Demon Lord Dante Vol-2: Dante Rages (2002)
Animation Production: Magic Bus
Released by: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 75 Minutes
Official Website: Demon Lord Dante
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

After a short break the JH Anime labs has voted to take on the second volume of Demon Lord Dante, a hidden jewel in Go Nagai’s mighty arsenal of anime classics. This OVA series brings to life his first published manga work, which went unfinished due to the cancellation of the publication that it was running in and his work on the more popular Devilman manga and anime series in the 1970’s. Since I haven’t read the original manga I have no way of knowing how it compares to this series, but the show so far has been quite addictive and entertaining.

With volume two themes that were hinted at in the first set of episodes begin to unravel and be further explored, but enough is held back that it keeps you on the edge of your seat. Let’s go right into and see what happens in Demon Lord Dante volume 2: Dante Agonizes.

Story

"Ryo who was transformed into Demon Lord Dante encounters a severe napalm attack by the army, but his immortal body is too strong to be defeated. Ryo is tormented with guilt of becoming a demon; the vortex of his despair and anger destroys the city. Alarmed by Dante's resurrection, Dadan, the Lord of Heavens orders the secret organization "D" to release the Four Demon Kings to destroy Dante. At the same time, Ryo's father Kosuke, who is the leader of the "D," also unleashes their hideous man-made monster, SX to fight Dante. Many are killed in the destruction of the city as the gods try to destroy Dante. Even the Heavens seem to turn evil as Armageddon begins. Dose Ryo fight as a demon or fight against evils?" -- Back of DVD Box

Review

The second volume in Geneon’s release of Demon Lord Dante contains episodes five through seven in the series, which include:

Episode 5: Fate
The Demon Lord Dante has been brought back to life and now he walks side-by-side with humans. Still struggling to understand what happened to him and under attack by the Japanese defense forces, he is confronted by Zenon, a demon that has made a pact with God to destroy Dante, despite being his best friend in a previous life. Will Dante be able to overcome Zenon’s God-given powers? Meanwhile a strange door has been found deep in a Siberian mine, what secrets does it hold?

Episode 6: Herald
The four Demon Kings have been liberated from their underground dungeon! The people of Earth have never seen anything like these curious creatures before and when they go on a killing rampage there is little that can be done to stop them. Only one power is strong enough to bring these savage monsters down, the Demon Lord Dante, but will he appear in time to stop them? As the demons go on with their killing spree the forces of God unleash their newest weapon in the fight against the forces of evil, a genetically engineered monster that has been embedded with devil DNA! Will Ryo awaken to realize his full potential or will his struggle to contain the devil within him cost the lives of thousands?

Episode 7: Encounter
As Ryo continues to struggle with what he has become and how to control it the four Demon Kings continue to kill people all across Japan. Meanwhile Saeko Kodai, a famous celebrity is talking to him through telepathy, what could this mean and how does she know who he is?

Going into this DVD I was looking forward to more plot development and revelations around Dante, Ryo and each of the groups struggling for control of the world’s moral compass. Not only did it meet these expectations, it also went beyond them by introducing new angles, new characters and fully cementing what the central theme of this series is going to be as we head towards its conclusion.

Basically, the episodes contained in this disc focus on Ryo’s inner struggle as he comes to grips with the reality of his situation and the struggle between the Satanists and the army of God, whose values start becoming more blurred through the course of the story. Of these I thought that Ryo’s situation was the most interesting and provided some solid grounds for taking on questions on what it means to be evil and what truly defines a devil and whether that label even means anything within the context of his reality and his fight to live as he wants, not as he is supposedly pre-destined to.

While Ryo has become the Demon Lord Dante and is destined to lead the devils in an decisive war against God and his army, Ryo retains his mind, personality and soul, so despite the great powers that he’s gained and a general sense of direction attributed to his new persona his will power is strong enough to allow him to keep the demon within him in check and under his concious control. This creates a dilemma for him however, because even though he wants to do the right thing he begins to question everything he does and his life, including his family and his origins.

Interestingly these struggles are reflected with a slightly different twist via the Satanists and the forces of God. With these characters the writers took an approach that makes us as an audience have a difficult time understanding what it is exactly that they stand for and challenge our traditional views of the people who are typically associated with the labels of “Satanists” and “men of god”. While their portrayal here still maintains the fundamental characteristics associated with these groups, hints are more aggressively dropped about what they really stand for and little by little we begin seeing that something is not right, and that like Ryo we maybe having a hard time distinguishing what we know from what the reality (within the context of this universe) is.

The best example of what I mean by this that comes to mind is the creation and use by the people of God of a monster that has been artificially created through genetic manipulation to operate like a devil and kill people as a way to bring out other demons and attach a violent image to them that the people of the world can then use as a justification for violence against real ones. So in other words God’s representatives are not only disturbing the natural order by artificially creating new life forms, but are now also engaging in organized slaughters in the name of their deity. Are these actions justified in the name of their ultimate goals or are these nothing more than violent acts that make them no better than the devils they are trying to defeat? Slowly the lines are becoming blurred on what is “evil” and what is “good” are becoming indistinguishable within the context of the story and making for a rather engaging anime series.

So far I would have to say this show is continuing to impress and surprise at the same time. In many ways it’s classic Go Nagai fare with its use of mythology and struggles of good VS evil, much like with his more popular work Mazinger-Z in which the title robot represents both a God and a Devil, the choice of which falls upon Koji Kabuto, the man who’s will controls Mazinger-Z’s destiny and who like Ryo sits atop of his giant counterpart’s head, functioning as not only the brain, but the soul of his giant form. These ideas are taken much further in this series though.

The production quality was very similar to what we had before with very high quality hand drawn animation mixed in with computer rendered visual effects such as fires and environmental effects. The frame rate is smooth and the color palette is not surprisingly skewed towards the darker side of the scale. As I mentioned in the review for volume one the overall level of quality here is close to that of the Mazinkaiser OVA series, but not quite there. The soundtrack is a good listen, but nothing that will stick in your head for long outside of the opening theme (maybe). The voice acting is up to par in both soundtracks.

The DVD is nice release from the folks at Geneon and is similar in the overall "bang for your buck" as the first one. The disc which includes several extras including episode highlights, character profiles, an interview with Go Nagai (can’t thank Geneon enough for including that!), and previews for other Geneon products. Some temporary tattoos also come included inside the DVD box. The video and audio transfers are excellent with no issues that I could notice or complain about.

Final Thoughts

I loved this show before, but now I’m completely head over heels for it. This is another fantastic anime release based on Go Nagai’s work. If you’re into the darker/occult side of anime, this one is a must own addition to your collection. Even if you’re not into this type of fare (and I’m not) this is definitely worth hunting down and checking out!

Look forward to checking out volume three! In fact I think I’ll watch it now that I typed this review up!

Jeffrey Couto