Dante doesn't just kill demons. He eats pizza, goes broke, and occasionally stars in comic books that most fans have never actually touched. If you’ve spent any time stylishly slashing through the underworld in the games, you probably think you know the son of Sparda. But the devil may cry manga landscape is a bizarre, fragmented mess of canon, non-canon, and "it's complicated." It isn't just one book. It's a collection of attempts to flesh out a guy who, frankly, was originally designed to be a cool silhouette with a big sword and even bigger attitude.
Most people don't realize how much the early print media influenced the Dante we see in Devil May Cry 5.
Back in the early 2000s, Capcom was basically throwing everything at the wall. They wanted a multimedia empire. What we got were some of the most tonally inconsistent stories in the series. Some are dark and brooding. Others feel like a fever dream. If you’re looking for a straight line from the first game to the latest, the manga will make your head spin. But honestly? That’s why it’s interesting.
The Shinya Goikeda Problem and the DMC3 Prequel
The most "famous" entry is arguably the Devil May Cry 3 prequel manga. It was illustrated by Suguro Chayamachi. You’ve probably seen the art online—it’s scratchy, gothic, and looks nothing like the polished 3D models from the PlayStation 2. It was supposed to be a three-volume set. We only got two.
Volume 1 focuses on Dante. Volume 2 focuses on Vergil. Volume 3, which was supposed to bridge the gap directly into the start of the third game, simply never happened. It’s a ghost. A phantom limb of the franchise. Because of this, we see Dante in his "Tony Redgrave" transition phase, dealing with a guy named Rabbit, and Vergil wandering through a library like a Victorian villain. It’s moody. It's slow. It spends a lot of time on Vergil’s internal monologue, which is a goldmine for lore nerds who want to know why he’s so obsessed with power.
But it’s also frustrating. You read it and you’re waiting for the payoff, but the industry just moved on. It’s a relic of a time when manga adaptations of games were treated as disposable marketing rather than core pillars of the story.
Then there is the Devil May Cry 1 light novel by Shinya Goikeda. While not strictly a manga, it often gets lumped in because of the illustrations and its massive impact on the devil may cry manga identity. This is where the name "Tony Redgrave" really took hold. It paints a picture of Dante before he was a legendary demon hunter. He was just a mercenary in a town called Dumary Island (later seen in DMC2), hiding his identity and using handguns because they were "human" weapons.
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Why the Visions of V Manga Actually Works
Fast forward to the modern era. Visions of V is the gold standard. Unlike the unfinished 2005 projects, this one actually finishes what it starts.
Written and illustrated by Tomio Ogata, it retells the events of Devil May Cry 5 through V’s perspective. It’s essential. If you played the game and thought V was just a weird emo kid who read poetry, this manga will humble you. It shows the sheer agony of Vergil’s human half literally falling apart. There’s a specific scene where V tries to eat a burger and his body can barely handle it. It’s pathetic. It’s tragic. It makes the final confrontation in the game hit way harder.
Ogata’s art style is clean but detailed. He captures the fluid movement of the summons—Griffon, Shadow, and Nightmare—better than the game’s engine sometimes does. He also gives Griffon a lot more personality. You get the sense that these demons aren't just tools; they are the lingering, traumatized memories of Vergil’s past.
The Canon Confusion and the "Tony Redgrave" Legacy
Is it canon? That’s the question that keeps the DMC subreddit up at night.
The answer is: mostly.
Capcom has a habit of "soft-canonizing" things. They’ll take a character or a name from a forgotten manga and drop it into a game file ten years later. For example, Enzo. He’s Dante’s info broker in the early manga and the Bayonetta crossover lore. He’s mentioned in the games, but you rarely see him. The devil may cry manga acts like a testing ground for these side characters.
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- The DMC3 Manga: Mostly canon, but the missing third volume makes it feel like an alternate reality.
- Visions of V: 100% canon and endorsed by the developers.
- The DMC4 Manga: Actually just a light novel called Deadly Fortune, but it explains how Nero got the Yamato. Super important, yet barely read.
It's a mess. A beautiful, stylish mess. You have to be a bit of a detective to piece it together. Dante’s personality shifts depending on who is writing him. In the early stuff, he’s much more melancholic. He’s a guy who lost his mom and brother and doesn't know how to deal with it, so he hides behind a mask of bravado. In the later manga, he’s the "Uncle Dante" we love—goofy, overpowered, and perpetually in debt.
Finding These Books Without Breaking the Bank
Good luck finding physical copies of the TokyoPop releases of the DMC3 manga. They are out of print. They are expensive. You’ll likely find them in the "used" section of a comic shop for fifty bucks, or on eBay for even more.
If you want to read them, digital is your best bet, though even then, licensing is a nightmare. Visions of V was serialized on the LINE Manga app, which made it much more accessible to a global audience. It’s a sign that Capcom is finally taking their print media seriously.
One thing that’s really cool about the devil may cry manga is how it handles Sparda. In the games, Sparda is this mythic figure. A legend. In the manga, we get snippets of how his legacy actually weighs on his sons. It’s not just about the power; it’s about the burden of being "half" of something. Vergil hates his human half. Dante tries to ignore his demon half. The manga dives into that psychological rift in a way that an action-focused hack-and-slash game just can't.
Real Talk: Is It Actually Good?
Look, I love this series. But I’m not going to lie to you and say every page is a masterpiece.
The early manga has some "edgy" 2000s tropes that haven't aged perfectly. There’s a lot of brooding in rain-slicked alleys. There’s a lot of cryptic dialogue that doesn't really go anywhere. But the art is usually top-tier. Even when the story falters, the visuals of Dante swinging Rebellion or Vergil unsheathing Yamato are worth the price of admission.
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If you're a casual fan, you can skip the old stuff. Just watch a lore video. But if you care about the characters—if you actually like the soap opera elements of the Sparda family—then you need to read Visions of V. It’s the only piece of DMC media that makes you feel sorry for Vergil without making him look weak.
The Devil May Cry 3 manga is also worth a look just for the aesthetic. It feels like a time capsule. It reminds you of a time when Dante was a new icon and nobody quite knew what to do with him yet. Was he a horror protagonist? A superhero? A punk rock rebel? The manga says "yes" to all of the above.
Moving Toward the Future of DMC Media
What’s next? With the success of the Castlevania and Devil May Cry animated projects on Netflix, we might see a resurgence in print. There’s a hunger for more Dante. The games take forever to develop—DMC5 came out in 2019, and we’re still waiting for news on a sequel. Manga fills that gap.
It allows for smaller, more intimate stories. We don't need a world-ending threat every time. I’d love a manga that’s just Dante and Lady trying to collect a bounty and failing to pay their electricity bill. That’s the heart of the series. The contrast between the cosmic demon-slaying and the mundane struggle of being a functional adult.
Honestly, the devil may cry manga is a testament to the fans. Much of it stayed alive through fan translations and community archives long after the official publishers gave up on it. That’s dedication.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Reading
If you're diving in, start with Visions of V. It’s the most cohesive experience. Then, go back to the DMC3 prequel if you can find it. Don't worry too much about what’s canon and what isn't. The "DMC Multiverse" is loosely defined at best. Just enjoy the art and the extra flavor it adds to the world.
Check out scanlation sites for the older, out-of-print stuff, but try to support official releases for anything modern. It’s the only way Capcom will keep making them. And keep an eye on Tomio Ogata’s social media—he often posts sketches and behind-the-scenes looks at his process, which is a treat for any fan of the visual style.
The next step is simple: track down a digital copy of Visions of V Volume 1. It changes the way you see the opening cutscene of DMC5 forever. You’ll never look at that V-shaped blur the same way again. Once you’ve finished that, look for the Deadly Fortune summaries to finally understand what was going on with Nero’s arm before it got ripped off. It makes the "Deadweight" joke a lot funnier when you realize how much he actually went through.