdering the first wave of refugees he brings to the Human Realm, which happened before the events of the series occur.
Review
The series itself brings to mind the early 2000s with its choices of music and other visual references. Many songs used in the series are 2000s Nu metal/alt metal, with the band Evanescence making a new song, “Afterlife”, for the series. “Rollin” by Limp Bizkit is used as the theme song for the series. Other songs featured in the series include “American Idiot” by Green Day, “Guerrilla Radio” by Rage Against the Machine and “Butterfly” by Crazy Town. The soundtrack also features many Devil May Cry original songs, such as “Bury the Light,” “Devil Trigger” and “Devils Never Cry” remixed by the Australian band, Power Glove.
The animation of the series is phenomenal, with many fluid action scenes throughout the series.
“The show was actually peak, bro,” senior Aditya Kumar said. “The fight scenes were my favorite part. The motorcycle chase scene has to be the best fight.”
However, some of the CGI elements, such as the main group of demon adversaries of the series, fall flat and don’t need to be CGI.
The series also has commentary on American militarism and religious themes. Makai is often referred to as “Hell” and “The Demon Realm” by the very religious vice president, Baines. Baines thinks that God has given them a way to destroy Hell.
At the end of the series, Baines orders soldiers to invade and nuke the Demon Realm to colonize it and use it for resources, setting up the villain for a second season, Aruis. A second season has been greenlit and is in production.
“[The series] has some differences from the source material, which I don’t really like, with Lady’s character being the worst offense,” junior Arya Patel said. “Oh, bro, the remixes to the (original) music are also all really bad.”
The Torch rates “Devil May Cry” of 3.5/5. Let us know what you think in the comments!
