Thursday, July 19, 2007

   Abandon all hope, ye who enter here
Listening to: "Bleed It Out" - Linkin Park

I am totally hooked on the Devil May Cry anime. Aside from the fact that Dante is HOT and that I've never played the game, I'm intrigued by the parallels to Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, which I studied a couple years ago. Dante's twin brother is Vergil, named after the Roman poet (Virgil) who accompanies Dante A. in The Inferno. While the poet isn't antagonistic like the game character (although it's debatable whether Vergil truly is a bad guy), he is a sort of twin to Dante A. and is residing in Hell. Trish gets her name from Beatrice, the woman who inspired Dante A.'s courtly love poetry. In The Divine Comedy, Beatrice leads Dante A. to Paradise. Interestingly, in the game, it's Trish who falls for Dante and turns good as a result. You could argue, however, that they both save each other (literally and spiritually). Lucia from DMC2 shares her name with St. Lucy, who acts as a messenger for Beatrice in The Inferno. The real name of Lady from DMC3 is Mary, an allusion to the Virgin Mary, whom Dante A. encounters in The Paradiso.

I've read that the plots and design of the DMC games are influenced by The Divine Comedy, but I think I need to play them to get a good comparison. However, I did notice something that Wikipedia (which allowed me to become interested in in the series instead of just Dante ;p) missed. Dante and Vergil's mother is Eva, a name that resembles Eve. The anime implies that its a sin for humans to mate with demons. While it's not fair to compare Sparda with Satan, there is no doubt that Eve and her sons had the face the consequences of her transgression. Cain and Abel anyone?

You know, I think I'm going to have to do an extensive study on this and show the prof who taught the Dante course. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the anime, which you must see if you want to see any of the following:
-a smack-down between Trish and Lady
-Dante ordering and eating a strawberry sundae, while being called "kawaii"
-general demon ass-kicking with lots of sarcasm thrown in
-Dante getting bossed around by a little girl who decides to make his office cute and pink (actually I kinda find her annoying)

Quote of the day:
"I'm going to sleep and dream about hot chicks now." - Dante
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