Satan Might Cry doesn’t attain the heights of the most effective Netflix online game exhibits like Castlevania or Cyberpunk Edgerunners. But when the whole thing of its first season had been like its second half – which comprises some kinetic motion, an episode that’s an early frontrunner for among the best animated tasks of 2025, and a fully bonkers finale – it might. Thanks to those episodes, any skepticism towards Satan Might Cry primarily based on its lackluster opening chapters morphs, demon-like, into full enthusiasm for its future.
Taking components not simply from the Capcom online game sequence of the identical identify but additionally the manga and different supplementary materials it impressed, the brand new DMC animated present – developed by Castlevania’s Adi Shankar and his Captain Laserhawk collaborator Alex Larsen – makes sufficient adjustments to characters and lore to be a contemporary expertise for newcomers and veterans alike. Johnny Yong Bosch stars as Dante, a demon hunter who finds himself on the middle of a country-wide hunt and a plot to destroy the veil that separates the Earth from the demon realm. Bosch provides Dante a boyish attraction whereas nonetheless usually letting slip the ache he hides beneath it. Although the humor of the primary couple of episodes feels misplaced – Dante initially acts and talks like a Deadpool knock-off – Bosch’s efficiency grounds the character because the story will get increasingly more fantastical and the foolish humor provides option to Dante having a full-blown id disaster.
It’s nice to listen to the late Batman: The Animated Collection star Kevin Conroy once more, his unmistakable voice giving life to Satan Might Cry’s Vice President Baines, a spiritual fanatic with a savior complicated working for a literal cowboy president . Baines is each a compelling onscreen presence and a terrifyingly well timed character, however the clear standout of this season is the first villain: the White Rabbit (Hoon Lee). Although the White Rabbit’s motivations are a bit superficial and predictable, Lee’s efficiency sells the character’s unbreakable conviction and resolve in a means no different character on Satan Might Cry can match.
The video games share some similarities with the concepts and themes of the basic demon-fighting manga and anime Devilman, and this present isn’t any totally different, with its (at occasions) textbook portrayals of humanity’s bigotry and prejudice. However when Shankar and Larsen filter these topics are filtered via the lens of 2000s nostalgia, what comes out the opposite finish is a hilariously unsubtle but daring indictment of how the USA performed itself, at house and overseas, throughout the decade. That is most evident within the tune that soundtracks the season’s climactic montage, a 2004 hit that places an exclamation level on these eight episodes. Even with all of the adjustments it makes, the present captures the essence of the video games the place it issues most – like its use of music to accompany the motion.
After their work on The Legend of Korra and X-Males ’97, it should not be a shock that the artists at Studio Mir know tips on how to convey bone-crushing motion to Satan Might Cry. The fights are thrilling and well-staged – the one downside is the usage of CG for the demons. It seems dangerous – even should you may argue it helps in making the demons appear much more otherworldly – and hurts the motion.
And but, little of that issues when you get to episode 6. Studio La Cachette (who dealt with Genndy Tartakovsky’s spectacular Primal and Unicorn: Warriors Everlasting) quickly alters Satan Might Cry’s visible palette to inform the story of the White Rabbit in a gorgeously animated and informed episode that’s nearly devoid of dialogue. This radical departure is a rising tide that lifts the remainder of the season’s boats with its slower, extra meditative script, and marks a change in tone and tempo for the grand finale. It’s not simply the most effective episode of the season – it may very well be a number of the finest animation you’ll see all 12 months. Even when the entire season cannot appear to be this, the hope that Satan Might Cry can break its personal mould (when it fits the story) is sufficient to stoke anticipation for a second season.
