Yeah. He said some s#!t that would definitely qualify as not kosher. One example, that some countries deserved to be taken over, implied that the strong should conquer the week, Kept calling Shankar Shanq@33r and started his argument by telling the viewer that if they thought they were better at the games, knew more about the games or had had more authority to speak about the games than him said viewer was wrong basically placing himself as the only authority on the subject. That's just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head.
I used to listen to this guy's videos. He was articulate and knowledgeable. He was never hateful like this.
Yeah. He said some s#!t that would definitely qualify as not kosher. One example, that some countries deserved to be taken over, implied that the strong should conquer the week, Kept calling Shankar Shanq@33r and started his argument by telling the viewer that if they thought they were better at the games, knew more about the games or had had more authority to speak about the games than him said viewer was wrong basically placing himself as the only authority on the subject. That's just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head.
I used to listen to this guy's videos. He was articulate and knowledgeable. He was never hateful like this.
Not related (or is it?) there was one translator of VoV manga got angry at Shankar as well. That person have a tumblr acc to only post their translated works and game anniversaries, but since when netflix DMC was near the date until now, they started posting on tumblr more often, screencapped Shankar's posts on X and accused Shankar is a liar with "proofs" (idk how true those are, I don't really care about dramas on X) or complained about how bad the show is. The existence of netflix DMC sure made some people lose their cool
Ok. Not sure why it was reworked but it looks like there is now a different version.
On someone's recommendation I started watching Captain Laserhawk. I was told that that was Shankar's other video game project. I've seen two episodes and now I know why they told me to watch it. The show has so many parallel themes as the DMC show they are basically the same, down right to having a dimensional portal. There are a lot of video game references on that show. One Assassins Creed one is a French frog, which sounds pretty offensive to me, but, hey, what do I know. Anyway. You got your America is fascist implication, refugees from another dimension, commentary on the media and political satire, corporate mistreatment of the labor force, the 'non human' are a metaphor for immigrants, who are not seen on the same level as the 'natives' and violence against the oppressors. I've only seen this and Castlevania but I've been told these are common themes in the Shankar led productions.
I've been thinking about this thing, clearly, and The first time I saw it wasn't sure I was articulating my thoughts properly. After watching a second time in Spanish (like a month ago, now) I got to cement my thoughts more clearly and, so, here they are. Honestly, though, I'd just wanted to vent a little and put some disective reasoning on my opinion... Kinda went above and beyond there. Well, just to be concise, I didn't love it. Not out of purity where the reasons are in connection to the source material. I do care about that but if I were to judge it on its own merits my opinion would still stand. Yeah, it's not all bad; not going to sit here and pretend the show has no merits. There are things I think are conceptually solid, but, for me, the bad outweigh the good and that is, still, just on its own merits. As a DMC entity this is even more so.
Just to be clear, these are my rantings, almost ravings, about the show. I've been too busy to organizing my thoughts so I've been doing it slowly. Because of that, these will probably be, a lot of the times, kinda nonsensical. Don't worry about it. I really am just raving here, so feel free to not mind me.
That being said, now that I'm... "done" I've notice how insanely long this is! Yeah, I'm just going to slap a bunch spoiler tabs on this and you read, or not, whatever you feel like reading... or not. Long enough to be dissertation and I am not going to cite my sources for all of whatever this ended up being.
Let's start with some general thoughts;
Shankar has mentioned that he puts his fan works under either the bootleg universe where it's his take on the project, he takes tremendous liberties and reinterprets things to his whim or the Adi Shankar Animation which he says is made to honor the "core essence" of the source material. That definition definitely leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Core essence could still mean any number of changes, as we saw, that can really fit just as well to the bootleg. The differences between DMC's anime and the games are as broad as the ones in Castlevania's case. Then again, Itsuno was involved with this one, too, so it's not exclusively Shankar's hands that made this. I do take that into consideration. However, dot dot dot, I've also seen his other animated works. This is very much in the style that his productions tend to go.
I mentioned this because one of the things I popped into while reading about this is that under his animation Shankar "adopts a sophisticated style that seeks to elevate the source material while paying deep respect to the original works." Sophisticated is not the word I'd use to describe this. In fact, just listening to Lady, you could make a case to call it vulgar. Giving Lucia, who is a very dignified character in her game, that scene where she spits on someone (not to mention everyone else who does it) is the opposite of sophisticated. Not to mention the use of gore and general dialogue. For the sake of argument, let's say we don't mean sophisticated in the sense of everyone wearing evening dresses, well tailored suits and has dialogue that would make the Brits green with envy at their nuance and wit. The narrative and themes aren't that sophisticated, either. They're rather juvenile, to be quite honest. I really wouldn't describe this show as sophisticated.
Is the show disrespectful to the source material? I don't know I'd take it that far. It's certainly not in the spirit of the game's or their general narratives. I've seen people make a very solid argument that it is, though, and I know why they say so. The issue is that I don't believe that was their intent and that makes a difference.
The show, itself, started out rather promising. Those first establishing shots were very pretty, in fact. Even that first fight scene was pretty damn impressive. The issues, for me, started when the bandids just stood there NOT SHOOTING THE CREEPY RABBIT THAT EMERGED FROM THE SHADOWS! Not only that but when the guards show up they do the same, nothing (Exclamation Mark (Yeah, I wrote it just to show how frustrating that scene was). It's not odd for things like this to happen in action scenarios. I didn't like it but I understood it. However, the point where my willingness to let such incongruencies go came immediately after when the guards showed up and surround the anthropomorphic leporids. These wankers just stood around on a circle, pointing their-- what are those, polaxes? (Google) Pointing their helberds while they let the weirdo pontificate for like a minute and a half, and just stared at him while he pulled out what was very obviously a detonador and did nothing while he explained. Plenty of time to stabbity stab stab the mthrfkr and they just let him go at it! To be clear, the problem isn't that it happened, it's a common set up. The problem is that it happened twice, in row, and in a manner that was way, way, too obvious to ignore.
I've used the word illogical to describe this show and it's because of things like this. Because it's not an isolated thing. There's suspension of disbelief and then there is 'this just makes no f'kn sense.' There is space for dumb things to take place in your serious narrative, or vice versa (I wouldn't classify it as sophisticated but at what point I'd just nitpicking), but you can't abuse it and letting the rabbit go on for that long while nobody did anything was too much. If these were isolated incidents it'd be easy to dismiss but throughout the whole ordeal there are all these illogical decisions that are hard to dismiss by merit of sheer quantity.
Exempli gratia: Why hire people only to kill them? Why kidnap demon hunters? Why hire a bunch of mercenaries to distract Dante when it hardly came into play? Well, the first one was just to have an action sequence, really, an edgy, too, what, with all the gore. You can argue that they needed Americans to get the video to Baines but it was broadcasted across the world and he's a Christian, he'd find out faster than most, but, then, we wouldn't get a chance to preach about Americans and their EviiiI!! (By the way, the fact that they all but burned down Vatican city didn't go unnoticed) As for the demon hunters they kidnapped? Hey, ass&#*+s, they are on your side! Ring them up. Didn't have to treat them like trash to get what you wanted. The US government wouldn't kidnap British military or intelligence officers and beat the crap out of them to get info if they had the same goal; they'd call the up, say 'hey, common interest' and team up. Again, wouldn't be as edgy if they actually did the logical thing, I guess. As for the mercenaries, waste of time. If you really need a scene of Dante beating up a bunch of badly dressed twats, one team would've been enough. The rest of the fight should've been with Lady's team because they sure as hell were a big chunk of nothing.
(Side note. The Vatican is one of the most safe guarded places in the world. If they have artifacts that are worth millions they aren't using 17th century armament to guard it. They got guns and trained military. The fact that they thought that that was how a serious world power guarded their treasures was weird and dumb.)
I'll come back to that later but I do want to point out that other thing that popped up at the very beginning, as soon as the rabbit walks in. Very first few lines out of his mouth were just bitching about Americas. As soon as that happened I knew where this show was going and I was already 30 degrees less optimistic. It wasn't even humans he was being self righteous about (that came later). It was Americans. I honestly can't think of one single nation across the whole of history that has never done anything f'd up but whenever I see the show trying to pitch the whole 'it's the human race that is the real monster,' weather they know it or not, the subtone I hear, the implication is that what they are really saying is 'Americans are the real monster' which, one could argue, makes it sound like they think Americans are a representation of the whole of the human race.
Hey! Here's an idea: Why not take them to India? Maybe Pakistan or Israel? I'm sure they'd be welcomed there, unlike in America. Or, better yet, the Alaskan wild. The African deserts? The South American jungles. Anywhere where there are no humans. I mean, they survived in hell so any environment on Earth has to be an improvement. What's a tiger eating one or two of them compared to a giant demon that eats them by the dozens? But, can't hate on America if you don't take them there, I suppose.
In regards the whole political angle,this is way on the nose. Couldn't be more blatant if they tried. Zero points for subtlety. I think others have probably said all the finer points on this and with more eloquence than me so I'll keep it to my opinions. For one, I found the whole thing unfitting for the series and it was actually awful having to sit through it.
Something else I've noticed, more of an observation, really, regarding the the America bashing and, by extension, the Christian bashing, is that get a sense that this was made by someone who's lived or lives in the U.S. and probably even went to college there or has spent a lot of time with people that did. The parodying here is the kind of thing you'd only find there with the same insights, complaints, arguments and references that you only get from Americans who've studied under the American system. We complain about Americans in a very different manner in Mexico and I can only imagine that others do, as well. Things here are similar in tone to how Family Guy, South Park, American Dad and other parody television would do it. Those are the only places you'd find an interpretation of the American president that is this kind of a caricature. Believe me, when we make fun of America and the president (there of) we don't have the same jokes as they do, and neither does Asia. We certainly wouldn't use American Idiot. I say so because this kind of approach to this rhetoric tends to come from people who are protected by the same US they resent so much. In fact, a lot of those projects are made more to be shown at conventions for people who do the same thing so that they can applaud each other. Could I be wrong? Sure, but I went to college in the US and that's the only place I've seen it in.
As for the Christian part of that whole spiel, I've probably mention that I'm Catholic before (most Mexicans are so not a big shocker). These last few years, this whole thing of having some Hollywood ass-o tell me, repeatedly, while conveniently ignoring crucial elements, that they blame my believes for all the world's ills and, ever so subtlety, also telling me to convert to their believes, has grown rather thin. I was burned out on it ages ago, and same for all the metaphors (and calling them that is generous) about the wall. The messaging is heavy handed, stogey and uncreative. It's become more annoying the more places I find it in. There is this insistence by what is often called the "modern audience" that all art is political, which is a BS statement to excuse the constant need to make political garbage. The Mona Lisa is not a call to revolution, Play that Funky Music, White Boy is not an allegory for racial inequality, Jurassic Park doesn't have anti establishment themes denoting corruption in the government and the need to overthrow it. Now, some may argue that all good art is political. Again, that's a lie. All good art has something worthwhile to say, it can be about life, love, family, rage, history, salvation, growth, the world and all challenges those themes bring. Yes, it can also be political, but it's not the only thing it can be or must be. It's basic mathematics: all ducks are birds, not all birds are ducks. Don't try to change the definition of things just so you can get away with your BS.
While on the topic of Metaphysics, two points:
One, we are in 2025. Use real science. Star Trek was using real science, conversing with MIT, in the 60's. Futurama, a comedy, uses real science. I might not be anything resembling a physicists but adding 'quantum' to the beginning of an explanation or word doesn't make scientific and fake science isn't sophisticated. Initiate the quantum generator! It runs on a tacion battery powered by pneumatic photon energy!
Point number two brings me to another big, big, gripe I have with this fundamentals of this show. Not the biggest but damn near. So, now it turns out the demons are humans. Yeah. They're just dudes and not the darkness that whispers to us from the void. It's all science, don't you know. They took it from gothic horror to science fiction (emphasys on the fiction part of science fiction, since the science seems to be lacking). The genre listing on Netflix has the show has it as TV horror and fantasy but that's not true, is it, and, well, that's just fantastic. Just what I wanted out of my Devil May Cry. Interdimensional Humans Who All Cry. You know, it just doesn't have the same ring to it. Worst still, they used the most non-human looking demons in their presentation in that scene to prove their point. Antropomorphic bugs and a giant, winged, multi headed serpent. These are the exmaples of human decendence? Not really the best evidence for your argument, there buddy, mostly because that is not how evolution works. Not to mention that whole 'their understanding of quantum theory is far beyond ours' but it takes them 10 minutes to put a DVD on DVD player with the tray already open! Now, imagine some a'hole making a Silent Hill adaptation and changing the monsters to be misunderstood aliens and all the crap that is happening is because their technology is far more advanced than ours.
This is a as big a departure from the fundamental of the games' lore. Not only are we altering the very nature of the games' mythology but we've even abandoned the genre altogether. On top of that, how do they explain Dante's DT? It's not mysticism. Can't call it technology, either. Same for the demons that are more visually creative. Can't really chuck it up to evolution. If it's technology why does Vergil transform with lightning and a tornado? These half measures are the kind of thing that make you question the whole world they're building. You can't take big plot points and only apply science to them when it's convenient, which leads me to my next point.
What is this need for de-mystification on these shows? If your disbelief in the otherworldly, the ethereal, the divine, the demonic, and so on, is so strong that you won't even write fiction about it, why are you working on materials that are very much rooted on the supernatural? If I actually ask 'why did you change these things to not be supernatural' and the response is 'because I don't believe in that stuff' then why go out of your way to touch it? If you really have such a big issue with something so fundamental to the properties go work on things that you do believe in. Imagine someone being hired to write a script for a movie about aliens and their response when given the assignment is 'I don't believe in aliens' do you think he'd keep the job? No one asked you to believed, they told you what to write. How about someone making an Exorcist project and saying that? Or the Supernatural tv show. Or a Dracula production. Right angles in Castlevania, anyone? You think that'd fly in an actual vampire film? And how do you explain holy water being holy if there's no such thing as the divine? Here, as someone else pointed out, they made what is essentially holy water into a green compound that works only on demons, our not so distant cousins. Just distant enough, I suppose. And how inconsistent it is, too. Scene ends with the president talking about having to deal with demons from hell and Baines responds with 'you heard the doctor, it's science, so says God' and calls it a holy war. I get what Baines is saying but the writing needs to make up its mind and not just have it be real when it lets them make the Christian an a'hole and science when they want to make it fake. Again, half measures, and only so if it's convenient.
In regards to narrative and story specific things.
I don't like it when people 'so, it's basically the same as this story over here!' For example, what we have here is factions fighting for a chrystal and a character that wears it, a memento from their mother from childhood, something they wear around their neck, mind you, that is the key to unite two dimensions that were once one in order for the other side, who used to live here but, now, are an oppressed people under the thumb of a tyrant (who is also the final boss of the original game) who wants to invade and destroy/rule/conquer the human race... Isn't that the plot of the Super Mario Movie with Bo Hopkins and John Leguizamo? Yeah, I don't like that s't. It's very condescending and not a fruitful thing to do. We can do that to any piece of work and tear it down not for its own faults but by what it resembles.
That being said, while I might not be doing exactly that certainly think I'm going to do something very much akin to it. It's not how I want to treat things in general but here I go, doing it, anyway, so, you know... on with the show...yaaayyyyyyy
You know, the games get a lot of lip about not being very good in the story department. I know better but that's because I had to go and dig to find it. Here? Well, no, I see it's all pretty evident, blatant, even. It's also all rather meh. Castlevania had a similar issue. There are some brilliant scenes but those are only a fraction of the whole show. The rest of it was heavy, dull and I started skipping these huge chunks of dialogue because they contributed nothing; Not only were they boring, but when I was finished watching and remembered I skipped half of the show to get to the point, I realised I'd missed nothing. Here it's not quite that bad, but I hold that of the good stuff is the exception, not the rule.
A very common thing to say when critiquing something is things happen because the plot needs them to. That, in case you don't know, is when things that make no sense or contradict other things established before happen anyway in order to have a desired effect. Yeah, we've certainly got that.
Take Plasma in the building. When the soldiers start massacring the people inside the setup is that this 'man' is watching his people get killed and has a moment of self sacrifice and blows up the building to kill the soldiers in revenge. Where was this sense of self righteousness when the Rabbit was experimenting and torturing his people? The conditions others had were pretty f'ed, too. He knew it has happening, no question about it. It was a horror scene. What? Is it only not OK when Americans soldier do it? (I kinda want to just start calling them la migra but that would just get confusing) Well, the building had to go so couldn't well just been indifferent about it.
How about that whole 'You Shot Me In The Leg!' So? She shot you in the arm earlier and you were fine within seconds, swinging that sword with the same arm. But now we need it to last way longer because plot.
When you think about it about it, the idea that demons are just humans that slipped into hell doesn't work because the realms were only divided 2000 years ago. That's not enough time for the evolutionary differences to take place. Before that the realms were open to each other so what we have is evolution, if you don't think about it too hard or at all.
We do have such a thing as suspension of disbelief; if the idea is to get something across we let things slip, but by merit of sheer numbers or how blatant the inconsistencies here are, that takes a certain toll on said suspension. Other do so because they run on cartoon logic.
Let's take the opening scene from Ep 3 where Arkham is reporting to the police what happened on the subway. They laugh at him. It's in an overblown and, even, childish kind of ridiculing. I don't buy that. In a real situation, if someone reported that to the police they wouldn't sit there laughing about it to his face and mocking him, not when there are two other witnesses and a train with remains enough for a whole person. They would tell him that he just witnessed a man get hit by a train after attacking his family, that his brain is coping with the situation by altering reality and that he needs to talk to someone or something like it. Scenes like this do exist and it's there to establish a sense isolation and rejection, but this was so cartoonishly overblown I couldn't take it seriously.
On a different but related note, going back to Plasma for a moment, there is a scene on the basement of the dinner where Dante wants to know why they want his amulet and the now goo demon (wasn't goo in the games; plasma, the phenomena, is not goo) responds with something to the effect of 'the irony that I'm a shape shifter and you don't know who you are' which makes no sense because those two things have nothing to do with each other. It's a tenues connection at best. Same with that line where Enzo explains how the sword Sparda works and says 'smells like some millennial bulls't to me.' Like, how? What's the correlation, here? My point is the writing is not as clever as it thinks it is and I know this because of how the the characters react in the story.
First two episodes. There are two jokes that are not funny but people react like they're the funniest things in the world. 'Ever heard of a terrorist demon, Phil?' 'Sure. My ex-wife.' 'My ex' jokes are funny, sure, but they're so commonplace at most you'd get a chuckle. The reaction that lady in the foreground had, along with the audience, was a bit much for the actual material so either she's never heard and ex-wife joke or the people making it thought it was funnier than it actually was. Second one was the jarhead joke in the briefing for the mercenaires. He calls them jarheads and everyone laughs, hard. That's it, that's the joke. It's not funny and yet they have everyone in the room laughed their asses off.
These on their own are miniscule and even forgettable things; a pair of 'yeah, whatever, who cares' moments, but add them on to the larger context and it creates this pattern of a self congratulatory mentality. You don't want that in your narrative. That's why you don't play music and have a character say 'man, this guy's got great taste in music' or another react with a 'this guy's so fkn' cool.' You let the audience decide that because you don't get to. Could be part of why are people saying there are Deadpool vibes in the show. I don't think that's the case but I can see why people think so. Laughing too hard at your own jokes is not ideal in writing and patting yourself on the shoulder like that (unironically?) requires a bit of finesse and, frankly, subtlety isn't the shows forte.
Other things I want to mention on this topic are more relevant to the characters so I'll wait till then.
Quick side note. Something I haven't seen brought is the baby being alive. They dropped a hint when plasma said he needs the subject he's copying to be alive. People say it's a reference to Vergil, which I'm sure is also the case, but I think it was also to assure people that the baby is still alive. Just to ease any other worries we also see the mother and baby during the demon invasion so we know they're back together, too.
So, yeah, I have issues with the show's big and small details. The big one we all know, but there are so many little things I find inconsistent, improbable, unrealistic and frustrating. Such as: If anyone here's ever held a grenade you know that it's a pretty hefty piece of metal. Its wight, shape, size and texture are nothing like a small crystal amulet's are not the same size so disguising one as a grenade with holograms wouldn't really fool anyone. I know, it's for the sake of the action, but the problem, again, is the quantity of these. That we could go episode by episode and pick out things like this left and right. It really is a turn your brain off situation but if the show wants its deeper themes to be taken into serious consideration it can't be a turn off your brain kind of show. Then again, maybe that's exactly what it wants. Turn your brain off. Believe everything you're told without question. Ok, maybe that's a bit dismissive, but I stand by the need to have a serious narrative if you want it to be taken seriously. Sure, you can have both, people have pulled dumb with deep themes before, but the show did not pull that off.
I'm sure most of you know by now but Makai is a Japanese word for the realm if demons. A little googling told me, more specifically, that it has its origins in Buddhism. It's the name of hell in a lot of games. Certainly the ones made in Japan and a word used a lot by Capcom. Plenty of games have that name in the title, too. I'm not fluent in Japanese but I speak enough and have played enough games to the point where this just sounds silly, especially when you call them Makaians. It's still a word for demon realm. Imagine that we changed it from the Japanese word to Spanish. Go watch that scene again and replace Makai with Infierno. 'You call it 'Hell' but it's real name is El Infierno, vato.' It'd really the same word, ya'll.
Let's be real, as an audience we like crap. Dumb movies with bad writing and inconsistent continuity can be someone's or anyone's favorite. There is a charm to dumb. We forgive a degree of things for the sake of enjoyment. The issue here is that whatever charm we get from this is not sufficient to compensate for all the lacking elements. There is more bad dumb than good dumb and there is more of the negative elements than the positive. One big issue is that moments of gravity don't last and the ones that do aren't enough to balance out the experience. With the themes of show being so heavy handed and so obvious they never achieve the gravitas it hopes for. Who still screams 'God bless America!' as an evil scream? The other one, as I said, is the sheer number of them and how obvious they are, like how the cars in the freeway chase are empty, or how no one tried killing the rabbit in Vatican city. Yeah, you could pick apart any story but other make the suspension of disbelief smoother. If the incongruenceis are this obvious or when you have so many the emersion suffers and the pay off just wasn't worth it.
I am, actually, ok with the show being so different to the games. I've said it before that the game's cannon is only concrete as long as it benefits whatever the game needs. DMC5 retconned so much if you'd been in a coma since DMC4 released and woke up yesterday you'd want if all the inconsistencies and alterations were real or if it was brain damage. I'm used it, basically. I had not issues making the jump as others seem to have. I do, however, dislike the changes to the more fundamental parts of the lore. If we're going for keeping the spirit of the games, this wasn't it.
Bottom line, I didn't like the story, the narrative or the world. I think there's more bad than good. It's self congratulatory, lacks logic (maybe a case of style over substance), clearly full of anti America and anti Christian themes, and I don't like the changes made to the lore, not because it's different but because they are not in the spirit of the games, and, yeah, you can change a lot of things while maintaining said spirit. Changing something as fundamental as demons being supernatural entities to 'just humans from another dimension and not evil at all but a metaphor for brown people' is most definitely not in the spirit of the games because DMC has its roots in horror, not sci-fi or sociopolitical commentary. Any good faith the show might've garnered gets buried under that. I know this is an interpretation but that only goes so far.
So, the characters. This is always a thing, isn't it? No matter what it's always a huge point of contention in this franchise. We can never seem to find civility with this.
Let's start with the lead, Dante. And, yes, I did, very specifically, phrase it like that and you all know why. This is something I didn't notice the first time I saw the show but people pointed out here and a few times and in a few places, that he is, in actuality, not as central to the narrative as Lady or the labbit. That, at best, he's the macguffin. There really is a very good case to say that Dante isn't the lead in his own show and, for the sake of argument, let's say it's true, that Dante is now second fiddle in his own show. So... pretty much the same as before? I'm sorry to say but this is already a thing. It's nothing new. I've said this multiple times that Dante hasn't been the main character in his own series/franchise for a long time now. Since 4 he's been second fiddle to Nero. Even the 5 manga is about V. I'm not ignoring DmC but that's like putting the Resident Evil continuity with its films. Just not the same thing. My point is, this is already a thing. Disappointing, absolutely, but not new.
I'll come back to this but for now. I'd address some other stuff first.
First, the more superficial parts:
I'm not a fan of his appearance. I don't have anything against it but I just don't find it very stylish. It's sorta just generic Dante. Red coat, white hair, two guns and a sword but the best Dante designs are not just the list of attributes, they have a personality. I know they're going for a mix of all the previous designs but this is not memorable to me. In concept it's not bad but it also has nothing interesting or stylish about it. I am just not vibing with it. I know I sound like a broken record here but I still only like the designs Dante's had in the PS2 era.
Same goes for his DT. First off, why'd they give him the head of a bat? With that short hair/fuzz, that nose, and the ears he looks like a dude with the head of a bat but not the body of an anthropomorphic one. They have the rights so they could've gone with any design from DMC, even 2's, which is pretty badass. The CG part doesn't bother me but the overall look is not coming together. The wings are fine, the extremities aren't in focus often so they can be ignored, and the silhouette works, but the torso is so red and lacks anything to contrast with.
They also cartoonized the design so there are times his face looks toonish rather than anime-ish. Because of that, even if it's based on 4 & 5's design it didn't translate well. Maybe it'd worked better at night. Not sure why he only turned DT once throughout the show show when he struggled more than once, but I guess that'd be deus ex machina.
One thing that's always bothered me. It's a silly thing but, in 4, 5 and here, his DT form uses the wings as his coat, so if he took it off, would he have no wings?
While on the topic, why call it devil trigger? Having in game mechanics in the adaptation is so goofy. I was half waiting for someone to say 'you need to pull your devil trigger, Dante.' Any other controller related moves we wanna add to the repertoire? 'Oh, man, if only I could block this guy's attacks!' 'Insignificant human. You've never learned to switch your styles! You will never defeat me for you know not how to unlock the Royalguard!' 'Royalguard!?' (sound effect) 'Holly crap, I can block now! All I had to do was press down on the D-Pad!'
Another thing, subjective but I stand by it, there is a whole discussion where Dante mentions how, in DT, he felt the anger and hate that his DT fed off of (So are demons evil or not!? Make up your FU--) and that he would try to overcome that instinct. When making DMC1 some of the staff asked Kamiya about what Dante felt when he became a demon; if it was painful or something to that effect. Kamiya told them no, that Dante was exited to transform, eager. It was like a shot of adrenaline to the system. Nero has always been the one worried about what turning into a demon would do to him. Not so with Dante. I like that they made a point of changing his psychology, which is something they stopped doing in 4 and 5, but I prefer the idea that it didn't make him angry or 'evil' but, rather, it made him more of everything, almost like how a werewolf is faster, stronger, sees, smells and hears better. Dante's DT simply enhances him. Gives him other powers and maybe makes him more feral but doesn't change his nature. Here, well, they went for the obvious. In this one, it is very much everything else like a a werewolf where he actually loses his humanity.
PS; not a fan of this Rebellion, either.
As for the things related to his actual character, well, right there's the detail (that's the Mexican version of that expression. I think the English goes something to the effect of there's the rub(?)). This Dante is rather a generic Dante. We now have multiple interpretations of his, varying in tone, attitude and priorities. DMC1, 2, 3 and DmC all have different interpretations. The'07 anime, the LNs. These all have similar traits and history but none are the same character. I'd even argue that the only ones who are the same are 4 & 5. That being said, I don't find this Dante interesting. He is the things that on a list would qualify him as Dante but he has nothing I'd call memorable. He has the look, wears the clothes, shares the backstory and has the attitude, but that's as deep as it goes. It's all superficial and smart mouth bad asses are not rare. Dante was.In fact, this character isn't memorable to me and I got kind of annoyed with some of their decisions.
Right off the bat they start with pop culture references and that's a no. It's a huge no. It's a HELL no! Those are, honestly, cheap and will date the work and have been, up to this point, completely foreign to DMC. Not only that, they weren't very good to begging with. In a similar vein there's the scene where he tries to have conversations Cavelier and the interaction is very reminiscent of some of the Tom Holland Spiderman interaction. They have a 'so, like, hey...' vibe to their dialogue. It works in certain scenarios but Dante never used this specific kind of humor because it wasn't fitting, even when he was young.
Then you have the aloofness. The whole 'aren't you that guy on tv selling refrigerators?' kind of humor. The issue isn't that he made the comment. The issue is that I don't know if he was being serious. If he was being sassy, that's one thing, but if he's being dumb it lays out Dante as, well, dumb. More than that, it seems to be the only mode he has. Dante, at his best, isn't the mocking, nonchalant, disinterested, wiseass most people think he is; it's when he shows that there is more to him than just being a cartoon. Not much of that here. One or two moments of sincerity, sure, but they don't sustain it. If it's not a small moment then it's because they refuse to hold on to that sincerity. Whenever he tries to be it gets broken by something that breaks the tone. This doesn't happen to Lady, either. Lady's moments are allowed to keep their gravity. This is why people think he's got less screen time than Lady, even though he doesn't (I googled it), because he his scenes of dramatic importance is often undermined. Yeah, he's got fight scenes and cool moments and quips and jokes up the A, but his serious scenes are miniscule compared to Lady and rabbit's. Of the 3, he's the only lead who doesn't have a real dramatic sequence. Moments, sure, but nothing that's lasting.
For Dante, the writing is on a children's cartoon level. It's not as funny as it thinks it is, it's more impressed with itself than I was (and it definitely shouldn't have said so out loud), and the rest of the material is... it needs work. Don't know how else to say it.
This is something I've advocated for a long time, and that I it's always going to be an issue: The problem with Dante is that no one seems to know what to do with him. It's why he plays second fiddle in his own franchise after 3, and that is because all of this can be rooted back to 3. Dante would show off on his enemies, use them as props to postulate and make himself look unbeatable. What people overlook is that he wasn't unbeatable. He got his own ass handed to him more than once, or twice. The clips of him slapping every minor thing around was a nice novelty but it should've stayed that, a novelty. The people handling him did him a disservice at making him so nonchalantly unbeatable beyond 3. Dante has become lost in people trying to interpret him right and in a way that will be acceptable to the audience who, in some cases, insist on deificating him (I think that's a word what isn't supposed to be conjugated like that but, so be it).
Nobody wants to say it but after 3 he's become too idealized. Because he has no flaws as an action character they've dialed up his personal ones and have become flanderized to the point of cartoonish and basically deteriorated into something silly, and not just here but in the general perspective everyone has of him. DMC1 or 3's Dante's wouldn't do a Michael Jackson dance. Even DMC3 Dante wouldn't be doing Shakespeare in the Park with Arkham. This is what happens when your hero has become so powerful nothing challenges him anymore. You have to do other things to keep him from being perfect and the character suffers. Saitama started as such but that's the theme of his Manga is that, but Dante did not start out as unbeatable and indestructible. Making him so left the people making him in canundrum. How do you write Dante now? We're stuck with the 'he's always winning to the point of never even taking anything seriously but he's a deadbeat bum' formula.
In fiction, there is a priciple that says the longer something lasts the more likely that it will become a parody of itself. The issue is that this happened to DMC in record time. Well, not exactly time. DMC is a very long running series, but unlike RE or other long lasting franchises it doesn't have the large number of games and material that they do. There are manga and comics and a few LNs but even with all the materials it's had, it pales to what other franchises of its age have been given. Compair what other franchises have gotten in 25 years DMC would seem like an unsuccesful franchise with how little they invest in it.The only time people think it's ok to challange him is against Vergil, which is basically against himself. The show has made him more vulnerable but not in a balanced or logical way which leads to my next point.
See, he's kind of a bitch now. All the critiques that Dante's power levels are all over the place and only work when the plot needs them to are valid. One minute he's got spider sense and can move at the speed of sound, the next, he doesn't. If your character is only going to teleport all over the place when it's convenient but then not, then don't have him teleport at all; running and seeing him dodge the bullets in human speed can be just as bad ass.
He also spends a good percentage of the show being captured. Show even ends that way. He might be able to take out legions left and right but then, when the plot needs it to happen, he gets taken out is such unimpressive ways. I'll bet you that purse didn't even have a phone but it sure looked like it hurt, a purse with nothing but baby toys and make up. Heals from bullets but that lose change in a woman's bag is his kryptonite.
I was actually hopeful of the show when I saw him not just winning, that there was a possibility of him losing, struggling, and having to earn a win. Instead they took it way too far and had Mary beat him in some pretty condecending wasy. You want to see someone get captured by being electrocuted? Watch Blade. Blade was overpowered, Dante went down like a bitch. The difference? It wasn't funny when Blade went down. When Dante went down, it was cartoonish, even had his skeleton glow and him doing silly faces and poses.
And the show goes back and forth with this. In one scene 'he's so cool.' In another, they literally light his butt on fire. I know it's hard to get the plot going if he's too bad ass but I'd rather they tone those down than revert it when it becomes inconvinient.
Under this same point, another part that bugs me was how the mercenaries saw a picture of Dante and started laughing at his apearence. First of all, the fck are you all laughing at? Seen yourselves in the mirror lately, you dorks. You all look goofy as hell. Second, this is that whole 'he'd get laughed out of any bar outside of Tokyo' mentality again. My counter argument for this attitude is always 'would you say or write the same thing about Wolverine?' Yeah, fictional charactes get to wear extravagant outfits. If you think so little of this why take the project? Even movie Wolverine's outfit is outlandish and wouldn't look right in the real world. Would you have a scene of people laughing at him, too? Or, for a closer comparison, how about Blade? Creating a world where someone like Dante does walk the streets means we, as the audience and players, accept this as part of that world. Pointing it out doesn't put you above it. Deconstructing things like this yanks one from that emersion and it's not something those working on the project should be going out of their way to do anymore than someone working on a Wolverine comic would be tolerated for doing.
I honestly wonder if they thought that they could get away with it if they'd gone further with this treatment.
This Dante is also shallow. Not as in superficial but, rather, lacking real dept. He has the same back story and loves his mom and brother, and we do see that, but, in general, he is all but one note. That's not even compared to Mary and Rabbit. He comes off as DMC3 abridged (not in modern terms, but in classic, as an abbreviated version of the literature). He's got the backstory but he, himself, shows no personality beyond what's affectionately come to be known as wacky woohoo pizza man. I get why this is. I've said it before: the people making these projects don't know how to handle Dante anymore. Be it because they feel they have nowhere to go with him or because they know the fans wouldn't tolerate any diversion from what they feel is the right way fo him to be. I sympathyce but it doesn't mean I like what they did. There is much more to Dante than the people making these things seem to either know or remember. Truth be told, even if this wasn't DMC, if this was another character and show, altogether, I wouldn't find him memorable or interesting.
I don't know if anyone here goes this far back but people love DMC4, now. People don't hate the reboot, now. When each of these came out the games garnered a lot of controversy, especially DmC. For the record, DMC3 had some, too, but nothing to the scale DmC did. Anyway, DMC can't seem to get away from controversy. People get very aggressive online. You don't even have to look far to find someone being psychothic about somehting online.
My point is this is nothing new. The franchise has had as many ups and downs as there are entrees in it. I've already said so but I think the problem might be rooted with Dante. To interpret him one way or another will, and has, caused issues and that's why the problem of people not knowing what to do with him exists. The possibility of him losing is nonexistent. Yeah, Dante's always been powerful, from the beginning, but he wasn't infaulable, indestructible, omnipotent or omniscient. He bled and struggled and took beating. Not no more (pardon the double negative). Now he only struggles with Vergil.
After 3, I don't remember who, it's been a few decades now, one developers for 4 said that he'd gotten too powerful by the end of that game and they didn't know how they would start a new game where he had all the moves from 3 but was still accessible to new players so they came up with Nero. My response to that has always been to just do what every video game in history has done and just start him with nothing. Let people complain about cannon, they're going to anyway. We've idealized Dante to the point that nothing can be done with him except show him winning and how do you write such a character in a compelling way?
Coming back to a previous note, I don't like the gore here. I mention it here because I wanted to talk about Dante in relation to it. I've seen pretty brutal things on film done in an eloquent way. They don't make the film cheap and, instead, give it gravity, when done right. Good war movies do this well. Animation is harder. In animation, gore is just about always something that comes off rather grindhouse/B horror. It's not elegant, which is a weird thing to say about brutal scenes, but a film CAN be bloody and still be elegant with good execution. Gory movies are rarely so. I say this specifically in relation to Dante.
The best example I can remember was someone saying that you never show Superman on the toilet, you never show him in any low or degrading position. These things are human, sure, but the perspective people have is highly affected by what we see and to show such private moments is demeaning. I have the same feelings about showing Dante's face half missing for so long and with such brutality (and by a microscopic explosive. Those blow up arteries, not heads), or showing his innards when blasted with a shotgun. The idea itself is not the issue. The handling of it, though, is just gruesome for the sake of shock value. They turned his face to pulp and that I find debasing. In this case I think less would've been more or maybe take it on a different direction. Showing parts of Dante's skull could've looked bad ass, if they'd done it like a metal cover, but that's not what they did and the fact that they thought this was ok to do to Dante is part of my whole they've turned him in to a little bitch argument. They certainly wouldn't do it to Lady. They'd let her keep that dignity.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who got into this series because of Dante himself. Be it the 1st, the 3rd, the 5th game or even DmC, if it wasn't Dante that brought us here then he was certainly a factor. Trying to be as honest with myself as I can, if I were comming in blind, I don't think I'd be interested in this Dante. I wouldn't follow the series because of this version of him.
It seems people have gotten in the habit of calling this Lady Mary. I... can see why and I think I might just do the same, if just to make the distiocntion and not confuse everyone.
I have no thoughts on the design. She's recognizable as Lady, the outfit is ok, nothing memorable or terrible, though I do wish they'd kept her scar. It's fine, it's there, she looks enough like Julia Volkova to qualify.
So, the swearing. Honestly? Swearing itself isn't an issue. Nero and, especially, Niko have their stacks of adult language so that in it of it self isn't the problem. The PROBLEM is that she beats everyone by sheer volume of content. The problem is that she sounds like someone who just saw their first Tarantino movie and wants to sound like Jules. It's childish. Why so, you may ask? Why is this childish but not this thing or that over there? Well, again, sheer volume is one, but listen to her; take any instance of just the word f'k and listen so how much emphasis there is on said fk's. They're not fk's, they are Fk's, capital F. She even pauses a few times when saying her dirty words as so as to add emphasis. She didn't say 'bomb in its fkn' neck.' It was 'bomb in its FCKN' neck.' Go listen.
We also know it's excessive because she does it more than the rest of the cast combined, probably a few times fold (Maybe even more than the whole franchise, DmC included). It's basically only her. I say again: the mission statement claims that they want to make sophisticated takes of the source material but childish swearing is not sophisticated, it's vulgar, same as the gore.
Still, I don't want to just be dismissive and just say that as a character Mary sucks. Not only is that's not constructive, it's also very dismissive. So, rather than just saying she sucks I will explain why she... 's not my favorite rendition. The problem is, in a nutshell, is that the angry bitch heroine who's only heroic because the writer says so type was never my favorite and, not only she one, now, she is almost the dictionary definition. Angry, malicious, arrogant, even, and has a serious case of resting bitch face for 90% of her screen time. I'm sorry to break the news but having a tragic past doesn't make you agreeable. Sympathetic, maybe, but not likable.
I've seen people argue that both Lady and Mary are basically the same, that her DMC3 counterpart has the same qualities. I beg to differ. Lady (3) was always angry and combative, too, but she was also more sincere and open about her self righteous motives. She also showed a playful side when fighting, even when the game made it obvious that she was struggling, with small gestures of cockiness, not malice or arrogance, and she had more than just one facial expression and tone of voice.
Because of all this I could make an argument that Lady is the one to suffer the most from the changes to her character. In 3, nobody ever questioned Lady's sincerity, her anger or her motives. We saw how conflicted sha was about her father, how, for her, it wasn't just vengeance but responsibility, too. Mary has none of that. There is no real conflict because even her biggest strife was done away in one scene which makes it seem like it wasn't that conflicting to begging with. If she got over it in one conversation then, really, how bad could it have been? She only reverts back to it when Dante is involved for no reason. Well, maybe they watch too much anime and they thought she was thew tsundere type, not a joke, by the way. I'll phrase it like this: When it comes to Lady, I don't think anyone ever thought to themselves 'what a bitch' once the credits rolled. Sure, a bullet to the head was D move but compare that to Mary Ann who has the whole series of being a C.
The name Lady is a reference to Space Adventure: Cobra. Lady is Cobra's maid/partener, a female robot. Lady is also an actual name (and a title), so, it's a stretch but not an overly ridiculous one. The metaphor being that her father killed the girl named Mary Ann and what's left is a nameless woman and taking the name that Dante gave her shows her attachment to Dante. The name he gave her has meaning to her. The problem with the show is that this woman still has that name. She isn't a nameless person, she is Mary Ann. To continue with that metaphor, that girl didn't die.
Even if it wasn't on the same level, they needed to try to give a notable reason as to why she'd take the name and this just doesn't cut it. In the show's scenario you have the equivalent of 'You know my name is Patrick, right?' 'Nah, I like 'Dude' better. From no now your name is Dude,' which is,literally, a joke. I always thought the name Lady was a bit awkward, to be honest, but it's there and it's got a narrative foundation. This just doesn't fit for Mary, on any level, but, honestly, even if it did, there is nothing lady-like about this woman. I mean that on every possible level.
You could argue that Dante is the hero by screen time (it's been timed), but the focus, the growth, the development, the narrative, all belong to Mary and the rabbit. She the hero, him the villain. Her story is explored with far more importance than Dante's. She might not be in every episode (I have to double check if Rabbit is) but she is featured prominently in all of the ones she is in. She's also the one who has the link and parallel story with the main baddy; it's their stories that align. In effect, her prominence is greater than Dante's.
If I had to use one word to define her character it'd be petulant. I cannot understand what it was about this attitude the makers thought would be endearing to the audience. This I can't back up but I get the sense that they wrote her thinking she was ideal, that the makers imagine this is what an idealized character was like. Another way to say is that she is made to be the one the audience wished they were. She's not, by the way. Sweet merciful Christmas, is she not, but I get the sense they thought making her like she is would make the audience place themselves in that power fantasy. I don't think these people know that and idealized person is not an assh**e and sticking a gun in somebody's mouth to steal their car is not the trait of a good person, I don't care what stupid crap he said so could come off as an a'hole, themselves. They even mentioned how bad ass she is in the room with all the hired guns, how they all think they're the best but, in fact, she's the toughest in the room. That was an unnecessary and pointless comment. If you're going to show it in a minute, anyway, when she takes down that demon and have the VP reiterate it then the comment is superfluous and a bit on the ass kissing side. It's that self congradulatory attitude again. Both her and the show are so smug about her.
Because of this, in the narrative, things are too erratic with her. They often lack rhyme or reason. First she hates demons but then learns to not be racist (dear lord, what a 2022 plot), she shows no animosity towards humans but then says some very hateful things about humans because, I don't know, maybe edgelord McGee here wants to sound deep(?). If your character actually says that a whole bunch of horrid things are the foundation of human nature then you hate humans, lady (as in not her name). The worst part is that there is the shadow of a good concept for her but delivered in such a horrible way. She has a decent story but her character is unlikable, childish and not lead material. In the end, when she was still being sassy but friendly, she was showing signs of what we call progression. Someone who went from point A to B, but she just can't seem to not want to be a bitch and, if I had to guess, proud of it, too.
For her part, Lady really only shines in DMC3. Everywhere else she's just a mediocre interpretation of who she was; no hint of the woman in 3. No passion, no drive. All of that are traits she only shows in 3. There, thought, she is a fantastic character. She is layered, understandable, likable and a good coutner weight to Dante. Not Mary, though. With Mary, the Ntflx character, and the show itself, it's all about Mary.
Best example I can think of is when the rabbit is telling Dante and her that he wants to meet Dante on the peer or he'll kill people and tells Mary, who seems to be the one the rabbit is talking to, not Dante, that Dante is arrogant enough to go. Arrogant how? What about this action is arrogance? He tells Mary that wants to go because he believes he can do good, that his father was good and so is he. That's not arrogance yet the show wants to say that it is and, so, they give Mary the football instead, as it were. If anything she's shown more signs of arrogance than him; she even goes out of her way to tell Dante that this is all about her, not him or his father. I suppose it's not arrogance if it's true, right?
So, how are we supposed to interpret this? Because as it stands he's "arrogant" because we can't have him being noble. That kind of possitive view is reseverved for Mary. She's the noble one, she's the one with the balls (yes, I made a pun about my comment earlier and the comment the rabbit made about her hidding those giant balls in such a thight outfit). She alters her perspective on demons so quickly it's downright abrupt but, hey, she's the lead and the show needs to makes her look good. Only here, though. Not in the scene she and her team slaughter what we now know are innocent civilians, just MuslimMexicanbrownimmigrantsilligals demons looking for a better life. She's a murderer by the show's standards, but let's not get hangned up on that. She certainly doesn't.
Side note. You might think I'm stretching the Mexican thing a bit. They're clearly Muslim/Middle Eastern allusions but the whole wall thing is the only real thing that says Mexico and, at first, I thought the same thing. That I might be projecting. Then I saw Captain Laserhawk which features Raymond from Raymond Legends who, in the show, is an immigrant from another dimension who changed his name to fit in his new home, the US of A. At the end, he took back his real name. Wanna know what it was?: ¡Ramon!
Something American comics and other similar narratives insist on doing is elevating one character by kicking down another. I've seen done to Venom, to Dart Vader and a few others. Makers have their new character and in a cheap way to make them come off as total bad asses they have them beat the crap out of an established character who is known to be dangerious or incredibly powerful. This, in effect, is what happened here, too. Nobody can beat Dante, we've established this. Well, exept for Mary. How? She's just that good. I'm sure when the moment comes, thought, it's going to Dante, not Mary, who beats Vergil and/or Mundus, right? They wouldn't do 'em both dirty like that, would they? Because some people can only elevate a character by kicking the another down, not by their own merits.
I saw someone online make an argument that at the end of 3 Lady mentioned that there were humans who were as bad as demons and this fact is what made the two the same. That is almost the definition of flanderization. You take a comment or a small detail from the character and rebuild their entire personality around it. All Lady said was that there were humans as bad as demons which is not even close to Mary who called humans pure, psychotic ruthlessness and very much phrased it as though that were the brand the species was known for. You know, unlike demons. Certainly was the implication.
In summation, Mary is the worst lead I've seen in ages. I honestly didn't want to come into this just venting, but the negative things I had to say were so numerous it just came out like that. Mary and Lady are not the same in any regard. Mary's general tone, her misanthropic opinions that kinda just appear, her presence. Nothing about this character says Lady, except her appearance.
Enzo is fkn' ugly. He's got so much neck you'd think he didn't have one and his face is almost as big as his head. He has the height of a dwarf so he not even half as tall as anyone else on the show (didn't Mary say something about demons having weird proportions?), and he's generally kinda gross looking. Why would they do that to him? In both the DMC and Bayonetta renditions he looked like a character in a game or manga, sure, but Enzo has always looked like a normal person. Not this one. His attitude goes back and forth but his appearance was normal. This look is so exaggerated it almost breaks the uncanny valley, which is hard to do in animation.
I like the idea of him being a family man. A douche in public but a good dad at home. It made him layered. Honestly, though, he's a pretty ok character, certainly better than his design. I like him in concept more than in execution mostly because I think they screwed up the delivery. He gets sincere when it comes to Dante's past or his well being but he's such bulls**ter that it comes off as an act for most of those episodes. But then he goes and does one of the most heroic things in the show so it wasn't but, really, you wouldn't believe it unless you say it. Anderson has the same issue. He looks and sounds like comic relief at first so when the more sincere parts pop in they don't feel the part. It takes time to set in.
Unfortunately, even though Enzo had the potential to be one of the better parts of the show, there are just too many asterisks involved with that statement to really work out. He made me laugh a few times so I can't be too mad about it.
The rabbit.
The rabbit looks pretty good, actually, but, even in a franchise that has the Jester, when you see him here he doesn't feel like something that belongs in DMC. When you put him in the line up with the other DMC bosses he stands out. One of these is not like the others kind of sticks out. That wasn't an issue in the manga but there he was portrayed as elegant and gentlemanly. That fit his look and in the anime he's neither of those. There, he kicks ass, makes over dramatic speeches and is basically a revolutionary type. That look doesn't fit the theme of the character. The look fits more the way he's presented in the manga. There, there is an Alice and there is a Mad Hatter so there is reason to it. Not here. The wonderland motif is not present enough to justify it.
The only thing I find odd about Rabbi's design is the way he can open his mouth and make those exaggerated expressions when it's just a mask. The proportions are not right, either. His mouth is big enough that we'd be able to see the man beneath it and his eyes don't align with the mask's for him to see out of. It also doesn't look like anything special or biological or mechanical when he takes it off to explain any of this. It's cloth.
They really expanded the role of the rabbit here. He was just a possessed toy in the manga, not he seems to be the favorite. He is the dramatic one of the lot, not to mention the poster boy for the America hate campaign, which is very a central theme here. In an interview with Basch and lead actress, Scout Taylor-Compton, showrunner Shankar was called the white rabbit by the other two in the panel. His response was 'I'm absolutely the white rabbit.' So, that whole self insert fanfic thing people were insinuating really has a basis. Not sure he thought this out all the way through.
Truth be told, he was ok for the most part of the show until the parts he wasn't.
My big issue with this character is the hypocrisy. Again, it all makes no sense. 'I torture my people because America would do worse!' What's the argument here? So, you needed to beat them to it? What did that prevent? Why experiment on them at all? Why torture and keep the other in a state of opression and in crap conditions? I don't want to hear that 'America was going to do it' crap. Yeah, it's blatant commentary on some of the worst situations immigrants have to go through but you can't say make the argument that 'America forced my hand' when you had the option to not do it but did it anyway because, really, what do you have to show for it? That contraption on your chest? When did you complete that? Because you're still not helping your demons. The whole point of this enterprise was to get them away from oppression and your solution is to do it to them worse because la migra was doing it (or were)? Being cruel and saying that it's because America is cruel means that you are not better and your excuses don't hold up.
Then there's the big plan. Merge the worlds, you say. And how exactly would that work? Would the human world turn toxic? Would all the big, the feral and the evil demons that were eating your people come in, too? How would it all even out in a few generations? The conditions for survival wouldn't change, you're just expanding the world and the population. Let's say that the US government are able to fend and beat the oppressing demon side. Isn't your argument that America would oppress the demons/makaians leaving them no better than before if not worse? Let's say the US forces can't. If that's your mentality then you just want to summit humans to the same treatment as the demons. If I have to suffer you all have to suffer, as well? 'I'm in pain and, therefore, all of you have to be in pain, too.' This is why I think the self insert was not well thought out.
Be all that as it may, in terms of dramatics, personality and presence, rabbit is one of the best characters here and I suspect that it's also because of the whole self insert. On top of being very theatrical in his presentation he can also fight well for no reason we know of. Never shown why and, considering they turned him into rabbit stew at the end I don't think we ever will.
He gets the most love from the narrative and is presented as the richest part of it, too. He is given the guise of an activist and revolutionary with power enough to back it. He's also the one most romanticized with his tragic backstory and he is the least humbled out of all the characters. They even give him a scene where he gets one up on Vergil with, again, illogical implications. 'I know who you are! HAHAHAHAHA!' 'No! I've been outmaneuvered!' Dude, who fkn' cares that he knows who you are? It affects nothing except for the show trying to make the rabbit look good.
It's not just the fighting he was suddenly good at. We saw that he build a toy helicopter out recyclables showing he had an aptitude for technology, but that's it. From that he leaps to building portals from scraps in a dimension with nothing to help him develop such a gift. No books, not tech, no parts. He just, suddenly, can. The narrative needed to take the time to show us he was becoming mechanically savvy, not just have one scene as a child, another as an adult and nothing in between. 'They have an understanding of quantum theory that eclipses our own!' How? They live in huts and are dying. Scientifically advanced people should have scientifically advanced lives. The show is full of small oversteps like these but this one for the rabbit I find pretty egregious because there is no build up, despite the fact that they gave him an entire episode of back story.
In summation, I really think the rabbit ended up being the best character but that's because he was the favorite. I think he got a lot of good material because he's the self insert character. I mean, he did go from a minor character to main baddy. It's honestly his and Mary's show, featuring Dante from Decil May Cry Series. Because I find his arguments terribly flawed, downright BS, even. I think his actions are there more for shock value than a necessity to make him evil (even though we're supposed to find him tragic) than for any real logical reason. If this isn't true, and we're following the metaphors, then rabbit is a metaphor for a terrorist who's no better than the warlords and the America he hates because he's done things just as bad to his people than they have but he tells himself he's not as bad as them because he actually cares.
Then, there's Batman.
Guy wears blue suit with red tie with white stripes. I mean, design wise, Baines is kinda really on the nose. They basically robed him in the American flag. There is telling a story with the design and then there's just being blatant. Oddly enough, he also happens to be the most bland looking character in the whole show. Suit, shades and tie. That's it. I don't really like it. Not because he's bad but if he wasn't the VP and had the voice of the night itself he'd be a background character. That's not to say I hate it, but bland isn't a compliment, either. It's just that he's a dude in a suit with glasses. What am I supposed to say or think about that?
Baines is just stock bad guy. If he wasn't voiced by the Batman himself he'd have nothing of note. We get one or two scenes that demonstrate a generic idea of a character but they don't give us more of who he is or why. Ok, so he hates demons because God said so, fair enough, but who is he? How did he get into power? What does he want? He gives the orders for the human faction but that's it. There is a great scene in the Edward Norton Incredible Hulk movie that was erased where the general is looking at footage of the Hulk when a soldier comes is. He asks what she thinks and she says it scares her. He tells her about the great steps in human history. The discovery of fire, the nuclear bomb. Then he says that the Hulk is that next step. That's why she's scared and that's why he is reaching out for it. That tells us so much about the man. Baines has nothing like that. He just prays a lot. In fact, I had to google his name repeatedly because I forgot what it was multiple times.
I already talked about the whole Christian thing but Baines basically being the personification of Christian = Evil (capital E) really puts a damp on my opinion of him. I think I'd like him more if he wasn't christian. Again, I have nothing to back this up, but impression that I get from this, the implication, is that Baine represents all christians in this universe. Not there, here, where we are.
His relationship to Mary (I wonder if he likes her because of the name, too. He might think it's providence) is not well established in the show I think the ideas is that he's a father figure and she has blind faith in him but we don't see why. We see why she shouldn't but they really needed to establish that relationship more. My guess is that this will play out in a similar way to DMC3 with Arkham and Lady.
He's fundamentally a (or potentially) good character but never goes beyond just 'I'm an American Christin, which makes me evil.' The same caricature that every spoiled American kid who went to college here has of the evils here but with a cooler voice. He is just too one note. If he had even half as much activity as the rabbit he might've faired better... or worse, depending on how they'd treat him.
So, everyone else... I mean, how much can you really say?
The cannon fodder of a team Mary has are wasted. Why bother making them so unique looking when they are nothing? The fact that they all die in a matter of minutes makes the way they're standing above Dante when Mary tasers him looking smug all the more undeserving. The obvious thing to do was to send in the first batch of mercenaries in, have Dante kick their asses, then have the Darkcom (gee, I wonder if they're evil ) team move in. This way Dante has a tougher fight and we get to see them in action. Seemed like the obvious way to go but, as I keep saying, this show just doesn't do things logically. Also, I found Anderson annoying.
There are some weird design choices with the disposable characters. There is that guy in the diner with all the missing teeth, the president who looks and sounds like a stereotype of a gay guy wearing stereotypical Texan (he sounds like Bruce from Family Guy. Surprised it wasn't the same actor), the whole of the Darkcom squad who'd all look way out place in the games, looking like they belong in a sci-fi (I guess this show does qualify, now), the BBC news caster in ep. 1, Enzo. Most people look normal but, then, there a few that just look silly and overly cartoonish.
Then there's the demons/makaians (who, by the way, call themselves demons on more than one occasion) who are very much dressed in middle eastern style. There are even kids with with beards and no mustaches, which is a very common Wahabi or Salafi style (had to google that). Again, subtle is not the name of this game. And why do Agny and Rudra have the heads of Nio statues but Scottish accents?
It all seems like wasted potential. Maybe it'll make a turn in season 2, since obviously they made them together, but I can't imagine them making a real change to their style.
I am going to make a prediction about Vergil. The way they showed him as a child, that impatient, jelouse/envious behaviour, the whole 'do you promi--' 'Yeah, whatever, I promise! Just give it to me, give me, give me, now!!' attitude of his was a prelude to his adult version. Basically, he was always more selfish or more of an a'hole or had more potential for evil than Dante and it's good that it was him that got taken. I don't know how they'll have him interact with Dante but that wholse scene gave me a bad vibe that Vergil would be written all too obviously. Considering the song choice I'm also going to predict that they'll incorporate memes to this whole thing, namely the lawn chair. Will there be others? Maybe. I wouldn't put it passed them.
Everything else:
Why did they pick the Doom font for the logo? Imagine Zelda using the Final Fantasy motif for their new animated show's logo, or, for a closer comparison, Bloodborne using DMC fonts. I already don't like the logo, that silhouette, but using that font is not appropriate. It's almost saying 'I wish I was more like you.'
I hate this age of deconstruction we're living in. Even if it has it's place it's not great when everything works on that mentality. I DO blame the MCU. This was Weedon's bread and butter but, rather than doing it how he did, in strides, it's become the MCU's general attitude and, since that's popular, everyone's gotta do it. It's why Dante uses the word Superhero so often. Sincerity will be the currency of the digital age (-M. B. Burnett) and this show is lacking in it. It, insted, opts for that overly self aware humor where they mock the content before others do. I know it's very popular and I'm sure a lot of people like it and they are welcome to do so. but it's also my right to not take or leave it and I am definitly not taking it.
I don't know why it bugs me but the references don't feel well executed. I don't know how to explain it. There is, for example, that reference to Underworld where Selene did a spin while shooting the ground to get to the lower level, or how they put a liquid on the bullets to kill the Lycans, a very 2000's references. That's fine and all but I just don't like something about it. In some ways it feels more like a rip off than a reference. In the same situation, the reference to The Returner bothers me. Movie is a personal favorite so I'd like for more people to know about it. It also had it's 20th anniversary and a 4k release to commemorate it. The staff in Studio Mir, who are Korean, probably added that one in, but it just feels like something they took and claimed as their own. It's not like everyone doesn't use references but the execution here just feels different. A reference is supposed to be an homage and maybe I'm just misreading it but I don't get the sense of recognition. Other poses are from their library so those didn't bother me, but this one did.
The music itself is fine. I used to listen to every song and/or artist when I was a wee lad. Honestly, though, this isn't the best choice of soundtrack for this series and it's a matter of how it's aged. See, I also used to see the music videos with game footage that used either these very tracks or music just like it. After the 10th video, well, it's was already cheese but the repetition makes it worse. That's the thing with the music, it's part of why it all feel like fanfiction, it's the tracks someone would pick for their fan video, it's the tracks people have picked for their combo vids. The genre for DMC isn't 2000's music. Why limit it to that? Each game has a different type of rock, sure, but none of them would qualify under the '2000's Greatest Hits' playlist. I don't think the period should've mattered as much as how well the music'd fit the franchise.
The voice acting was good. Damn good, in fact. That is the one thing I have no complaints about. A lot of people had a hard time separating Nero from JYB, or, simply separating Dante from Reuben Langdon. I had no such issue. JYB is not the 2nd, or even the 3rd, actor to play Dante. He's been played by somewhere around 6 (?) different actors accross just 2 languages. Now, he's got a lot more, and I happen to like the Mexican/LatAm cast just as much, if not more, than the official English one. Anyway, I still prefer Coombs.
The animation was fine. Just fine. People say here and there that it was amazing but it really wasn't. It was great here but then it was terrible over there and just fine everywhere else. Not so bad that you'd call it crap but not good enough to call it amazing. You look at that opening scene and it's well made. Cinematography could've been better but it was well animated; then you look at the CG and it's pretty bad. It all goes up and down but it evens out to just fine. It works and it's not boring.
Honestly, I feel a bit bad for the director. We've been here before. Sometimes it feels like this is where we live. When someone makes the thing in DMC that the audience didn't like, it doesn't matter what they say, how they say it or when, people will turn it around into something to hold against them. Not gonna lie, I've done it during DmC. Once the fandom has their mind set there is not turning it around. I don't like this guy's work. I don't like his narratives, his priorities on camera, nor his style of animation and I don't always agree with the things he says. He's worked on movies I loved but I don't associate them with him. THESE projects, I certainly do. Be that as it may, no one deserves the animosity he's getting. He's not be above criticism, nor is his work, but that doesn't justify the things I've seen and read directed at him. For the record, most everyone I've seen have not said anything that bad, but the ones who did have said some pretty awful sh`t and, if it goes like it did with DmC, it'll last a long time.
Bottom line, and, clearly, I did not like the show. I just wasn't a fan. As in, at all.
I wasn't happy or impressed with it. The show has a bit to offer but, when you tally everything out, it only got a passing grade from me, which is something around a 6/10. Not unwatchable but, for me, it was no bueno. Even when seen not as DMC product, as its own entity, it was not to my liking. The example I always give with any new DMC thing is whether or not I'd be a fan if I had started with this thing here and, no, if I had started DMC with this anime, I wouldn't be a fan.
Still, for all my complaining, though, the show did very well. We know this because game sales spiked after it aired and it was near the top of Netflix's views. It spiked enough to be noticiable and people are playing the games. I don't know what it is about they show they liked but if they do then they do and it's everyone's right to enjoy what they enjoy. I won't bust people's bllz for it. I won't pretend that I like it but I won't give anyone grief for it either. I went through that with DmC already and I rather not revert to that kind of person.
Speaking of, this fanbase isn't exactly stellar right now, and not just with the director but with people who threaten other fans, the people making it and everyone else involved, like JYB. We already had that BS debacle with Rueben not that long ago, turning a nontroversy into a cancellation. The term 'Fake Fan' has come up in a lot of places and it's a detrimental, meaningless, term. Who are any of these people to say who a fan is? When do the list of demands end? You like the games? That's not good enough; you have to S every mission, which is still not good enough because you can't JC for 3 days, and that's not enough, either, because you don't know all of the lore, which is still not good enough because (ad infinitum).
I've also heard that the Zelda and Sonic fanbases have it worse. If so, then Damn. I am sorry for anyone trying to just like these things and wanting to say so.
This happens almost every time something DMC releases. Don't know what that means for us but it sure as hell isn't good for the franchise to have people thinking they have the right to make such demands. Unless these individuals are willing to buy all a few hundred copies they shouldn't scare the potential market away.
I'm going to be honest, while watching the show for the first time I was excusing a lot of it. I really tried to like it. At the end I just couldn't. By the end, though, I was done. Watching it a second time I just couldn't. I'm all but burned out on this, which is a record for me. Even the 07 anime didn't get me this fast. Then again, I had I wasn't as burned out, in general, back then. If there is a DVD or BluRay this might be the first DMC thing I don't buy, even out of obligation.
I play DMC to get a certain experience and I did not get it from this. Not even a little bit. Let's put aside the horror elements, the gothic scenes and themes, the RE inspired tone for a moment. For all the cheese in switzerland and all the cheese in DMC there is a sincerity to the ideas in the games. There's an almost naive love for the human ideal. Here, that's actually replaced with a heavy handed contempt for humanity, misanthropy, even, that you only get from angsty adolescents. Those things I just mentioned, they should've at least tried to have something like it in a DMC anime, but one one wants to even try and they certaily didn't with this one. What I want from DMC I didn't find here.
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