ANIME REVIEW: Devil May Cry

With the upcoming Devil May Cry 4 game soon to be released in early 2013, it reminded me of the anime series that I watched a while back. Created by the games creators, CAPCOM, Devil May Cry (DMC) the anime series was memorable and one of the must see series, especially to newcomers in my opinion. For those who are not acquainted with this franchise, the main character is Dante, a half breed demon, who also hunts other demons to keep the human race safe. That said, I will briefly note a few good and bad elements of the series.

GOOD:

1.       SHORT SERIES (12 episodes)

The short series of only 12 episodes makes DMC convenient to watch without losing the plot, characters and forgetting which episode you were up to. These factors usually happen with terribly long anime series, as it becomes annoying figuring where you left off in the series.

2.       ICONIC ARTWORK & CHARACTER (DANTE)

CAPCOM has been renowned for their art style from anime series to their well-known video games and it is clear that the same quality is represented in the series. Action scenes are intense with incredible combinations of gun fire and sword play, and of course not forgetting the graphical use of bloodshed. Additionally, the main character’s (Dante) iconic red coat jacket brings a wonderful ‘pop’ of red colour, letting your eyes know exactly where the action is, as he battles against demons.  

BAD:

1.       SUBBED vs. DUBBED

SUBBED = watching with subtitles and Japanese audio

DUBBED = watching with dubbed voiceovers

The one major flaw that can be said overall, is more of a personal choice to how you decide to watch the series. I found that in most cases the best way to watch anime series is with subs, as having dubbed voiceovers seem to never be able to correctly capture the character’s personalities. An example of terrible voiceover can be seen in this series, as the voice for the main young female lead was clearly stereotyped with a high pitch and somewhat annoying voice. Again, this is only a personal choice, as it can be easily said about Japanese voices being overly exaggerated to some degree.  

Nevertheless, the few points listed briefly describe why Devil May Cry the animated series is one of my personal favourites. I do not spend awfully long time or days watching anime, so a nice short and interesting anime series are always easily accessible in terms of effort required to watch them. If a rating must be given, I would give Devil May Cry the anime 8/10.