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A predictable script

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Devil May Cry Season 2 understands something its first season occasionally forgot, Dante is only half the story; the other half is Vergil. Bringing the brothers together transforms Netflix’s adaptation. Their relationship gives the relentless violence something it desperately needed, emotional consequence.

Dante’s humour still cuts through the darkness, beneath the arrogance is somebody confronting the family he thought he had lost. Vergil is his opposite without becoming a simple villain. When the brothers finally clash, Devil May Cry becomes exactly what fans have been waiting for.

The animation is ferocious. Studio Mir gives the fights speed without sacrificing clarity, particularly during the final episodes, where the series almost seems determined to exhaust its animators. Yet the spectacle works because Dante and Vergil are not simply exchanging swords and supernatural abilities. They are fighting over grief, identity and what their father’s legacy means to each of them.

Season 2 also treats Lady considerably better. She feels less like a mechanism for moving Dante’s story forward and more like someone questioning the institution she has allowed herself to serve. It still isn’t perfect.

The opening is surprisingly slow, while the political commentary can become so blunt that the series occasionally appears to distrust its audience. The soundtrack is gloriously early 2000s, but sometimes becomes overbearing. Fans expecting complete fidelity to Capcom’s games still will not find it here. This remains Adi Shankar’s interpretation of Devil May Cry, not an animated recreation of it. This time, that interpretation has confidence.

By the finale, the series finally understands its greatest weapon isn’t Dante’s sword, his guns or even its extraordinary animation. It’s two broken brothers standing on opposite sides of the same family tragedy.

Season 1 introduced this world.

Season 2 makes it worth caring about.

Season 3 is heading towards a definitive conclusion.