As part of Netflix's Geeked Week, we saw tons of new trailers for some videogame adaptations, like a sneak peek at Arcane season 2, a small teaser for another Cyberpunk anime, and my standout favourite, a new Devil May Cry anime.
It's not all that hard to impress me when it comes to this adaptation, though, as I was obsessing over the new trailer, I found myself wondering why I recognised Dante's voice actor, it certainly wasn't Reuben Langdon (who voiced him in the games), but it still sounded familiar.
To my surprise, it turns out that Johnny Yong Bosch will be voicing Dante in the Netflix anime. "Can confirm," Netflix Geeked's official Twitter account says. "That is the Johnny Yong Bosch voicing Dante in Devil May Cry!"
I'm never disappointed to hear Bosch's superb voice acting. I've been a fan ever since I first heard him voice Ichigo Kurosaki in Bleach. But this choice is rather strange as Bosch already voices another character in the same universe, Nero. Nero became a playable character in Devil May Cry 4 and Devil May Cry 5, and he's also Dante's nephew, which some fans have pointed out could muddy the waters.
"Bad choice, in my opinion, it would be different if Bosch at least didn’t still sound exactly like Nero as Dante, but yeah, that’s just straight-up Nero’s voice coming out of Dante, and it’s very weird," one fan points out. If Netflix does release subsequent seasons (which I hope they do), it's in a bit of a sticky situation—either Bosch voices both characters, or you get a third, secret voice actor to voice Nero instead.
Some fans have pointed out just how impressive Bosch's range is: "He's not like some voice actors who are generally very recognisable. He's got a surprising range and is very skilled at acting. If he just changes his tone of voice and the way he emphasises things, I doubt people would actually be able to peg him as the voice of Nero."
I will never argue against Bosch being a superb actor, but I was able to recognise his voice within seconds of hearing it, and that was before I'd even had my morning coffee, so I'm not exactly convinced of that.
The easy solution would have been just to have Dante's original voice actor, Reuben Langdon, voice his character in the anime, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if that was a viable option. While some theorise that Langdon's grizzled tones weren't picked for the anime's young, flashy rendition of Dante, I have a feeling it might be because of his social media presence.
In the past several months, Langdon has had a, well, controversial presence on social media, all of which culminated in a spaces meet that not only disappointed fans, but made it quite clear why he hasn't reprised his role of Dante in the Devil May Cry mobile game Peak of Combat or Ken in Street Fighter 6. Here's a summary from one of his stunned viewers:
"The whole thing was just so bizarre. I didn’t write down everything, or even most things, like the stuff about Trump, the media, Gaza, and a lot more. It was 2.5 hours of an articulate and kind-sounding man just talking about totally wild and crazy things while being verbally egged on by random Twitter men."
These "wild and crazy things," as summarised by said viewer, included repeating several Covid-19 conspiracy theories, agreeing with Putin on unfounded claims that Nazis are controlling Ukraine, and defending J.K. Rowling in the wake of her numerous transphobic remarks.
Capcom has never officially fired Langdon or given a reason for his lack of appearances in recent games, but it really does seem like we should get comfortable with hearing a new voice for Dante. And who knows, maybe they'll recast Nero, or maybe Bosch will be able to pull a stellar performance out of the bag that sounds entirely new. Either way, I'm not too worried.
