Main Feature	Special Features
	Video	1080p High Definition 16:9	480i Standard Definition
	Audio	Dolby TrueHD 5.1: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1: Japanese	Dolby Digital Japanese 2.0
	Subtitle	English	English
	Rating	TV MA	NR
	Running Time	300 minutes
	Released By: FUNimation Entertainment
	Release Date: August 25, 2009
	Review Date: October 5, 2009
	Reviewed By: Rommel Salandanan
	You have not seen “Devil May Cry - The Animated Series” until you’ve seen it in High-Definition Rating:

STORY IN A NUTSHELL:
Devil May Cry is based on the popular series of video games from CAPCOM for Playstation and XBOX 360. It may be a cool game but as an anime, it is kick ass all the way! The main dude is Dante. He’s half-human, half-devil and will take care of your demon problems with a great big mucking sword – for a price.  It’s a present day setting with all the technological trappings and one sci-fi horror trip – demons are among us.

The series is straightforward action meets horror goodness. Dante does one job after another, a cool dude with a laid-back attitude which drives the ladies crazy. Whether it’s rock stars with secrets, double-crosses or a cruise ship from Hell, Dante is your guy to clean up the baddies and save the day. Along for the ride upon occasion are two fast and furious femme fatales. Lady with her motorcycle revving and gun-totin’ ways and the super mysterious Trish who has ties to Dante’s past. One of my favorite episodes is when these two ladies meet and get on each other’s nerves, then go for their guns!

The story goes from one case to another until the grand finale, which spans nearly three episodes.  Two devils from Dante’s past come gunning for him. They have a score to settle with Dante’s father and they don’t mind using Dante for the payback. All the girls and women in Dante’s life try to give him a hand as the hordes of Hell spring free on the city. It’s an action packed finale to a slick series.

REVIEW IN THE MATTER:
Devil May Cry likes to shoot up monsters, zombies and demons all in the name of a good cause and a paycheck! Dante is half-human, half-demon and runs a special investigation business where he gets to hunt down demons. He’s a laid back guy with a cool attitude and amazing skills with a slick looking sword and his favorite guns. The anime is based on a popular video game series and the anime runs almost like one, being primarily episodic in its storytelling. Dante goes from one case to another and at the end of each usually has to blast some demons back to Hell. Whether it’s finding out about a rock and roller that sold a soul to the devil, or a casino cruise where you literally bet your life, Dante is down for the good, the bad, and the ugly. He also has some reoccurring beauties on the menu. The bazooka blasting, motorcycle riding human bounty hunter Lady often crosses paths, sometimes blows, with Dante. Then there is the blond inhuman Trish. She shares a past with Dante and secrets to that past. When the two women cross paths, it’s a great suspenseful and surprisingly fun confrontation of the two femme fatales and is a highlight of the series.

The animation remains episodic until the end when it builds up to a big and violent confrontation between Dante and demons from the other world wanting to deliver payback to Dante for reasons of their own, and Hell being unleashed on Earth with only Dante’s friends to stop it. Dante takes on the deadly demons with the personal grudge while the ladies try to stop the hordes of Hell from overtaking the city.

The anime does a great job of delivering explosive action, glib humor, and elements of horror and graphic violence, but the animation for such a huge and successful title tends to be subpar due to inconsistencies with the drawing, especially with the characters. In addition, the animation just did not have the same dark feeling that the video game conveys.

IN TECHNICAL TERMS:
The Blu-ray sports a transfer that yielded better resolution from the standard DVD, however it is far from a perfect transfer. The video succumbs to a few digital irregularities like line banding and blurry scenes. The overall animation of DMC is dark, and it did made good use of the black level by not having any gradient effects.

FUNimation always delivers Dolby True HD 5.1 in both Japanese and English with their anime on Blu-ray, however, the English dialogue suffered from muffled sound or sound loss depending where the dialogue came from within the 5.1 channel. This is the time were 5.1 channel sound placement and use of echo effect (especially in Dante’s spacious office) did not shift properly to TrueHD. This is probably the only time that I would say that I would have preferred that the original English Track was kept in Dolby Digital 5.1.

The Japanese track did a better job of handling its audio, but it seems that the overall sound effects decibels have been corralled rather than harnessed for pure explosive enjoyment. Fans would enjoy watching this track better than the English track.

FEATURETTE:
The special features come with an interview of the Japanese voice actor of Dante, and previews and cut scenes of the clip for the Devil May Cry 4 video game which will bring joy to the fans of the video game, the usual clean Opening and Closing animation, and FUNimation’s trailers. One thing that caught my attention and something to look forward to was the Darker Than Black HD preview.
 
CASE IN POINT:
Big guns, battling babes, and demons. What else could you ask for in an anime that’s based on the most popular video game? Maybe better sound and better art on an otherwise decent rendition of Devil May Cry.