No hate and I'm not gonna name names, but I'm gonna complain a little: it does kind of amaze me that some people have entire YouTube channels dedicated almost exclusively to explaining DMC lore, but apparently at no point have they ever read any of the novels or mangas or anything
And I'm not saying you have to read them to engage with DMC. I get if most normal fans don't want to go out of their way for stuff outside of the games (I'm the same way with most games, if it's not in the game then I don't care), but if your entire channel is about DMC and DMC lore then you'd think you'd make an effort to actually look at them, you know, all of the canon lore. It's not like there's that much. You can probably read all of it in an afternoon or two, and the community is so dedicated that most if not all of the unlocalized stuff has been fan-translated and is readily available even if you don't speak Japanese
I keep getting recommended videos and they're just astoundingly incorrect. Like despite common fandom opinion, the series' lore is relatively tight. There was clearly a ton of effort on the part of the developers to integrate lore established in older works with newer ones, even works they didn't create or approve, and the retcons are relatively minor and make sense. Gilver being a Mundus-made clone of Vergil instead of being Vergil makes perfect sense given Mundus clearly has the ability to make clones. He made one of their mom for DMC1 after all. It changes basically nothing about the story told in that novel for him to be a clone instead of the real deal
There's not really a ton of gaps or unanswered mysteries you'd need to investigate like, idk, FNAF, either. The mysteries are basically just "who would have low enough standards to sleep with Vergil?" other than me and "What happened to Sparda, exactly, that made him leave the twins and Eva vulnerable?"
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I sometimes see some hullabaloo about whether Nero is really more powerful than Dante and Vergil or not. So I've been thinking about that a lot. And most of these debates are 4+ years old so I'm making a blog post instead of talking directly to another human (RIP past me for not playing DMC5 right when it dropped)
Usually when I see it the debate centers around the final Vergil fight of DMC5, and whether or not you can really count him beating Vergil as a "win". Mainly because Vergil and Dante fought beforehand and that probably weakened Vergil. I also see some commentary on Nero's Devil Trigger and how much that mattered for said Vergil fight
What I don't see mentioned much: Nero, aside from using Yamato in DMC4 while in his Devil Trigger, never wields a Devil Arm. Red Queen is basically just a regular sword with an engine attached to it, and Blue Rose is stated to be a regular gun that he just modified himself. Despite that he's still capable of going toe to toe with all of the same demons Dante does, as well as both Dante and Vergil themselves (who both exclusively wield Devil Arms. Unless you count Dante in 2 I guess but we're getting in the weeds there)
Since Devil Arms are considered extremely powerful weapons just in their own right, and have additional capabilities on top of being weapons based on the demon they were formed from, you could argue that using just a regular old hunk of steel is a major disadvantage. That he's able to compete with that disadvantage is actually really impressive on Nero's part
Sure you could also argue that Dante was holding back in DMC4 (and let's be real, he was), but I refuse to believe Vergil would be doing the same at the end of DMC5. Vergil plays to win
If Nero is already going toe to toe with them when they have at least two additional decades of experience on him and they have the advantage of a Devil Arm where Nero does not, I think that makes it pretty clear cut for me. If Nero hasn't surpassed them already, then he likely would some day
And then I remembered that all of this was moot, because the DMC4 novelization basically says that Nero has greater power potential than Dante, and it's only his inexperience that holds him back
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Minor thing, but "hyperfixation" getting watered down to just mean "I like this thing a lot" makes it kind of challenging to communicate the true depths of my obsession
I'm not, like, "oh I like Devil May Cry a lot"
I'm like, "Oh my god what if I made a DMC3 AMV. I will think of literally nothing else until this is completed. I will put off sleep, forget to pack my lunch, forget to eat breakfast, consider calling out of work so I can work on it, and also, I've annoyed everyone I know by singing the song over and over as I go about my day as I mentally piece together exactly what this thing will look like, because that's how I'm coping with not being able to work on it. I keep looking for excuses to bring it up in conversation even though I'm absolutely positive everyone I have ever known is already sick of it, and also, every second I spend not thinking about it makes me feel like I got clubbed upside the head by a baseball bat"
I mean I'm doing okay but my god I feel like I'm possessed
Okay I'm going to say some nice things and I'm going to say some less nice things. I acknowledge that I'm only on the first episode so things might come together in future episodes, but for now these are just first impressions. I'm trying to keep an open mind. I'll stick it under a cut so you can avoid spoilers.
Things I like:
The animation is great. My biggest complaint about the original anime is just how low budget the animation obviously was. They did well with what they had at the time, but you could tell they had no money to do anything
I like some of the nods to the original anime (like the diner and the waitress character)
There were some good jokes, like how Dante's "out-of-context humor creates a corny joke atmosphere" and he "acts as if his demon-hunting missions are video games"
Lucia cameo! Poor girl got so boned being part of the worst game in the franchise. I actually really like her (both as a character and her design) so I'm sad she doesn't get used as much as Lady and Trish in canon
It's cool to see some stuff from the supplementary material brought to life. For example, Dante breaking all of his guns until he gets Ebony and Ivory was a plot point of the first DMC novel, and Enzo was a presence in the first and second DMC novels as well as the DMC3 manga, but he's never been referenced in the main series as far as I know
I have been told there isn't really any romance. I haven't confirmed this for myself yet but. Good.
Things I dislike:
This isn't just a dislike. I hate that they explicitly set this in America. DMC has always been a series that could have been set literally anywhere in the world. I see no reason why it needed to be Americanized
Hate that they have a sequence with specific focus on political commentary, specifically common American discourse (news programs, radio shows/podcasts, talk shows, etc. that involve religious zealots and ranting and raving about liberals). Again there's the "why did this need to be Americanized" gripe, but also I just think it makes the show immediately dated. To be blunt, I don't need every show I watch to make a statement about American politics and discourse. It doesn't add anything to the show. Devil May Cry has never been about that. I wanna watch wacky woohoo pizza man go pew pew and be a sad alcoholic about his twin brother, not Fox News Parody Man rant about liberals destroying our country and how the Russians totally did it. If it's meant to be a joke then it's an incredibly lazy one. If it's meant to be commentary then it says nothing of value. It's just kind of nothing, hanging out in the middle of the episode, when I could be watching Dante doing something cool. I know it wasn't that long of a sequence, but any length would have been too long for me.
So much focus being on the American government specifically, and they are being extremely, painfully American. Again, why did this need to be Americanized, exactly? I'm American. Not everything needs to be about us. Why can't this just be a nonspecific world government organization or something. And I hate "shady world government" plot-lines so I hope that's not where this goes
The explaining. I am not a big fan of when shows or movies try to explain the magic away. I don't need a scientific explanation of why the amulets are the key and blah blah blah. Trust your audience to be invested enough in the world that they don't care about the nitty gritty explanation for how it works. If it is necessary to add, don't waste time having a character look into the camera and explain it in the driest manner possible.
The ratio of "government dudes stand around explaining things or other characters do things" to "Watch Dante do cool things" feels like 70%/30% in this first episode. I get that we need exposition but do we need this much? Can Dante not deliver some of it? Why can't I see Enzo talking to Dante about the job instead of just hearing Enzo talk about talking to Dante about the job.
The funniest jokes were constrained to on-screen blink-and-you'll-miss-it text, which I had to go back and pause several times to catch (Netflix flashing me with an ad every time I paused did not make that task easier).
Neutral observations, not exactly positive but not negative yet either.
1.I do not think I will ever get used to the recasting of Dante and Vergil. No hate to the VAs because they're all wonderful and exceptionally talented individuals. It's just, y'know, Reuben Langdon and Daniel Southworth are Dante and Vergil. Reuben Langdon nails the devil-may-care laid back so-lame-he-wraps-back-around-to-being-cool vibe. Daniel Southworth imbues Vergil with that kinda dorky, relatable quality that hints at the inherent contradiction of his character (acts serious and aloof, is in reality very childish and dorky just like Dante). Johnny Yong Bosch has a completely different vibe that doesn't quite work for Dante IMO, and I haven't heard much of Vergil's VA but it just doesn't communicate the same thing from what I've seen
2) Something that immediately sticks out to me is the heavy focus on the world ending consequences. Like 70% of episode one is committed to establishing it. DMC as a series is kind of funny, because, while the world-ending consequences are always present, they're rarely actually the focus.
Dante basically says in the DMC4 novel that stopping cults who try to end the world is his typical Tuesday. Morrison is surprised when it takes him more than about ten minutes to fight Urizen in DMC5. Dante's success is so assured that he has to make it fun for himself by messing around (that's why he does it). That's why it's a big deal when he's knocked out for a month in DMC5. The tension usually doesn't come from worrying if Dante can do it or worrying for his safety. The tension comes from the characters and their relationships. Can Vergil ever come to a place of healing for himself? Will he and Dante ever mend their relationship, or are they doomed to fight until one of them is actually dead? How does Nero feel about his place in the world, and what does it mean for him when he discovers his family?
I've seen glimmers in how Dante reacts to the Vergil-phantom, but the focus seems squarely on the end-of-the-world plot in the first episode. Now this could pan out to be subverted within the anime. Like the big bad government is freaking out and Dante handles it all in an afternoon. It could also be played completely straight, in which case I don't know if I'll like that. This is a wait-and-see for me
Overall conclusion: some of my fears were assuaged, others were put on steroids, and new ones were unlocked that I wasn't even expecting.
