The Creation of the Devil May Cry Anime’s Standout Episode

Devil May Cry’s anime adaptation launched on Netflix last week, and between all of the demon-slaying and quips, the standout episode of the first season is a surprisingly whimsical origin story of the characters Mary Arkham–AKA Lady–and the show’s primary antagonist, the Rabbit. Featuring two contrasting animation styles, the episode explores the motivations behind these characters, and it does so without any dialogue for the bulk of its runtime.

According to showrunner Adi Shankar, the decision to paint the Demon Realm as a more magical reality was inspired by his childhood in Calcutta, India. “When I was a kid, Time Magazine called it the dirtiest city in the world, just rampant poverty everywhere,” Shankar said. “I can’t speak to everyone’s experience, but that really, deeply, and profoundly affected me as a kid. So I was trying to really just capture this feeling of hopelessness and how you’re powerless to do anything about it. In the show, the Human world is more serious. The Demon world is kind of cute.”

Shankar explained how poverty had become the norm in India at that point, and while he wasn’t born into it, he still wanted to do something to help as a child. Those strong emotions found their way into Devil May Cry, while Shnakar’s thoughts on how people are encouraged to share every part of their lives online also had an impact on the production of Devil May Cry’s sixth episode.

“Why is there no dialogue, why is it silent? We now live in this world where everything’s so maximal, so loud, so much stimulation, so much. That silence is profound. Say less in a world where you’re being encouraged to post every five minutes,” Shankar said.

The full eight-episode first season of Devil May Cry is now available to stream on Netflix, and in case you missed it, you can read our review that calls it a devilishly good adaptation of the cult-classic games.