Demon Lord Dante Vol-1: Dante Resurrects (2002)
Animation Production: Magic Bus
Released by: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Official Website: Demon Lord Dante
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Over a span of 50 years many people have grown up influenced by the pop culture of their times and the people who led different movements in those eras such as Stan Lee with his fantastic hero creations or Shigeru Miyamoto with his colorful video game worlds and characters. For me it would be fair to say that Go Nagai is one of the most influential if not THE most influential storyteller of my youth as his characters and creations made quite an impression on me 20 years ago. From robots to heroes and demons he covered a large variety of heroic and villainous archetypes that would forever become marked in me as the benchmark by which I judge others. Something that can be easily spotted in my many comparisons of current anime shows with those he helped pioneered in the 1970’s.

The subject of this review, Demon Lord Dante is a title of his I was not really familiar with due to its existence being limited only to the original manga release. My understanding is that Go Nagai originally abandoned this work to establish one of his most popular series, Devilman and that many elements were taken from Dante to create Devilman, but that’s about my extent of knowledge on Dante. This is why I’m beyond thrilled that Geneon decided to release the recently produced anime series based on Go Nagai’s original work! Let’s go right into it shall we!?

Story

"Ryo Utsugi has been terrorized by brutal nightmares, visions of being attacked by a vicious and deadly creature. He soon develops the power to hear voices and foresee the deaths of female victims. One late night, Ryo follows the mysterious voice and finds himself transported to the wintry Himalayans. He finally comes face to face with the monster of his nightmares: Demon Lord Dante, who has long been sealed in ice. Secrets and intrigue await Ryo, his destiny slowly revealed as he transfigures into Dante." Geneon's Demon Lord Dante Webpage

Review

This first volume in Geneon’s release of Demon Lord Dante contains the first four episodes in the series, which include:

Episode 1: Nightmare
High school student Utsugi Ryo is not having an easy time nowadays. He keeps having nightmares of demons and a large demonic figure, Dante, who is frozen deep in the Himalayan mountains. Then on a fateful day he has a traumatic motorcycle accident that should have killed him, but surprisingly left him with only minor scratches, one thing had changed now though, he was beginning to have visions of young women running away from monsters as they scream for their lives. Are these visions linked to the current string of homicides were women’s hearts are being ripped out? Why does Ryo’s dad seem to know about the demons?

Episode 2: Ritual
The King of Evil Spirits, Veil Zebub, has begun the preparations for the Black Mass and a sacrifice is needed, enter Ryo’s sister Saori Utsugi. Will Ryo be able to save his sister and help prevent the coming of Demon Lord Dante?

Episode 3: Resurrection
A plan is concocted by which Ryo will be taken to the mountains. Here he’ll meet his destiny, but is Dante using Ryo or doing something more sinister? It’s in our hero’s hands now whether the Demon lord will be freed or not.

Episode 4: Madness
Dante has been awakened! Is this the end for makind? Wait, that’s Ryo’s head in Dante’s forehead, what is happening here? Why doesn’t he realize what he’s become and what does he intend to do now? No one seems to have the answers yet…

As many people who follow our review probably know I’m not particularly interested in the vampire/horror/demon genre of anime. With few exceptions such as Vampire Princess Miyu I pretty much avoid it entirely without a second thought. This one being by Go Nagai proved to be something I had to check out and to be honest I’m rather happy I did as it follows many of the conventions typically found in his large body of work, while giving it some nice twists and surprises here & there.

With these four episodes we basically get many introductory elements and plots as the writers try to set up the overarching story without giving away too much of what’s coming up and who is really who. This is quite a tricky approach as it makes it appear as if some things like the red haired woman and the true nature of Dante are being left unclear when really they’re just being setup for a follow up in later episodes. The same is true of the characters who we meet and see undergo the first rounds of development and evolution. In particular Ryo’s sister is being setup as his antithesis, but this is something that while hinted at is not explored to any real degree.

The story as it stands is quite interesting at this point as the Satanists are trying to resurrect Dante from his icy tomb where he was sealed away by god 2000 years in the past. Standing against them are the warriors of God who work on behalf of their Deity to prevent Dante’s coming, even though this is an event destined to happen, something they are aware of. Interestingly this group is headed by Ryo’s father, a world class surgeon who seems to be carrying out some interesting side projects in a secret lab. He seems to know that something is happening with Ryo when his nightmares begin and after his miraculous recovery from his bike accident, but he’s not letting anyone know what his insight into the situation is and/or how his daughter may play a role in he coming battle between good and evil.

Ultimately I think this battle between good and evil is what this title will add up to. The key question is whether it can successfully carry it out and continue to surprise us with unexpected developments. Episode four, “Madness”, I think gave tantalizing clues to how this will play out as Ryo realizes that he has become Dante. Now that he is self-conscious of his new body and the reality of his situation it brings up the question of whether the Demon Lord is an entity controlled by smaller head in its forehead or whereas the two separate entities are one and the same in the same manner that Baron Ashler in Mazinger-Z was two different characters at the same time they formed one other person. Interestingly Go Nagai says that this particular setup was later applied to Mazinger-Z''s head (referring to how Koji's sits atop Mazinger's head onboard the Hover Pilder)

Interestingly that point brings up something else about Demon Lord Dante. You can clearly see here many of the ideas and concepts that Go Nagai would later on perfect with several other works. From the more obvious ones like Devilman, which this ones chares a lot with, to the small heads that appear in other creatures bodies such as when the Satanists appear on the sides of fish in an aquarium in a fashion similar to that of the small faces that populated the enemy robots of Great Mazinger, to the character designs which are strangely familiar in many ways such as Demon Zenon, which is quite similar to a creature that appeared in Mazinger-Z VS Devilman.

On the production side Demon Lord Dante reminds me a lot of the Mazinkaiser OVA’s except that it’s not as polished (despite being produced a year after that title). The drawings are very stylized and emulate Go Nagai’s manga beautifully. The frame rate is smooth and the overall color palette is nicely balanced with equal screen time given to bright and dark colors. Visual effects are used in a limited fashion and consist mostly of fire effects, nothing too distracting really.

The DVD is another nice little release from the great folks at Geneon. The disc which includes the first four episodes in the series also comes with several extras including episode highlights, character profiles, clean copies of the opening and closing themes, Japanese press conference segment, the U.S. trailer and previews for other Geneon products. The video and audio transfers are excellent with no issues that I could notice or complain about.

Final Thoughts

A great beginning to what I hope will become a more engrossing show. If you’re a fan of Go Nagai’s to any degree this one is very recommended as it lives up to many of his other works.

If you’re into anime demons or vampires this one has your name written all over it!

Jeffrey Couto