Maou Dante

Recently people have been arguing whether Go Nagai (Getter Robo, Mazinger Z ) can only make giant robots shows. For the most part, they’re right, he can’t do anything other than robot shows well when shows like Kekko Kamen were created under his name. That does not mean that Go Nagai can not create shows that are entertaining as hell like Demon Lord Dante.

The plotline to Demon Lord Dante starts off with a bunch of crazy cultists who try to revive the titular Dante. The protagonist of this series, Ryo begins to have ... several weird nightmares involving sacrificing. Later on, the cultists decide to take his useless, damsel in distress of a sister, Saori as a sacrificial lamb. After a few pointless events, Ryo gets possessed by Dante and can turn into an odd demonic creature at will. From then on, the series just takes a Go Nagai twist. Incest, sacrifice, violence, anything you’ve ever known about Go Nagai happens. One of the most interesting points in the series is introduced when the first of appearance of GOD occurs. It turns out GOD is an evil, evil dude and hates everyone in humanity. What is it with Nagai and God that they just can’t get along? In one of the Getter Robo installments, one of the robots beats the heck outta God. The thing about Demon Lord Dante, is you can’t take this seriously. Honestly you can add an exclamation point after every sentence when you explain what Demon Lord Dante is about. This series really isn’t for religious nuts, and it really would be boring to those who don’t care for Nagai. It’s a relatively boring anime unless you see it in the mindset of a comedy and not a horror.

The artwork and character designs of DLD look like stock Nagai character designs. The main character, Ryo looks exactly like Koji Kabuto from Mazinger Z. As far as the supporting cast, there really is no one of interest to stand out. The main point of the series would be the demons. Most of the demons are not terrifying, but they do leave an impression. The eerie eyes, big mouths, large wings and huge height tend to make the series pretty creepy. Add in the fact that they’re fighting God and you’ll for sure need to go to church this Sunday (ff you’re an immoral Catholic like me).

The soundtrack to this is almost nonexistent. I don’t recall any of the songs adding anything good or bad to the series. The only notable part is the song by Tomozaku Seki which confidently tells you to “RELEASE YOUR MIND” which is what you should do to watch this. The dub is extremely flat and it sounds like everyone has become fatigued of being in the studio. I really can’t speak for the Japanese track since I spot checked it because the dub added a certain spice to it for being so bland.

As far as characters go, they all do ridiculous things to move the plot along. Ryo is a character that you would be
screaming “don’t go there!” because of his stupid decisions. Saori, Ryo’s sister as I stated before is just a useless character who is only meant to be sacrificed and kidnapped. She becomes so useless that her father actually sacrifices her. That’s right folks, before long before Shou Tucker of Fullmetal Alchemist fame, this man betrayed his daughter.

Overall, this is a series meant for Go Nagai fans who can understand what this is and Mexicans like myself. No, that is not racist, it just so happens that this show has a cult following in Mexico. The horror is weak, the character designs are stock, and the story is ridiculous. There’s a reason why the director Mitsutaka Noshitani never got work as a head director again. That doesn’t mean this show is throwaway. It’s still decently entertaining when you show this to a very religious person who would accuse you of blasphemy for showing them Demon Lord Dante.