Disclaimer
I will not let any personal opinion of mine or my better half to affect the unbiased nature of this review. Also despite my reviews aren't that popular, I'll still continue to write them so people can hopefully view a professionally thought out opinion rather then a bias piece of garbage. If you are reading this, please leave a comment and tell me your personal opinion of the anime in question, or perhaps the manga or video game it was based on.
WARNING possible spoilers WARNING
Section one and already off to a rocky start. The plot of the anime begins with Dante needing to protect a small girl. Eventually Dante becomes like a big brother to her, but the rest of the anime focuses on random odd job missions Dante has that concludes on one episode. There are a few references and nods to the rest of the series, both in games and a novel, but if you aren't a super fan these will make little sense, and there isn't really a central plot up until the end when a small reoccurring character finds the little girl's mother. He was reoccurring because he was collecting things and manipulating things only to gain power from a sealed away demon. Due to lack of details in the actual anime even this final plot is a little lack luster.
The plot bounces around and is mostly a villain of the week set up for the most part. It works and there is references for the fans of the series, but it isn't really that compelling either. Not bad enough to ruin parts of the anime thankfully but it could have been so much better.
Honestly the only characters lacking for the most part is the villains. Dante grows a little in the series towards the end due to Patty, the girl, and Patty grows a little as well. No one breaks character randomly, and the one episode characters aren't half bad, though goofy at times it fits their characterization. There are also a few decent villain characters cropping up once in a while as well, though most are generic villains with no back ground, but interesting designs. Still, the point is to focus on Dante and how cool he is I suppose, that is the central focus of the anime. Still the characters that have more heart to them are well written for sure.
There are a few decent action scenes and some more humorous moments, but that is about it. The more serious moments are predictable, and slightly boring. There are a few moments that people die when they shouldn't, and it is a bit sad, but not really used well enough to get the pull they should have. Still not a bad effort, just not as good as it could have been. Even the action isn't as good as it could have been, often being slightly slower then it should be.
Being such a short anime, the individual plots in the anime jump around a bit. Outside of that the episodes are animated nicely and each plot makes sense, the issue is that most of the episodes are kind of pointless. They only exist to show how cool Dante is, and it makes little sense. There are some strong episodes, and there are some weaker episodes as well. Not a bad effort.
The reason I said some of the designs for the demons were interesting, is because they were good designs. Such a shame too as the designs only lasted a few seconds before Dante carved them up. The final villain's design was incredibly weird however, and the settings were often bland or generic. Yes Gothic architecture works in the game, but you have to bring out some life more so in an anime unfortunately. There was one or two settings that worked and were original, but they are fair between. Again, we have good episodes with great designs both setting and demons, and some not as great episodes with good demon designs and not much else.
Overall what we have here is a mediocre attempt at bringing a video game character into an animated world. The anime is passable, with some good characterization, but most of it falls flat with some decent stand out episodes and a large amount of episodes that are just okay. If you are a Devil May Cry fan, you may enjoy this anime, but if not, I have a hard time recommending it.
I'd say watch the anime if you have nothing better to do. It isn't bad but it isn't all that good either and is graded slightly above being 100% mediocre. If you are expecting something totally awesome here because you are a Devil May Cry fan, you either will because you are in love with Dante or you will be disappointed. Personally I don't mind this anime at all, but it is a weaker anime series that I recommend watching if you can't find anything else to watch.