Dante (Devil May Cry)
Dante (Japanese: ダンテ), also known under the alias of Tony Redgrave (トニー・レッドグレイブ, Tonī Reddogureibu), is a character and the main protagonist in Devil May Cry, an action-adventure hack and slash video game series by Japanese developer and publisher Capcom. Introduced as the protagonist of the 2001 game with the same name, Dante is a devil hunter dedicated to exterminating them and other supernatural foes in revenge for losing his mother Eva and having his older twin brother, Vergil, lost. He is the son of Sparda, inheriting demonic powers which he uses with a variety of weapons in the games. The character also appears in several Devil May Cry novels and manga volumes and is featured in the 2007 anime television series. Dante has also made multiple guest appearances in crossover games. Since 2005, he has been portrayed in voice acting and motion capture by Reuben Langdon.
Dante
Devil May Cry (2001)
Makoto Tsuchibayashi, Daigo Ikeno (Devil May Cry 2 and 3)
Tatsuya Yoshikawa (Devil May Cry 4 and 5)
Alessandro Taini (DmC: Devil May Cry)
- Drew Coombs (Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe series)
- Matthew Kaminsky (Devil May Cry 2)
- Reuben Langdon (Devil May Cry 3, 4, & 5, The Animated Series, Marvel vs. Capcom series, Teppen, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster)
- Tim Phillipps (PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale, DmC: Devil May Cry)[1]
- Vincent Tong (Puzzle Fighter)
Reuben Langdon (Devil May Cry 3, 4, & 5)
Tim Phillipps (DmC: Devil May Cry)
Named after the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, the character was designed to fit Devil May Cry game designer Hideki Kamiya's vision of a "cool and stylish" man; his personality was based on the title character of the Cobra manga series. Dante has been modified in response to criticism in his role in Devil May Cry 2 (2003) as his personality changed making him more serious and less talkative, drifting away from his original persona. Devil May Cry 3 (2005) features a young, cocky Dante, and in the following games an older yet still cocky Dante. Capcom handles the character in the main Devil May Cry series, while Ninja Theory oversaw his persona in DmC: Devil May Cry (2013).
Dante's characterization as a cocky demon hunter with supernatural abilities has turned him into one of the most iconic protagonists in gaming ever since his introduction. Reuben Langdon's portrayal of Dante has also been the subject of praise. Comparatively, his redesign and characterization in DmC: Devil May Cry was highly controversial for the drastic change of his appearance, most notably his iconic white hair.
Characteristics[edit]
Dante is a mercenary and private investigator specialising in paranormal cases, preferring those which require demon-slaying.[70] He is muscular, with silverish white hair and piercing icy blue eyes, and usually wears a red duster or trench coat. Dante's arsenal usually consists of firearms and melee weapons, including Ebony and Ivory (エボニー&アイボリ)—twin semi-automatic handguns which never need reloading—and a variety of swords, such as the Rebellion, Force Edge and various "Devil Arms" created from the souls of powerful demons he defeats over the course of each game.[71] The guns are handmade by the gunsmith Nell Goldstein, with "For Tony Redgrave, By .45 Art Warks" written on the slides (Tony Redgrave is Dante's alias).[72] He has superhuman strength, agility, stamina, reflexes, coordination, and a resistance to injury approaching invulnerability as a result of his half-demon heritage.[73] This gives him the ability to enter a heightened state known as Devil Trigger. In this state Dante possesses greater strength and speed, his health regenerates at a steady pace, and he has greater abilities (including flight) with his melee weapon.[74]
He is one of the twin sons of Sparda, a demon knight who sided with humanity and drove back an invasion of the human world by demons about 2,000 years before the series' events.[75] After Sparda's death, Dante and Vergil were raised by their human mother Eva. When Dante and Vergil were children, the family was attacked by demons, and Eva was murdered. His mother's death led to Dante's commitment to hunt the demons who killed her.[76] Dante is confident against opponents, frequently taunting enemies before fighting them.[77] In the games and anime series, Dante is often seen eating pizza. As a result, the limited editions of Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition were packaged in a pizza box.[78]
Appearances[edit]
Devil May Cry video games[edit]
In the original Devil May Cry from 2001, Dante is hired by Trish, a mysterious woman who resembles his late mother, to prevent the return of the devil king Mundus.[79] However, Trish is actually arranging for Mundus' agents to kill Dante as he makes his way to him. One of the agents is the armored soldier Nelo Angelo later revealed to be the mind-controlled Vergil, Dante's brother. After multiple encounters, Dante defeats Vergil whose body is destroyed, leaving an amulet necessary to unlock their father's legacy, the sword Sparda (スパーダ, Supāda).[80] Trish tries to kill Dante afterwards but Dante spares her when becoming victorious. When Mundus tries to kill Dante, Trish passes Dante her strength to destroy the devil king. Now allied, they become partners in Dante's demon-slaying business, now renamed Devil Never Cry.[81]
In the first sequel, Devil May Cry 2, from 2003, Dante habitually flips a coin to make decisions; at the end of the game, it is revealed that both sides of the coin are heads. Set some time after the first game, Devil May Cry 2 focuses on helping Lucia defeat Arius, an international businessman who uses demonic power and wants to conquer the world.[82] At the end of the game, Dante must go into the demon world to stop a demon lord from escaping; the gate closes behind him, and he is trapped. With no way back to the human world, Dante heads deeper into the demon world on his motorcycle.[83]
The third game, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, from 2005 is a prequel of the first game and features a cockier, younger Dante. He is drawn out by Vergil, who is trying to reopen the portal to the demon world to obtain Sparda's full power, which remains on the other side in the Force Edge sword.[84] Dante meets Lady, who is in pursuit of her father Arkham[85] who is working with Vergil but has plans of his own. Inspired by Lady's courage and commitment to her family, Dante continues his business with a greater sense of purpose. At the end of the game, Dante claims ownership of the Force Edge, and Vergil chooses to remain in the demon world.[86] Dante and Lady befriend, with the former deciding to call his shop Devil May Cry after something Lady had said to comfort him.[87][88]
In the 2008 video game Devil May Cry 4, which takes place after Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 2, Dante and Trish are informed by Lady that Sanctus, the religious leader of the Order of the Sword founded under Sparda, is using the religious order to engineer his scheme of world conquest. Trish infiltrates the Order as Gloria to confirm it is Sanctus by handing him Vergil's Yamato sword. Dante ends up as a boss character against the game's protagonist, Nero, when he seemingly assassinated Sanctus. Dante falls back while convincing Nero that the Order is more than it appears.[89] Dante later befriends Nero in another match, having intended to take back Vergil's restored sword before deciding to let Nero keep it as they now have a common enemy in Sanctus.[90] After Sanctus kidnaps Nero to use him to power the Savior, Dante becomes playable for the second half of the game as he fights to disable Sanctus completely while saving Nero and his girlfriend Kyrie after they were used to give life to the Savior colossus that Sanctus made into his vessel.[91] Once Sanctus and the Savior are destroyed after Nero and Kyrie escape, Dante entrusts Nero with Vergil's sword.[92]
Dante makes a return appearance as one of the main characters in Devil May Cry 5 in 2019.[33] He is hired by a mysterious man who calls himself V to battle the demon Urizen but is defeated by him in the game's opening scene, presume to be dead as he ends up missing after his defeat. It is revealed that he spent the next month in a coma protected by the sword Sparda.[93] V eventually manages to locate him, and he spends the next several hours fighting Urizen's forces. Dante uses Rebellion's power to absorb the Sparda into himself, acquiring his new demonic powers alongside a new blade simply named "Dante" (ダンテ).[94] He still discourages Nero from taking part in the battle against Urizen, having learned that Urizen is Vergil, who is also revealed to be Nero's father.[95][96] After Dante defeats Urizen, V merges with him to reconstitute Vergil. Dante reveals that Vergil is Nero's father before facing his brother in a climactic duel, but Nero intervenes and forces the two to reconcile.[97] Dante and Vergil embark on a one-way trip to the underworld to cut the Qliphoth's root and to seal the portal with the Yamato, leaving the human world in Nero's hands.[98] In the final scene, Dante is shown sparring with Vergil in the underworld, no longer as enemies but as friendly rivals while at the same time fending off waves of demons.[99]
Dante is a playable character in the mobile phone game Devil May Cry: Pinnacle of Combat. During the game's development players criticised Yunchang Games for their rendition of Dante's appearances which resulted into the developers' promising to fix it once the game left the beta period and was released in 2020.[100]
DmC: Devil May Cry[edit]
In DmC: Devil May Cry (2013), a Devil May Cry reboot, Dante has a very different appearance.[101] In his early twenties, he is attacked in a seemingly sentient town known as Limbo City which is inhabited by demons.[102] Dante meets Vergil, who is the leader of the Order—a rogue vigilante group trying to free the world from demons.[103][104] The city is controlled by the demon king, Mundus, who killed Dante's mother Eva (an angel), and imprisoned his father, Sparda, (a demon and Mundus' former lieutenant), as well as attempting to kill their children, who are revealed to be Nephilim, half-angel, half-demon offspring, with the power to destroy Mundus. Dante joins Vergil's group to oppose Mundus, eventually defeating him and freeing humanity from the demons; however, Vergil's intention to take Mundus' place triggers a fight between the brothers,[105] with Dante being victorious in the end but sparing Vergil's life.[106] In the DLC sequel, Vergil's Downfall, a replica of Dante appears to oppose Vergil in his quest for power and is killed in combat.[107] He also appears in mobile game Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat.[108]
Other games[edit]
Dante is also a playable character in several games outside the Devil May Cry series. In the Viewtiful Joe series (also created by Hideki Kamiya), he is playable in the PlayStation 2 version of Viewtiful Joe and the PlayStation Portable version of Viewtiful Joe: Red Hot Rumble. In both games he talks frequently with Alastor, the embodiment of the identically named sword in Devil May Cry.[109][110] Dante appears as an enemy and an optional ally in the director's cut version of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, titled Maniax. His inclusion was suggested by the Atlus staff, who thought that he would fit the game's plot and convinced Capcom to include him.[111] Dante is replaced by Raidou Kuzunoha the XIV in the Maniax Chronicle edition and by default in the HD Remaster, but is available as paid DLC in the latter version. Morikawa and Langdon reprise their role as Dante in HD Remaster.[112]
There is a Dante character card in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS. Although he was also intended for inclusion in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos, he was removed from the game.[113] Dante made his second fighting-game appearance as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and is playable in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite which details his fight against a being named Ultron Sigma.[114][115] As downloadable content in Infinite, Dante's look can be altered to show his DmC appearance.[116]
Dante was scheduled to appear in Soulcalibur III, but did not make it into the final game.[117] Dante is a playable character in the tactical role-playing game Project X Zone, with Demitri Maximoff of Darkstalkers as his partner. He returns in the sequel, Project X Zone 2, with Vergil as his partner.[118][119] Dante is a playable character in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as his DmC: Devil May Cry incarnation.[120] The use of his DmC look (instead of his original persona) was criticised by fans, who were advised by SuperBot Entertainment to enjoy the character's gameplay mechanics.[121] Dante also appeared in Capcom's mobile fighting game, Puzzle Fighter,[122] and the card game Teppen.[123] He is also a guest character in Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2 mobile phone game.[124] The character's visual appearance has also been featured in Astro's Playroom and as downloadable content in Capcom's Monster Hunter, Sengoku Basara 4 and Street Fighter V.[125][126][127][128] A Mii Fighter costume based on Dante was added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate via downloadable content on June 29, 2021.[129]
In other media[edit]
He appears in other media based on the video games, including two light novels by Shinya Goikeda. A young Dante, Tony Redgrave (トニー) is chased by assassins, and he searches for a demonic statue, known as the Beastheads, in a Devil May Cry 2 prequel.[130][131] A Devil May Cry 4 novel by Bingo Morihashi reprises Dante's role in the game, revealing his interest in Nero after discovering his resemblance to his brother Vergil.[132][133] A Devil May Cry 3 manga follows Dante before the game's events; a comic of the first game was published by Dreamwave Productions,[134] and an anime, Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, follows him as he solves cases involving demons while guarding a young girl named Patty Lowell.[135][136] DmC: Devil May Cry's version of Dante appears in the game's prequel comic, The Chronicles of Vergil, when he receives the Rebellion sword to fight demons.[137] The anime inspired two CD dramas whose narrative involves Dante's life.[138][139] In 2019, Tomio Ogata authored a manga that features Dante's actions in Devil May Cry 5 as he meets V.[140]
In the play Sengoku Basara vs. Devil May Cry he was played by Hiroki Suzuki.[141] In the musical Devil May Cry: The Live Hacker, he was portrayed by Ryōma Baba.[142] The popularity of the Devil May Cry series led to a line of action figures, produced by Toycom;[143] Kaiyodo produced a similar line for Devil May Cry 2 and a Devil May Cry 3 Dante action figure.[144][145]