On April 3, Netflix released their new show “Devil May Cry”, receiving mixed
reception from fans, and this is a review to see whether the show deserves the hate or if
the community is giving the show unfair judgment.

Adi Shankar, the creator of the Devil May Cry, takes a new spin on the franchise and
takes a giant risk when adapting a video game story by giving us a plot and character
portrayals that stray vastly from the original source material, and the show falters
because of that.

While the action scenes and animation are generally top notch and deserve all the
praise in the world, the story is subpar, the characters are a mixed bag, and worst of all
the dialogue throughout the show is downright awful.

Starting with the positives, the animation done by Studio Mir is phenomenal and some
of the best of 2025 so far. Although the CGI characters Agni and Rudra look bad, they
are the exception and not the rule.

The action scenes are also quite amazing and the show itself knows this, as the first 2
scenes of the show have these stunning and beautifully animated action scenes that set
the tone for the rest of the series, as they show plenty of gore and blood, but also have
a slapstick comedy approach. These are the 2 paths the show goes down anytime it is
time for an action scene.

Voice acting is another area where Devil May Cry excels as everybody in the cast gave
top notch performances, even though the script they were given was mediocre.
Highlight performances from Jason Yong Bosch as Dante, Hoon Lee as the White
Rabbit, Scout Taylor-Compton as Mary/Lady, and the late, great Kevin Conroy as Vice
President Baines give the show much needed life on the story front and they make you
forget how bad the dialogue is sometimes.

While there are plenty of positives within the show, there are 2 glaring issues with the
show that borderline ruin the entire series, those being the dialogue and overall writing,
and to a lesser extent the story.

There are only a few issues with the story, none of them being major, is that most plot
points are cliche, some main characters are annoying whenever on screen, and the
messages can be way too on the nose, obnoxiously so.

The main gripe that everybody has with this show, and rightfully so, is the writing. More
specifically, the dialogue of almost every character.

The worst example is Mary, who is the biggest victim of terrible writing. Every sentence
she speaks seemingly has an expletive, most noticeably the “F word.

Her excessive explicit language feels like a cheap attempt to make her character edgier
than she already is, and it ruins attempts at serious heartfelt moments within the show
because she can’t stop cursing every chance she gets.

The problem with dialogue was highlighted the most in episode 6, an episode with
almost no dialogue until the very end, yet it manages to be the best episode of the
series, partially because of the lack of speaking.

Episode 6 has the best animation of the series, constantly changing in art style to fit the
situation and story being told, and the story within the episode contains the best
emotional beats in the series. It shows the heartbreaking backstories of the White
Rabbit and Mary at the same time while switching back and forth between one another,
showing how both of their lives and experiences have practically been the same
throughout their entire lives, yet one looks down on the other just because of where they
are from.

All of this leads up to the emotional climax of the episode where there isn’t much
dialogue within it, yet the story almost seems better off without it. It’s just been shown
that the writers can make a compelling story with emotional character beats, so it’s all
the more frustrating when they try to have these same moments throughout the rest of
the season and it falls flat because of how unnecessary edgy the dialogue is trying to
be.

There has been a split within the Devil May Cry community as fans of the original
games were left with vastly different opinions on the show. Many fans think it is one of the worst pieces of media, while others believe the show is fine and pretty good.
While both sides have valid points of both critique and praise, they dive too far into
extremes to realize the truth about this show.

“Devil May Cry” is an average show with an abundance of potential to be something
great, and while it shows flashes of greatness it is absolutely held back by a derivative
story with obnoxiously unsubtle messaging throughout and horrendous dialogue that
gets old very quickly.