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Title: Adi Shankar On ‘Devil May Cry’ And Why Hollywood Drops The Ball
In a recent conversation with Forbes, animator and producer Adi Shankar spoke about his work on Netflix’s ‘Devil May Cry’, as well as the struggles that come with adapting Japanese anime in Western audiences. According to Shankar, the current problem lies not only with Hollywood but also with the very concept of categorization itself.
“I think it would be helpful if we invented a lot more words,” he said. “I don’t like saying I’m making ‘adult-oriented animation projects.’ The phrasing makes it sound like I got booted from Hollywood for making fan films and am now stuck in the Valley making pornographic content for bots.”
Shankar believes that the lack of hyper-specific terms is a major issue, as it leads to confusion about what type of content an artist or studio is actually creating. He notes that there’s a need for more nuanced descriptions that don’t get bogged down by geographic borders or generational expectations.
Regarding anime adaptations in Hollywood, Shankar shares his perspective on why so many fail to impress:
“A lot of the film executives didn’t get into this to make game and anime adaptations. I did. This is my first love, not my side hustle. In film school, games and anime aren’t celebrated, they’re dismissed. Most folks came in dreaming of Oscars, not adapting Naruto. They wanted to make prestige dramas, not orchestrate demon-slaying operas.”
He emphasizes that the blame doesn’t solely lie with Hollywood but also with game companies and their inability to take risks. “Fear of risk, corporate silos, death by committee. Bureaucracy is the true villain here. It drains the soul out of what should be bold.”
Shankar sees a shift in the industry’s future:
“I think legacy American IP will become less valuable over the next decade. Japan protects its creators. In the West, the moment something becomes popular, the system is designed to push the creator out and squeeze the IP across every platform until it burns out and becomes uncool.
Today, young people have unprecedented access to information. They know who’s making the stories they love, and they care why those stories are being told. What I see coming is a major shift. Western business practices that treat creativity like an exhaustible resource are going to be seen for what they are: exploitation. And we’ll see a whole new generation of creators rise up, creators who refuse to be pushed out of their own work, creators who control their own destinies.”
As he looks to the future, Shankar is focused on creating his original universes in projects like ‘Captain Laserhawk’ and ‘Guardians of Justice’, rather than jumping into franchise-hopping.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2025/04/06/adi-shankar-on-devil-may-cry-and-why-hollywood-drops-the-ball/
