Anime Review > Dante's Inferno

This is based off of the video game by the same name. I have been wanting to pick this up for a while, but the price point did not qualify for it. I finally decided to get it when Target had it for $9.99. Figured it was a fair price for 88 minutes of Anime by 6 different directors AND unrated - hummm - wonder what that means?

I picked up the DVD (cheaper) as I have no idea why any anime's are done on Blu-rays except to get more cash out of your pocket. How much sharpness can one get on an animation - honestly - is there really a huge difference? I also got the normally found cover design as there is actually 6 different DVD covers. Not sure if you would be nuts enough to get each cover design as I sure the hell had better ideas for my cash.

That little piece above got my appetite wet, but reading about the six directors really peaked my interest. I remember Gotham Knight and was impressed by the same thing with it. The Directors for this are Lee Seung-Gyu, Sang-Jin Kim (Attack the Gas Station 2), Jong-Sik Nam (Batman: Gotham Knight) , Victor Cook (Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron), Yasoumi Umetsu (Kite: Liberator) and Shuko Murase (Ergo Proxy). They also had several different studios involved with this mix as well.

Here are the covers for each of them in the same order. It gives you an idea of the differences in each style:

NSFW and Spoilers ahead

Comments:

It starts with Dante coming home to see that his entire family, slaves and Beatrice have been killed. Lucifer comes up and takes Beatrice's soul to hell as punishment for Dante's infidelities. So, with all great men, we follow Dante as he enters Hell to save his betrothed Beatrice.


We see him dive into the pits of Hell to begin his journey into the 9 Circles of Hell (Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery). He is not alone as he has a guide throughout the Anime named Virgil - a classical poet. Very much following the original Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.


WTF! Dude, there are many more women in the world that would go for a hunk like you - let it go and find yourself another hot blond chick.

As he enters each circle, we learn that Mr. Man is not the goodie goodie man he thought he was. We see all the sins he did and now must also fight those demons. The whole while Lucifer was taunting Dante with Beatrice and how he will make her his bride.

Speaking of demons and monsters, this is where they did a bang up job. Nothing is more scary than attacking babies with sword arms or my favorite, naked women with attacking vagina's. Yes, you read that right and here are the shots to prove it:

OMFG that's Huge!

Attacking Vagina's

That's gotta Hurt

Now that I have sent you running for the hills, lets move on. I did like how each circle lent itself to the imagination of the artists. The way they used Cerberus was definitely a shock to me and not exactly how I envisioned it at all. As he fights his way through each circle, he has past visions of just how fucked up he was during his time away during the Crusades. He really has denial issues. He does have some good points where he saves some of the souls he remembers and Lucifer gets pissed about it. But the best fights are with the top monsters in each level as one turns out to be his Dad (awww, we have daddy issues?).

He makes his way to the last level only to see Beatrice getting married to Lucifer and them tongue sucking. She was hot before, but this time she is seriously on fire.

Nothing like a Woman's Scorn

But in the end, he saves her and she rises to the heavens. Now he only has to get past Lucifer to get home. The "big" fight with Lucifer was a quickie and he ends up jumping into Purgatory to get home again. Now that series leave itself to a sequel, I wonder if there will be a second disk.

Overview:

I have to say, the animation was good in most of the storylines, but the story actually kind of left me with a bad taste. Still not bad for the $10 I paid for it. The different styles do lend some great times to the movie, but also to some let downs. I loved the demon designs and still can't get over the attacking vagina's _ I will be having nightmares about that. The big ending climax I waited for never really happened and seemed to be a let down. Why the "hell" have such a lead in to the big finally and then go limp with it.

Overall: C