DEVIL MAY CRY 3 – CODE 1: DANTE (MANGA VOLUME 1)

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DEVIL MAY CRY 3 – CODE 1: DANTE (MANGA VOLUME 1)

May 10th 2010 23:08

Category: Graphic Novels/Comics

Based on the Devil May Cry 3 computer game by CAPCOM
Publisher: Tokyopop
Created by: Suguro Chayamachi
Translation: Ray Yoshimoto
English Adaptation: Aaron Sparrow
Retouch & Lettering: Eric Pineda
Production Artist: Rafael Najarian
Cover: Thea Willis
Cost: $AU 14.95/$US 9.99

You’ve played the best selling computer game; you’ve watched the anime…now read the manga. For my own point of view I’ve only had the chance to watch the anime series, I’ve never played any of the incarnations of the computer games DMC 1, 2, 3 and I believe that there is DMC 4 this being down to the fact that I’m a PC gamer and not a console gamer and thus don’t own the platform on which their based. Still computer gaming aside after having seen the anime and learning that there was a manga I was curious to find out what the manga would be like, and so the other day a copy of the first volume of the DMC 3 manga series arrived on my doorstep courtesy of Australia Post and Madman Entertainment.

Now once I managed to get it out of the box on which was emblazoned the word Funtastic I felt that it was little bit light weight. For close to fifteen dollars the thickness was a tad below par. Still the saving grace for DMC 3 Volume 1 is the fact that despite the dubious quality of its material nature is that it has a great story. Focusing around the antics of the half demon bounty hunter and demon slayer Dante DMC 3 Volume 1 is a very surreal tale, definitely not for the faint hearted and not for those under the age of sixteen. It’s the first manga I have ever come across where the age warning on the back cover is rather apt. After the dust had finally settled on the carnage I was left pondering that the story was almost like a fusion of Alice in Wonderland, the Exorcist, the Matrix and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Suguro Chayamachi has certainly taken a diverse mix of elements and used them like a master chef too cook up in interesting reading experience that is the DMC 3 manga, and it doesn’t just end with the literary/movie elements.

On the surface you would feel that this is essentially the story of Dante going about his daily work, namely demon slaying and bounty hunting. But it is a lot more than that, this is a story about revelations, revelations in regards to the nature of the particular world in which Dante lives and operates as well his own dark and shady past. After all in a world where demons and their ilk are very much real and demon slaying is an accepted given as a profession you can obviously deduce that there is more to things in this particular world than our own happy existence. And it all literally began with the very beginning of life and existence…
In the beginning there was the void and only the void, naturally at some point the void became divided into the realms of light and darkness. Its purity scattered upon ethereal winds and thus with this sudden duality things can be said to really begin to happen. Before this particular cosmic incident it was pretty much silence, boredom with maybe a bit of incipient existentialism thrown into the mix. As with any dualistic system the realm of darkness became home to those entities who thrived in such conditions, demons and others of that ilk whilst the realm of light became the abode of those who could thrive beneath the eternal gaze of the sun; specifically humanity. Now even though the two realms were separated from each other there were those who dwelt amidst the darkness that nurtured certain grand ambitions. Better to reign in Hell than slave in Heaven?
Over time there came to rule in the infernal realms a Demon King, a demon so powerful that he alone was able to unit his disparate infernal kind under his banner. Of course this diabolic monarch wasn’t just content to rule over demons and the bleak marches of Hell, he wanted the entirety of existence to fall beneath the shadow of his dread banner. Still all good plans survive until the initial contact if great military strategists of the modern era are to be believed and it was the same with the Demon Kings ambition. Within the ranks of his own kind is a demon by the name of Sparda, a peerless swordsman who frankly wasn’t all that keen to see the human world overrun by the hordes of demons and monsters, decided to take steps. Throwing his lot in with humans Sparda managed to kill the Demon King, then he sealed away the world of demons, his own powers and then he disappeared.
But even though that is where legends of Sparda finish they do not tell the whole tale as it were. Sparda fell in love with a mortal woman and she bore him two sons, twins. One of the twins was our pizza eating protagonist, Dante, and it was because of the death of his mother and brother at the hands of demons that he has become a demon slayer, hunting and killing them with a passion that burns brighter than the sun. Seemingly perpetually broke Dante however is never without work as it seems that despite the fact that Sparda sealed away the demon realm human weakness and frailty always provides openings for the infernal to creep back into the light. Dante is given a job by his partner Enzo, a pleasure and beer loving Italian, that involves the retrieval of a young girl for a nice neat some of four million dollars. Not bad for a day’s work.
But things are most assuredly not what they seem, not by a long shot. Demons are at the bottom of the missing young girl and they’re also the ones willing to foot the bill for their own inscrutable reasons. Obviously there are machinations going on in the infernal realms, machinations that no doubt mean nothing but woe for the thriving unwashed masses of humanity. DMC 3 Volume 1 is an interesting read, a compelling story although as I said earlier on considering the cost it is a bit light weight, for fifteen dollars I’d like to see a bit more pages rather than the hundred and forty odd pages that comprised this volume. Perhaps the next volume will have a bit more meat to its story than this one? We can but hope, as it is a fascinating read.

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