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DMC5 Lady

Lady, as she appears in Devil May Cry 5.

Lady is a character from the Devil May Cry series of hack and slash 3D action games. A human demon hunter, she first appeared in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and has made several appearances since then. However, she didn't make her playable debut in the series until the "Special Edition" of Devil May Cry 4.

In Devil May Cry 3, Lady appears in numerous cutscenes, fights Dante as a boss character, and allies up with Dante during the game’s closing credits, though she is not controllable by the player. She also provides the game’s framing narration, telling the story of how she met Dante and Vergil, and how Dante picked the name "Devil May Cry" for his shop, which was something she had said while trying to comfort Dante over the 'loss' of his brother.

Biography[]

Appearance[]

Lady has dark, chin-length hair on both sides of her face and she has a fringe that reaches her eyebrows. She has many scars across her body, the most prominent being the one across her nose. She also always has a necklace with a red gem on it. Like her father, she has the genetic condition called heterochromia, which render each of her eyes a different color: her left eye is red while her right eye is bluish-green.

Lady seems to be younger than Dante. When she is first seen in Devil May Cry 3, she wears a schoolgirl outfit with a short white blouse that bares her midriff and sleeves that reach just past her elbows. The skirt appears to be made of protective plating and she has a utility belt to hold gun magazines, with dark black/purple shorts underneath. Connected to the belt is a harness for Kalina Ann. She carries a pistol on the front of her skirt and a Skorpion submachine gun with a bayonet on the back, with a lever action bow gun of sorts strapped to her left thigh, and finally, a pistol strapped to her right boot. She wears dark brown gloves and orange-brown knee-high boots, with black socks under.

For her short appearance in the manga, she wore a standard schoolgirl outfit. She had a white blouse with a tie and a skirt with black thigh high socks and shoes. This is the only time where she doesn't have her necklace.

During the anime series, Lady wears her Devil May Cry 3 outfit but occasionally changes it. She also wore a red, full-body biker suit. She wore a green jacket and jean short shorts at one point. Very shortly she wore a purple jacket with white frills and purple pants. Her final outfit was a disguise as a blackjack dealer, wearing a vest, white button-up shirt and a miniskirt.

During the events in Devil May Cry 4, Lady has noticeably matured, growing a larger chest. Her hair is longer, but keeps the same general style, with the hair framing her face reaching her collarbone. Her outfit consists of a white jacket with what appears to be a harness underneath with no shirt revealing her ample cleavage and belly button. She also has white short shorts and red gloves. She has magazine pouches on either side of her hips and knee-high boots. She also wears sunglasses.

In Devil May Cry 5, Lady's hair is cut short in a ragged short bob style with a full fringe simliar to her DMC 3 hairstyle; her scars mainly across her nose have been notably healed. Her main outfit is combination of both military and casual style; a off-white leather short jacket with a white long sleeved blouse which shows off her midriff and was accessorized with gray and black rider goggles and a black buckled belt which is connected to her jacket, black shorts with matching leg warmers which is connected to her shorts that resembles leggings. She retains her skirt and her weaponry in the third game and wears black boots. She also wears black fingerless gloves and black/gray nail polish.

For a brief period after Lady's rescue (in which Lady was completely naked and covered in a light blue slime) inside the demon Artemis, she was covered in a light brown cloth and later lent one of Nico's spare white mechanic jumpsuits, which is a bit too large for Lady, leading to a somewhat baggy appearance. She wears the sleeves rolled up to just below her elbow, and the pantlegs just above the ankle. Lady also leaves the jumpsuit zipped up to just below her breasts before flipping it the rest of the way into a collar, leaving the only visible button unbuttoned. Despite wearing the outfit in such a revealing fashion, Lady's cleavage is barely emphasized due to lack of support beneath the loose-fitting jumpsuit. Lady is also given a pair of black work shoes.

She was later seen wearing a loose button shirt to cover herself then wearing her main outfit throughout the game.

Personality[]

Lady is very fierce, rough, and tough enough to keep up with Dante. She is described as a "psychotic devil-hunting female". Although, when she kills her father, Lady breaks down and cries, showing a more sentimental side. She also appears to have a bit of a crush on Dante, as she appears to show a softer side when around him and she gets a little jealous when she learns that Dante is good friends with Trish.

She originally hated all demons, even half-demons, and wanted to exterminate all of them. Her greatest weapon at the time was her belief that what she was doing was right. This caused her to develop a moral bigotry against demons, believing them to be remorsless monsters unable to understand things like love or family. This may have been the reason why she did not initially believe in the legend of Sparda, she may not have been able to accept the fact that a demon is responsible for both the world's and humanity's continued existence.

However, over time and through her experiences with Dante, she learns that Sparda did exist and that humans and demons are equals in their capacity for both righteousness and depravity.

Concept and creation[]

Lady's appearance was based on Russian singer Julia Volkova. While the character's designers sought to have her portrayed as a capable fighter, she was dressed in a school uniform in order to appeal to casual gamers; Daigo Ikeno tried to off-set the immature outfit by using oversized weaponry. With regard to cutscenes, Ikeno asked staff to make her look like a skilled fighter by utilizing sudden, unexpected martial arts movements and having the character make quick use of her guns during peak stances of those movements; her motion-capture actress found it difficult to replicate these moves.[1] Bingo Morihashi said that he originally intended for Lady to be older than series protagonist Dante, but director Hideaki Itsuno refused to agree to this, believing Japanese players would prefer the character younger. Her appearance was finalized late in Devil May Cry 3's development, though Morihashi wrote her story and dialogue with a clear visual in mind. To distinguish her from previous heroines in the franchise, Lady was given black hair. Another contrast with Trish and Lucia was the fact she was highly skilled at fighting demons. The team felt former heroines were too generic.[2]

Her relationship with her father Arkham represents one of the key themes of Devil May Cry 3: familial conflict, with Dante also being in conflict with his brother Vergil. Itsuno said he did not like the idea of Lady killing Arkham, as he believed a child should never kill their parent. Morihashi wanted this scene in the final product, along with Dante defeating Vergil, as themes of the game. To balance this, Morihashi wrote a scene leading up to Arkham's death, where Lady said that Arkham was her responsibility.[3]

For Devil May Cry 4, Lady was redesigned to look like a businesswoman. The main character designer added sunglasses to hide her eyes of different colors, while expanding on her sex appeal to make players notice she was older than in Devil May Cry 3. This sex appeal required adjusting cutscenes in the game. However, multiple ideas were rejected by staff on the grounds that they were too explicit, although her final model was still approved despite being more erotic. Although Lady only appeared in a few cutscenes in the game, the staff had multiple discussions about her redesign; one concept artist said he spent more time designing Lady than Kyrie, the main heroine of the game. Like Dante, Lady's age was kept ambiguous, though the designers wanted both characters to look more attractive than in previous titles.[4]

Lady's popularity once made Capcom staff think about designing a spin-off game centered around her, but this was not pursued.[5] Originally, the character was set to be included as an alternate skin in Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, but Itsuno feared a negative backlash, and decided to retain her original moves and instead make Lady a playable character. To accommodate her inclusion, certain bosses were redesigned on her campaign mode. In 2015, Itsuno referred to Lady as his favorite character from Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, based on how different her play style is when compared to the others. Itsuno further described her as "definitely [a] cool enough and strong enough character."[6]

Story[]

Devil May Cry 3[]

Before meeting Dante, Mary's father, Arkham, killed her mother for reasons unknown to her. Because of this, she disassociated herself from the name her father gave her. She quickly developed a hatred towards not only her father for his horrendous act, but also against all demons, which she blamed for corrupting him. In a quest for revenge, she begins to climb the Temen-ni-gru in pursuit of Arkham.

She first meets Dante just after his battle with Cerberus. She fires a missile from Kalina Ann at Dante, who dodges the missile and rides it around the chamber like a flying skateboard. Dante releases it, and the missile blows a hole in the other side of the chamber. She then drives her motorcycle through the hole, continuing up the tower.

She fights her way up through the tower, taking a different path than Dante. As she approaches the top, she is confronted by Arkham, who calmly asks her why she points a gun at her own kin. She then claims the only family she had was her mother attempts to shoot him, but Arkham dodges her bullets and flips her off the side of the tower. She fires at him with her handguns as she falls, and one bullet grazes his cheek.

Below, Dante, in devilishly proper timing, catches her by the ankle. She then shoots Dante in the forehead, and he drops her. By jamming the blade of the Kalina Ann into the wall of the tower, she manages to stop her fall only a short distance away. Dante peers over the ledge to express his outrage at being shot, so she shoots at him again. This time Dante catches the bullet in his teeth, but leaves her be.

Still without a name, she presses on. She does not see Dante again until Leviathan nearly falls on her. Not sure what to make of it, she draws her gun as the eye begins to move. In a fountain of blood, Dante bursts forth from the eye. He starts to walk away, following a sign left by Jester, but she stops him. The two exchange a few words, but are attacked by demons. She and Dante stand back-to-back and fight off the demons. During the battle, Dante asks what her name is, to which Lady responds that she doesn't have one, and that he can call her whatever he likes. Dante, in a rather dismissive way, replies "Whatever, Lady" before leaping away and leaving the rest of the demons for her to deal with.

When Dante finds the seemingly dead body of Arkham, Lady arrives at the scene. Seeing the body of her despised father, she asks Dante if he is responsible. When Dante replies with an unsatisfactory, "So what if I did?" Lady flies into a rage and shoots at Dante, though he dodges or counters every shot. While venting her anger on Dante, she explains Arkham's sins and that he is her father. She laments about Arkham's death being her responsibility since they are family, but ultimately sends Dante on his way. Some time after Dante's departure, Arkham awakes, though he is still on the verge of death. He tells Lady that it was a demon who tricked him into killing his wife, and pins the blame on Vergil. After saying this, he takes his last breath. Lady then cries over him and promises to avenge his death by stopping Vergil.

Lady then catches up to Dante as he is fighting Vergil, and joins the clash. Soon after, Jester stops the battle. Jester reveals that he is in fact the alter ego of Arkham. Arkham also reveals that he lured Dante, Vergil, and Lady into that chamber, stating that all of them are the key in his plan to unlock the path to Demon World. In Lady's case, she is the descendant of a human priestess who Sparda sacrificed to seal the Temen-ni-gru. Jester mocks the brothers, saying they are weak. After slamming Lady's face into the floor, he stabs her thigh with the Kalina Ann in order to draw her blood and break the seal. Lady, Vergil, and Dante together try to put an end to Arkham, but, since they are weakened from having fought each other, he easily dispatches them and knocks them off of the rising platform on which they were standing. Lady very nearly falls again as the floor beneath her and the sons of Sparda collapses, but Dante catches her. She insists that it is her job to stop Arkham since he is her father, and uses the grappling hook on the Kalina Ann to ascend to the top of the tower. Dante, however, doesn't think she is a match for Arkham, and follows her by a different route.

Dante finally catches up with her at the Divine Library. When Dante goes to the top of the tower to teleport to the Demon World, Lady stops him and aims her gun at Dante, saying that it is her responsibility to stop Arkham and Dante should not interfere. Dante insists that it is his responsibility, too, and demands that Lady get out of the way. Lady refuses and they begin a fight. After her defeat, Dante remarks that this whole mess started with his father, and he should sort it out. Lady acquiesces, and entrusts Dante with Kalina Ann in exchange for his name. Some time later, Lady is shown catching a glimpse of Vergil going to the top of the tower.

After Arkham's acquisition of Sparda's power and subsequent defeat at the hands of Dante and Vergil, Arkham falls back to the human world. As Arkham, weakened and bloodied, tries to recover, Lady finds him. With Lady training her gun at him, Arkham pleads his innocence and begs her for his life. Lady shoots him regardless, several times. Lady then cries beside his body.

Lady reappears at the end of the game beside Dante, and converses about the aftermath. This is where she coins the famous phrase 'Devil May Cry' after seeing Dante shedding tears for his brother. Afterwards, the demons still left in the human world appear and attack both of them. Lady fights beside Dante. Then, the scene shifts to Lady's commentary about the future, the demons left in the human world, and about Dante's newly opened shop. Through her interactions with Dante, Lady realizes that demons are capable of both good and evil, just as humans are.

Anime series[]

In Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, Lady works as a solo devil hunter, who sometimes calls on Dante for help, and at times for the amount of money he owes her. She also has a scar on her upper left thigh, from being stabbed with the Kalina-Ann in the events of Devil May Cry 3.

Devil May Cry 4[]

Lady is shown as the one responsible for getting Dante and Trish involved in the events in Fortuna by assigning them there. She tells Dante and Trish about the Order of the Sword, a small congregation that gathers in the city of Fortuna and worship Sparda as a god, much to Dante's surprise. She also says that lately the Order started collecting Devil Arms and "even have butted in on some of [her] jobs". She also hints that the Order may have something more to them than what meets the eye. After seeing that Trish has taken the Sparda sword and left a lipstick message on the wall, Lady tells Dante to "not keep [them] waiting" and goes outside the shop where she sees Trish fighting off some demons, in which Lady gives a little help.

Later on after Sanctus and the Savior are defeated, Lady, Dante and Trish watches for a bit as Nero and Kyrie share a kiss. In the post-credits scene, Lady comes back to Dante's shop to pay for their services, implying that Dante doesn't have any debt to her anymore, even if the amount she paid was small. Trish complains about this small payment to which Lady reasons that the events that happened there escalated because of Trish's actions. She later accompanies Dante and Trish to their next assignment.

While Lady is unplayable in the original version of the game (appearing only as a story character), she appears as a playable character in the Special Edition version (along with Trish and Vergil). This marks the first time Lady appears playable in a Devil May Cry game. Her original outfit from Devil May Cry 3 is available as a bonus costume.

Devil May Cry 5[]

Lady appears in the game's story, once again assisting Dante and Trish in demon-hunting.

Weapons and abilities[]

While still a normal human, Lady is an exceptionally skilled firearms expert and extremely acrobatic in close quarters combat. Her most powerful weapon is the Kalina Ann, a customized missile launcher with an attached bayonet. She also has a CZ-75 handgun modified with match grade target sights, an extended barrel, and a compensator/barrel weight. Lady is a remarkably talented Devil Hunter, able to easily kill most demons with her weapons. In the anime series, Lady was shown to have some skill in hand-to-hand combat, able to disarm Trish and go toe-to-toe with her in a physical fight for a short time despite the latter's superior physical abilities as a demon.

Lady is shown to be an avid billiards player. She is shown several times playing it, the first time being in the second volume of the DMC3 manga and the second time in the anime series. She is a capable player, able to strategically make a complicated strike to win a bet.

In Devil May Cry 3 and Devil May Cry: The Animated Series she owns a motorcycle. The first one gets destroyed by Dante. The motorcycle she rides in the anime is a red 1974 Ducati 750 Supersport.

Other appearances[]

Lady appeared in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as an ability card for the mode Heroes and Heralds.

She also appeared in the Japan-only social game Onimusha Soul, along with Dante, Trish and Kyrie.

Lady appeared in a crossover trailer for Monster Hunter Frontier G, and her clothing is available to player characters as armor.

Lady appeared, along with Dante, in the crossover SRPG game Project X Zone as one of the assist characters. While obviously not a Devil May Cry game, the game marked the first time Lady appeared as a playable character.

Lady also appears as an unlockable icon in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Trivia[]

  • Her original name, Mary, comes from the Virgin Mary, who called on St. Lucia and Beatrice to aid the poet Dante Alighieri in his sojourn through Hell in the Divine Comedy. As such, her chosen name of "Lady" is likely then a reference to one of the Virgin's other names, "Madonna" (Italian for "Lady").
    • In-game, Lady's original name was given to her by her father, Arkham, but she chose to renounce that name when he murdered her mother. Dante first called her "lady" when she refused to tell him her name.
    • Whether by coincidence or not, Lady shares her name with "Lady Armaroid", a major character from the 1978 manga series Cobra whose titular protagonist (and Lady Armaroid's partner) served as the inspiration for Dante's personality.
  • Lady is the only playable human character in the series. Dante and Vergil are both half-demons, Trish and Lucia were both artificially created, Nero has demonic powers, and V has the ability to summon demons and cast a huge variation of spells.
  • In Devil May Cry 3, the player can unlock an alternate costume for Lady. She wears it only if the player chooses to use special costumes.
  • In the post-credits ending of Devil May Cry 4, Dante is looking at a magazine with Lady's picture in it.
  • Lady was voiced by Kari Wahlgren in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and Devil May Cry 4. She was voiced by Fumiko Orikasa in the anime and in the English version, she is voiced by Melissa Davis.

References[]

  1. cite book|title=Devil May Cry: 3142 Graphic Arts|publisher=Capcom, Udon Entertainment|year=2015|isbn=978-1927925485|pages=206
  2. Capcom, Devil May Cry, p. 209.
  3. Capcom, Devil May Cry, p. 211.
  4. Capcom, Devil May Cry, p. 217–218.
  5. https://web.archive.org/web/20140103190116/http://www.1up.com/previews/devil-cry-4_2?pager.offset=2
  6. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/devil-may-crys-future-isnt-tied-to-how-well-devil-/1100-6428432/

Gallery[]

For more images of this character, see their Gallery.

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