Devil May Cry proves that an anime adaptation is only as good as its characters. Preserving the spirit and personality of the characters when translating source material into a different medium is key to making a great adaptation. This is most important when adapting the protagonist.
Even if the animation is amazing, if you change the protagonist’s personality, the audience will feel like they are visiting a completely different story. Luckily for the fans of the Devil May Cry franchise, I can say that Netflix has adapted Dante perfectly.
Every instance I got to see of Dante from the show’s trailer, opening, songs, and clips has shown me how perfect Dante is in the new Netflix series, and once you get through this article, you’ll agree with me.
Devil May Cry is nothing if you don’t get Dante right
As I mentioned above, adapting a series is meaningless if you do not get the protagonist right. I’ve seen adaptations where the protagonists feel completely different from their manga counterparts, and it annoys me even to this day.
The 2007 adaptation of Devil May Cry by Madhouse is a great example of this. Is the studio amazing at what it does? Yes. But did it get Dante right? No.
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I’m sure all of you remember seeing Dante act like a depressed emo in the 2007 anime. He lacked any resemblance to his video game counterpart. While his outfit was on-point, he lacked his nonchalant charm and cockiness.
A few fans tried to defend this decision by saying that the anime tried to make Dante a multi-layered character by making him depressed, and to that I say, he’s Dante! That’s his character. He’s the guy who blames the rain for his tears (hello DMC 3 fans).
This Dante wasn’t sassy and didn’t deliver any one-liners throughout the anime, and just to be clear, making him say JACKPOT whenever he kills a demon doesn’t count (and it’s just cringy). Overall, the 2007 Dante wasn’t “Dante” enough.
When Netflix announced its new Devil May Cry series, I was worried about how Dante would be portrayed in the series, but after seeing Dante in all the promotional materials, I can confidently say that watching Dante is like eating a refreshing Strawberry Sundae.
Netflix’s new Devil May Cry understands Dante perfectly
Netflix has perfectly understood the essence of Dante, and the most recent sneak peek titled “Brothers” is proof of this. While I was pissed at Netflix for revealing an important twist involving Vergil in this clip, I was also happy at how Dante looked, acted and sounded.
At first glance, the sneak peek may look pretty normal. Dante goes to a cafe, gets his strawberry sundae, dodges an attack, and fights a demon. Pretty straightforward, right? That is what I thought as well when I first watched the clip.
But upon closer inspection, I realized that the devil (see what I did there?) is in the details.
When Dante is saving the civilians from harm, Dante acts differently towards each civilian. For instance, while Dante grabs a man and yeets him towards the bar, he sweeps the waitress off her feet to rescue her.
Along with this, when the waitress gives Dante her phone number on a tissue, Dante shrugs it off and uses the tissue to clean himself, which is so in line with his personality.
Him freezing up when he sees his dead brother walking in front of him and gets back to his cocky attitude as soon as he realizes that the person in front of him was fake, these are the tiny details that make Netflix’s Dante special.
And believe me, I can go on and on about how he is sassy and funny and how Netflix included several callbacks to the games, but I think you get the idea.
Watching all these clips of Dante from the new Devil May Cry series has assured me that Netflix and Adi Shankar won’t assassinate Dante’s character by making him do something he canonically wouldn’t. This is just another reason to watch the show as soon as it comes out.
Devil May Cry will be available to stream on Netflix from 3 April 2025.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
