Devil May Cry: Demonslaying With Drama And Style [Review]

Netflix’s animated adaptation of Devil May Cry is one groovy show. With demons and humans alike being torn apart left and right, you would think this would be a dark and dramatic show. In some places, you’d be right, but it’s also one of the silliest stories I’ve watched as well. It’s this mixture of dark and light combined with some very stylish action scenes that makes this adaptation one of the better video game adaptations in recent times. Even in spite of the liberties Netflix takes with the source material.

Devil May Cry: Details

Devil May Cry is an adult animated dark urban fantasy and action-comedy thriller TV series. As you can tell by the title, it’s loosely based on the video game franchise of the same name created by Hideki Kamiya, and developed and published by Capcom. Studio Mir and Adi Shankar Animation are the production companies behind this series. Netflix is the company responsible for distributing and streaming it.

Production Crew

Adi Shankar is the creator, developer, and storywriter behind Devil May Cry, with Alex Larsen as the co-developer, writer, and co-storywriter. Han Seung-woo, Park So-young, Kim Sun-min, and Hong Jee-young are the directors behind the series. Jarome Harmsworth and Joel Harmsworth of Power Glove are the composers behind the music you hear in this series.

Speaking of that music: the opening theme song of Devil May Cry is “Rollin'” by Limp Bizkit. Meanwhile, “Devils Never Cry” by Power Glove is the ending theme song. “Afterlife” co-written co-written by Alex Seaver and Amy Lee and sung by Evanescence also prominently features in the series.

Voice Cast

Devil May Cry features the voices of Johnny Yong Bosch as Dante, Scout Taylor-Compton as Mary / Lady, Hoon Lee as White Rabbit, Kevin Conroy and Ian James Corlett (due to the former’s death) as VP Baines, and Chris Coppola as Enzo Ferrino.

Other notable voice roles include Kue Lawrence as young Dante, Evie Hsu as young Mary, Zeke Alton as Dr. Fisher, Jon Gries as President Hopper, Robbie Daymond as Vergil, Marcel Nahapetian as young Vergil, Sunkrish Bala as King, Fryda Wolff as Ninja, Leilani Barrett as Patriot, Tina Majorino as Sentry, Benjamin Abiola as Anders, Kenny Omega as Sly, Erica Lindbeck as Kalina, Ray Chase as John Arkham, Agni, and Rudra; Jason Marnocha as Cavaliere, Roger L. Jackson as Plasma, Griff; and Kari Wahlgren as Eva, Echidna.

When and Where to Watch

Devil May Cry made its streaming debut on April 3, 2025. You can watch all eight episodes of the first (and currently only) season only on Netflix.

Devil May Cry: Synopsis

Alas, Devil May Cry has only just begun streaming. In fact, the series only just started its Netflix premiere yesterday as of this writing. Thus, here’s the official synopsis from Netflix to give you an idea of what the series is about without too many spoilers below:

“In this animated adaptation of the popular Capcom game and from the vision of Adi Shankar, sinister forces are at play to open the portal between the human and demon realms. In the middle of it all is Dante, an orphaned demon-hunter-for-hire, unaware that the fate of both worlds hangs around his neck.”

Devil May Cry: The Good

Honestly, it’s definitely the action sequences of Devil May Cry that is truly the star of the show. Mostly due to Dante’s and Lady’s animated stunts in the show. Their action feels very stylized and well-thought out, and yet they each still have their own type of style to their respective action sequences. Dante’s action feels like he’s having fun throughout them (for the most part) as though he’s in an action-comedy, while Lady’s feels more like a desperate fight for survival more akin to survival horror. Their action actually feels very much in-character for the both of them, and makes them quite fun to watch.

The animation fueling that action is…not great, but it’s still pretty good. Studio Mir did a pretty good job with that action, especially when the blood and gore make their appearances. And oh boy, there’s quite a bit of both in this whole series. All of it drawn and rendered in much detail that calls to mind the really bloody video games, much like the DMC games themselves.

The story also gets a mention. It doesn’t seem to be based on any of the games in particular. It uses the characters of Devil May Cry 3 in a very loose interpretation of the game’s story, but for the most part, Netflix seems to be doing its own thing. I would say that the story is on the whole pretty decent, and quite a bit prescient about current events.

Devil May Cry: The Bad

Alas, the story of Devil May Cry might be the biggest thing people might take offense to. It can be a bit hit-or-miss at times due to certain characters just contradicting themselves in terms of actions as well as some cases of ignored revelations for a few characters. There’s also the fact that, again, very little of the story is canon to the games. It’s mostly something Netflix entirely made up as a very, very, very loose adaptation of the events of Devil May Cry 3. Thus, if you’re concerned only with a show that strictly follows game canon, then you might want to look at the 2007 anime on Crunchyroll instead.

And this is a pet peeve of mine, but there is a minor error the animators make when depicting firearms in this show that annoys me. When spent cartridges fall to the ground, you can clearly see that their primers are unmarked. When a firearm fires a bullet, the firing pin physically strikes the back of the bullet to activate their primers, leaving a hole or dent in the center of the bullet’s rear. The unmarked primers in this show is thus an error on the animator’s part. A minor one, to be sure, but one that will annoy firearms enthusiasts.

What do you think? Does this make you want to check out Netflix’s adaptation of Devil May Cry for yourself? Let us know in the comments section below.