Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic

“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost” – Dante Alighieri

Back in the day Japan used to pump out these anthology films, short experimental works directed by the big new names in Anime. They were often highly experimental, sometimes non-narrative, always creative, artistic, and sandbox pieces. The new and cool director was given pretty much free range to direct a good 10 to 15 minutes of anime; they could do whatever they wanted in whatever way they wanted. Then the next director was given a chance to make his little piece. Want to make an anime all about the evolution and history of mankind depicted through clouds and lightning? Fine here’s the checkbook, make daddy proud. The money spent on animation and artwork alone was something no sane production company would ever greenlight today. I can’t imagine the money guys at these production studios seriously thought these would be money making endeavors, but hey it was the baburu keiki. Money was not hard to come by when the salarymen were sprinkling their sushi with gold. I half think some of these projects were ways to avoid taxes “Oh no we are going to make a profit this year, and then we will have to pay taxes! Blow it on some crazy project that will let us do a write off this year”. Think of projects like Robot Carnival, or Neo Tokyo. And yeh once in awhile they’ll throw us something similar, like this project or Short Piece, but they are ever so rare.

Not only are these anthology films rare, they’re also uneven as hell, although I suppose that’s sort of the point. This film is not non-narrative, instead it is attempting to detail the 2010 video game Dante’s Inferno. Which itself is a retelling of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic Italian poem. However, it is still one of those anthology films, made in that same mold if you will. Each piece is directed by a different director, with a different animation studio behind him. It appears as though each studio was trying to tell a different circle of Hell. The first animation studio to get a crack at this film is the terrible American Animation studio Film Roman (known for such poorly animated affairs as Bobby’s World and Garfield and Friends). They’re not really known for their high quality animation or brilliant works of art. Here they try their hardest, but boy oh boy is this a bad place to start. Their frame rate is way too fast for example, and their style is way to western for me. Maybe others would enjoy this look, but to me it’s pure trash. The color pallet in their section is way too dark, you cannot see anything at all.

After their trash on display, Studio Manglobe (a favorite Japanese animation studio of mine) gets a shot at this, and they impress. Their use of color, animation, and art design far exceed any of the other studios involved in this production. It’s sort of a shame they didn’t just make the entire anime themselves, it might have been better for that. Dongwoo Animation, the only animation studio in Korea anyone ever heard of, does an admirable job in their segment, although the character designs are really weird and out of place. Production I.G.’s segment looks quite nice. Makes me again wish more Japanese studios handled this. JM Animation, a forgettable Korean animation studio (most known for doing the in-betweens, aka the part of anime no one ever wants to handle, and for animating some Avatar episodes) handles one segment, and their character designs are actually quite interesting.

So that’s what the show looks like, but what is this really about? Well they adapt the video game, not the poem, into an action filled, grotesque, gore-fest. At first I was hugely upset, I really wanted a straight adaptation of the poem. But when looking into the classic epic poem, one quickly realizes this doesn’t translate well into a visual story. And although I feel the video game-esque aspects cheapens this, there are actually parts that make the plot more interesting. The updated plot actually works very well. Dante is no longer the Italian author himself (Dante Alighieri ), but rather a crusader. When he returns from the crusades, he finds his entire family slaughtered. They were murdered in cold blood. But why? He leaves his house to find his fiancée dying in extreme pain outside their home. When he goes to try and help her, she is kidnapped by the Devil himself and brought to the underworld. The Devil plans to marry her in an unholy ceremony, but also has larger goals in mind. Dante too is transported there. Dante, with the help of Roman poet Virgil, must now conquer the legendary nine circles of hell to try and save her soul. For his girl is pure as the snow, and does not deserve to rot in hell for all eternity. I rather enjoy this framing device, it gives meaning to Dante’s exploration of the inferno.

Each level of hell is more interesting than the last. Dante will have to fight many famous demons (Cerberus and the Minotaur for example) on his journey. One has to wonder what exactly happens to a demon when they are killed, but I guess if you think too much about any of this it falls apart. He will run into famous historical figures such as Caesar, Plato, and Saladin while on his epic journey. Dante will also have to fight his greedy father, Alighiero, who made a pact with the devil. His father has been transformed into a disgusting monster and told to kill his son in order to get money and time off of torture. His father is a real asshole so I buy this. And of course Dante will have to defeat the devil himself to free his fiancée. I don’t think the classic poem involves Dante punching Lucifer. The fight scenes are not really that well choreographed, nor are they all that exciting. There’s little dramatic timing, and you care very little for the outcomes of these battles. However this anime is more about depicting the place of torment in ever increasingly sickening ways. You really learn a lot about the punishments of the various sinners, and they’re all unnerving in unique ways. In this way the anime does succeed. When you’re done watching this you feel like you want to go to confession.

Religion appears over and over again in this anime. I mean how could it not? But what really strikes me is how the Priest manipulated Dante and the knights to do horrible things. I liked the message here on religion. Dante makes a point that the priest absolves the crusaders of all sins involved in retaking the Holy Land. Dante’s brother-in-law questions if a priest can truly do such a thing so easily. Dante off-handedly replies “Of course. Why would you doubt the church? That is the path to hell my friend”. And yet what his brother-in-law is saying makes sense, for in Catholicism murder is a sin, and a priest can’t just wash that away, especially before hand. On the one hand Priests do have a lot of power to handle sins, but on the other hand what the Priest is doing is pretending to be a messenger of God, while really being political. He is using his power of authority to try and influence these knights to re-take the Holy Land. He doesn’t care about their mortal souls, he doesn’t care about these knights having to murder in the name of God, as long as at the end of the day the Holy Lands are re-taken by Catholics. This aspect of the anime is straight out of real history. This was a real conflict back in the day, and is quite deep to think about. Of course the anime would rather spend its time showing demons torturing humans in gruesome ways than pondering this too long.

Yet there truly is something here being said about religion worth thinking about. Although Dante was taken advantage of by the priest and the political situation around him, he also indulges in his own unholy desires needlessly. He rapes a Muslim women held in captivity, even though he is engaged to a beautiful women he claims to love. This is of course a sin, but Dante rationalizes it by saying the priest said he was excused of all sins. One has to wonder if even Dante believes this one. That being said I do not think even the priest wanted this. It’s just an excuse for Dante, and his sin comes back to haunt him. In fact his sins are what set in motion the entire plot here. The show is smart by hiding exactly how or why that is, and this works thematically, making this much more engaging than it would have been if we just watched the author travel through hell as an allegory for getting through tough times in one’s life while teaching a lesson about sinning (as the original classic piece of literature is). I’m not about to say a silly anime based on a sillier video game is better than a 14th-century epic poem that will outlive all the works of art and media created this decade. I am just saying if you are going to turn this into an anime, this is the way to do make it compelling.

The characters of Dante, Virgil, Alighiero, and Dante’s fiancée are all razor thin. But this is a movie about the shocking and horrendous misery that awaits the sinners of this universe, not a character driven drama. Much more time is spent making sure those visuals are striking. And imagery here is haunting and horrifying. This is a very ghoulish depiction of hell. All the animation studios manage to disgust, creep, and scare the hell out of the viewers. There’s a beauty to all this carnage and depravity. There’s a lot of the good ol’ ultraviolence in this film, something modern anime surely lacks. It is nice to see this sort of anime again, although there is a scene where Dante has to fight unbaptized babies biting others which is a tad much. Talk about extreme content.

The music is all rather religious themed and works well. The dub is something really to give a listen to. The dub on this has some big names in it. Mark Hamil, plays Dante’s father Alighiero and he hams this up. He sounds like his joker voice, taken up a notch or two, and I just eat this slop up! Of course that’s the type of film this is so it works. He’s excellent and the performance stands out. Graham McTavish plays the lead, Dante, and he does an admirable job. Virgil is played by Peter Jessop, most known for his role as Albert Wesker in the first Resident Evil game (or at least that’s how I know him anyway). He’s another high profile actor, cast in pretty big roles in video games. Peter Jessop is frankly amazing here, his voice is so perfect for this role. He sounds like an all knowing ancient roman poet wold sound, if that makes any sense. His commentary and guidance is really the thing that holds this world together. More than anything else it his voice that guides us and Dante through the underworld, and he nails it. The Devil is played by legendary anime voice actor himself, Steve Blum. Blum is also amazing in this role, I completely buy that he’s the devil and all this nonsensical fairytale stuff is real because of him. He uses a different voice, one I’m not used to, and he just rocks it. This is no Spike Spiegel here. He is damn good though. The acting for all the actors is over the top, but how could it not be given the source material? It does work for the anime this is and I enjoyed the dub.

All in all this movie is over the top in a way few movies are. It’s hard to take a lot of this seriously, and the action and violence is intense. And yet the anime manages to work due to the extreme levels of depravity the filmmaker are willing to take us. Manga Entertainment dubbed and released this on DVD and Blu-ray in 2010, back when they released anime. This movie was a big deal when it came out, but I haven’t heard a peep about it since. Well I think it’s worth another look. This is no masterpiece by far, but it’s insanity and intensity is unique and worth your time.

“No man can absolve you of your sins, but some men can be rewarded in hell”

Alighiero

Prede’s Rating

3/5 Stars

Positives: Ultraviolent, dark, evil, and disgusting. There is (sometimes) a beauty to all the ugliness here. It’s engaging to watch how the animators depict hell. The backstory of Dante and his family is very grounding and makes this easy to get into. Has something thought provoking to say about religion. Nice dub.

Negatives:  Incredibly uneven. So over the top you can’t take it seriously. Poor fight scenes. Super silly.