In this extremely loose adaptation of Dante's Inferno (with bits of Purgatory and Paradiso thrown in for good measure) we are treated to a dumbed down and degraded version of the original. I can understand why animators and game producers would want to co-opt the work, its quest-like plot of a hero extricating himself from a series of levels seems ready made for this type of entertainment. The voice talent is good and devoid of a lot of the silly flourishes so often included in anime (child-like groaning and squealing by women, etc). Some of the levels are nicely conceptualized like Greed and the City of Dis. As Dante travels through the levels of hell the characters' appearances change which is an interesting break with convention. I preferred the less anime-like depictions, and some of those levels were very nicely rendered.
I feared that the work would be marred somehow by inclusion of some adolescent fantasy and sure enough, Beatrice, the embodiment of purity in Dante's original, is never seen unless exposing some part of her anatomy. And the level Lust manages to combine pornography and grotesquery in a fashion that will only please the most maladjusted of teenage boys. One can only imagine why the writers would want to include such things as heads being loped off and ample streams of blood and gore. I suppose it is what the audience demands.Get more detail about Dante's Inferno.
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