"Most of the track is dialogue, but there are spots that capture the creepy, otherworldly feel of the demons. Music and dialogue were balanced well and did not overshadow each other; outside of the opening and ending theme songs, the music does not make much of an impact while watching the series. The end result is a solid but not overly impressive audio track"
"the first four episodes do little to make one think the wait was worth it."
"Dante does little in its opening act to distinguish itself from the standard God versus the Devil plot line. [...] We are rushed through the introduction of the characters and are given little chance to see any depth to them. The episodes also do little to add any mystery to the plot that would hook the viewer into continuing to watch. [...] Throw in a sister that is setup to be the savior for Ryo's mind and soul, and you have a paper thin plot that does not hold up. You can see a number of visual and thematic elements that Nagai expanded upon in his later works, but it is less entertaining than his later creations. If this anime series was made before works like Devilman, perhaps one could be more forgiving; at this late date though, there just is not much to recommend in this title at the moment. One can only hope for a strong middle and ending now that the pieces are in place. [In Summary:] You can see a lot of elements in Demon Lord Dante that were carried over to Nagai's later series; unfortunately, the start of Dante suffers a problem common to most progenitors. It has the spark of a numerous interesting concepts but fails to really draw the viewer into the plot. We watch a standard ultimate good versus ultimate evil power struggle, but there are no characters on either side that really makes the series stand out. Perhaps the series picks up steam (or would that be brimstone?) later on, but nothing in the opening batch of episodes really clicked with me."
"The God Squad has created their own devil and is using to kill innocent women. Their goal is the same as the four demon kings; they want the ensuing panic to drive mankind into helping God eliminate the demons. While the rest of the God Squad blindly follows this path, only Sosuke questions the wisdom of this blind faith. How is doing evil in God's name make them different from those they are attempting to kill?It is this thought provoking item alone that manages to save this volume; the bulk of the volume is either gruesome violence or ponderous dialogue" [...] "it is the one saving grace in an otherwise dull production"
"Something has to be done to lift this title out of the quagmire of mediocrity"
"It is not often I find a title this violent yet completely dull; the one redeeming grace of this series lies in the theological implications"
"a rather boring battle has Dante destroying the demon kings and rescuing Medusa"
"This is quite a novel take on the Biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and proves to be the most interesting aspect of the volume"
"Great attention has been given to the character designs and their details; the same cannot be said for the actual battle scenes."
"The most frustrating part of this volume is the bizarre turns the writers take with Sosuke's character [...] t makes little sense for Sosuke to go from the one sane person questioning the events around him to a good solider that is simply obsessed with killing devils"
"Dante continues to be a series with an interesting premise but just cannot execute well enough to tell an engaging story around it. The action is stale and more suited for a long running serial series. [...] The final episode of the volume holds the only interesting material as it continues to blur the line of God and Devil, right and wrong. The twist on the age old war between God and Satan is a refreshing change, but it just is not enough to recommend picking up this title unless you are a die-hard Go Nagai fan."
"Anime is rife with shows revolving around devils and demons; however, Go Nagai manages to stand the genre on its head and puts a different perspective on it. Rather than having humanity struggle to save the Earth from a demonic horde, it is the demonic horde that must take back the Earth from God and humanity in Demon Lord Dante."
"the concepts behind the ending do not feel fleshed out. [...] Part of this is due to the length of the series; the thirteen episodes were just not enough to fully explore and flesh out the characters and concepts behind the story. Sosuke continues to be my standard example; his behavior seems erratic throughout the series. Sometimes, he hates all devils and willingly follows Kosuke and his agenda. At other times, he finds the God Squad's actions no better than the devils they are supposed to be fighting. He slips back and forth between hating and following Kosuke too easily, and there is no clear motivation why he does this"
"The only saving grace of the series is Go Nagai's take on what God and devils really are. He combines Biblical stories with evolution and science quite well and brings a number of interesting ideas to the table. Unfortunately, thirteen episodes was just not enough time to flesh them out and provide an engaging world and set of characters to draw the audience in. [...] In Summary: Demon Lord Dante had a number of intriguing ideas and twists on various theological themes and religious stories. However, the audience has to sit through large amounts of setup and exposition for a minuscule pay off. The series could have benefited from being stretched over more episodes; thirteen episodes just did not give it ample time to create characters or a world that could draw the audience into the story. This is evident in the episodes of this final volume; they had to rush through too many plot threads in order to bring the series to some sort of conclusion. The end result has many of the characters becoming irrelevant to the events and serving only as on-scene narrators. Without a tight story, this series just did not deliver much to recommend."
"Demon Lord Dante is what you can expect from some of Go Nagai's work: total and senseless gore not worthy for a TV screen. No show has ever driven me to levels of mind shredding as this one has."
"Plotwise, all you have to do is add Go Nagai to the show Arjuna and you have a similar plot to this show. Hero manages to wipeout on his motorcycle and cheat death. Hero gets super powers and a little device called the Deus Ex Machina to reveal demons who were causing the killings of women in the town (no doubt being an insult to all women at the same time, considering the fact that not ONE MAN gets killed in the first episode with four synchronized killings to women). The plot, despite the cliche, is oddly the SOLE THING worth remembering since it is engaging enough to erase the interest in everything else, causing the fact that this show reeks somewhat of Go Shogun's style of action."
"What is being provided as a soundtrack reminds me of second-rate action video games. No originality and a maddening lack of real musical planning with the theme song being the only song well placed and nicely tuned"
"The characters are also too cheesy and thin. The protagonist is a loser obsessed with demons with the bedhead (which reminds you of Violence Jack, making the Lawsuit Count at 2) [...] His sister is a noninteresting character [...] The other people have warped personalities, with the hero's father's face looking like a diamond. Just another example of why this anime tends to insult."
"As you can imagine, Demon Lord Dante and Violence Jack both share similar styles in artwork, showing off all four types of blood and fanservice in unnecessary depth. Too bad the animation quality is total kitsch"
"Fanservice and satanism are abound everywhere possible in this show, so you can get a good idea where this is going. The monsters are horrible unimaginative and one-dimensioned. Under no circumstances should anyone want to watch this."
"The art is excellent. There is a lot of gore and violence, and the demonic creatures are depicted as quite terrifying by keeping them in the dark and not providing too many visual details. The details used for the satanic rituals are well planned, giving the scene a scence of reality"
"Overall, Demon Lord Dante is off to a strong start"
"Four Demon Kings (who we see on horseback like the four horsemen on the Apocalypse — symbolism/parallelism"
"The demon designs in Dante are frightening and powerful. They are just enough over-the-top to work. The use of a human face in the spot of the "third eye" on a giant demon would not work anywhere else, but Go Nagai uses it to provide depth the the character. There is plenty of violence and gore as demons suck the life from people and rip through them with blood gushing everywhere. I love the Four Demon Kings introduced in this volume — again, great designs."
"The story itself is captivating. Ryo is a tragic hero who is truly conflicted as he never asked to become the Demon Lord but is stuck as such. He is unaware of his father's position and vice versa which allows the viewer to better appreciate how horrible things could become as father and son are ignorantly locked in battle with one another"
"Okay, the idea behind several other anime stereotypes was present here in spades. From the giant robot that has a human enter it and control it to do as he wishes to the horrible devil stories that Mr. Nagai has worked on in the past, the show was very slow in progressing past the basic events" [...] "in the four episodes on the first DVD, it was simply boring"
"[...] the style of the animation used looked to be something from twenty years ago rather than a recent release"
"If the direction and story were so weak, as well as the technical aspects, why waste you time and money on such a niche project?"
"There's a reason why this one stayed on Manga for so long and it has nothing to do with the audience not being ready for it as Mr. Nagai suggests in the press conference (the reason is because the material is lame)"
"limited animation"
"The sad part is that so many people fall all over themselves when Go Nagai's name is mentioned, no matter what the quality of the release. This was the worst of his releases I've ever seen by a wide margin and I can only wonder if better horror anime exists to be brought over, although maybe not by as big a name as Mr. Nagai. If you really love his work, rent this first but I still didn't see a whole lot to enjoy here."
"The demons' banter between battling is confusing [...] The battle between these two is slow and awkward, not at all exciting"
"If you muddled through the first of three episodes on this DVD (bravo, brave boy), you get a treat, albeit a sugarless one. The religious undertones of the series become louder, but not much more clear. [...] The Four Demon Kings (Demon Lord Dante's version of the Four Horsemen) are awakened, and their first act of slaughter (after they take care of a Russian army) is to terrorize commuters on a passenger rail in Tokyo. The Demon Kings are very cool, especially the many-armed Shiva-based monster"
"One member of the "good guys" feels torn over whether this is right or not, and, by God, we get our first real feeling that these characters have depth and feeling"
"Destined for the bargain bin, Demon Lord Dante has all the religious undertones of Neon Genesis: Evangelion but none of the fun, and all the evil of Devil Man but none of the intense images."
"Demon Lord Dante is the most depressing anime to come from this guy's work. Devil Man and Devil Lady were evil but at least had their fun points. There's very little fun in Demon Lord Dante, and the evil isn't all that inspiring either."
"Ryo is whisked away by a new demon friend, who gives him a history lesson, one that starts off rather interestingly. Ryo is shown the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gamorrah, and sees himself there. He sees how the cities' destruction came about. And he learns that Satan was actually a good guy, looking to help the humans, while God is actually an evil, malicious entity that came from space! God creates hell, after the residents refuse to give themselves over to him. God becomes a series of giant horse- and lion-headed beasts that ravage humanity. God is not a nice guy in Demon Lord Dante. At this point I'm thinking, 'Hey, cool! Something totally unexpected and intriguing. This series may be salvaged after all.' That is until I saw the Sodom version of Ryo flying around in a jet car and dinosaurs wandering around Biblical Earth. That's when you know you've crossed the line between suspension of disbelief and a complete and utter inability to take this series seriously."
"It's not funny, not scary, and just isn't very interesting"
"Satanists are running amok, stealing menorahs from Catholic churches"
"The story itself is fairly interesting, but with so much BS being slung in from every corner of the screen, it's almost too cheesy to be taken seriously. Unless you lie awake at nights and dream of watching more Nagai shows and bathing in more demon series, there're other things out there that would suit your tastes better."
"For as incredibly violent as all of this is, it's viciously boring. There isn't a single thing to keep viewers awake, aside from a few interesting forays into religious doctrine on Good vs. Evil and the morality of holy wars. What makes something good, and what makes something bad? If you do something bad in the name of God... is it therefore good? Questions like that are examined throughout the course of this phenomenally dull show and keep it from being complete dredge. Unless you're interested in hearing Nagai's views on this, stay away from the show"
"The other is the first and only volume of Anime X-Plode, an anthology of mostly horrible songs trying to ride that big, big wave of anime popularity that crested back around 2004. Its cover marks the only point in history when anyone in his or her right mind grouped Demon Lord Dante and Stratos 4 among 'the best in Japanese animation.'"
