Warning: Contains spoilers for Devil May Cry.For as long as I can , I’ve always been a huge fan of Devil May Cry. The stylish action that only got better with each installment, combined with a story that struck a great balance between being cheesy and having general heart, always resonated with me on some level, and barring a few examples, I’ve always had fun with the franchise.

Devil May Cry has always held a special place in my heart, so imagine my surprise when it was announced that it was getting a new anime. The series would be made by the same team behind Castlevania, and the marketing made it out to have the same level of quality, so I was plenty excited for what looked to be a great time. That didn’t come to , however, as Netflix’s Devil May Cry, while not being without merit, was ultimately a disappointment for me, and there are plenty of reasons as to why I felt that way.

Devil May Cry Just Looks Like Every Action Anime, And That's Disappointing

Why I Wasn't Impressed With Devil May Cry's Animation

The first major issue I had with the Devil May Cry anime was, surprisingly, with its visuals. The art and animation are largely great, there’s no denying that, but at the same time, it never does anything particularly spectacular, with it always having a sort of generic goodness to its presentation. That normally wouldn’t be an issue, but Devil May Cry is famous for its stylish gameplay and cutscenes, so with that in mind, Devil May Cry’s animation feels largely bland because of how poorly it adapts the games’ aesthetic beyond the bare minimum.

The basic visual style of Devil May Cry is especially bad when taking into the staff’s previous work on Castlevania. Castlevania always pushed the boundaries of what could be done with 2D animation, with Castlevania: Nocturne season 2’s animation being some of the best I’ve ever seen, so Devil May Cry having such basic, albeit good, animation feels even more disappointing when I know it could have been more like Castlevania. I have no idea why it ended up like that, but overall, it’s nothing but disappointing to watch.

Devil May Cry's World & Story Might As Well Be Its Own IP

Why The Devil May Cry Anime Fails As An Adaptation

The larger issue I had with the Devil May Cry anime, however, was with its writing. The story is mostly a reinterpretation of the Devil May Cry 3 manga with some elements from the game, but not only are they interpreted wildly differently, but they’re also bogged down with things like government conspiracies and a paramilitary group of demon hunters. None of that is really in line with Devil May Cry’s story, though, so the story for the Devil May Cry anime feels weird because of how different it is from canon while still trying to largely adhere to it.

All of that leads to the larger issue of how the characters are handled. While the anime’s interpretation of the White Rabbit is a great villain, Dante has his goofiness exaggerated while forgetting he’s supposed to be highly competent underneath it all, and Lady is far more aggressive than she was in her debut, with none of her humanity or growth to balance it out. Add in all the extra vulgarity permeating every episode, with Lady now swearing in almost every scene, and Devil May Cry doesn’t work because of how poorly it portrays old and new characters alike.

An adaptation doesn’t have to be completely accurate to the source material to be good; Castlevania is wildly different from the games, but it’s still a great series from start to finish. The key factor lies in the execution, and Devil May Cry falls flat because of how boring and repetitive the story gets and how many contrivances happen to make it work. Devil May Cry’s poor execution is why it fails as an adaptation, and with how different it made things while only paying lip service to canon, I genuinely question why this wasn’t an original IP.

Devil May Cry's Political Elements Would Be Out Of Place Even If They Were Written Well

Devil May Cry's New Story Just Doesn't Work

All of my issues with Devil May Cry’s writing are further compounded by what became the biggest sticking point: the political elements. Not only is the American government blatantly evil, but when they invade Makai and declare war, it’s framed as an objectively bad thing because the majority of demons are good people being unjustly persecuted by humans. Devil May Cry has a clear political bent to it by using the conflict between humans and demons as a metaphor for the war on terror, all of which, of course, was something that never came up in the games.

Criticizing the war on terror and the Iraq invasion isn’t wrong, but it doesn’t fit a story like Devil May Cry. Not only does the new depiction of demons make Sparda look incompetent at best, but it’s completely out of place for a largely schlocky and goofy action story like Devil May Cry which drew most of its drama from personal conflicts. Devil May Cry’s political subject matter fails because it’s completely out of place for this type of story, and the anime’s attempts at having both types of stories just lead to constant tonal dissonance at best.

The worst part is that that sort of writing has been done well in the past. Netflix's Pluto, for example, went a similar route to Devil May Cry by injecting commentary on the Iraq War into an adaptation of Astro Boy, but it worked there because it was handled with an incredible sense of maturity and overall craft. By comparison, Devil May Cry just puts out the same talking points surrounding the issue with no subtlety or effort to make them interesting, so overall, the biggest issue with Devil May Cry’s political elements is that their execution is boring.

I Couldn't Be Less Excited For Devil May Cry Season 2

Devil May Cry's Anime Is Already A Failure

Devil May Cry has plenty of faults to it, even more than what I’ve listed here, and it leaves me utterly disinterested in a second season; the series would just be continuing with all the same poor writing shown in season 1, and it would even add an undoubtedly questionable take on Vergil into the mix. The writing could certainly improve, but Devil May Cry’s first season ended in a way that left me with little confidence that it will improve, and as much as I would love to be wrong about that, I don’t see it happening anytime soon.