How ‘The Matrix’ was inspired by the greatest anime movies of all time
Following a decade of commercial success in the 1980s, where financial gains reached new heights of success, cinema was ready to push emerging technologies to their breaking points. The American animation studio Pixar released Toy Story, the world’s first fully digital animated movie, and the Wachowski sisters unveiled The Matrix to the world, a rambunctious sci-fi epic that would change contemporary action filmmaking.
Set in a future dystopia where robots rule the world and humans are plugged into a fake version of reality called ‘The Matrix’ so that their energy can be harvested for fuel on the surface of the real world. An innovative vision, The Matrix introduced a distinctive style with iconic cinematography and sound to match, making a mesmeric movie for the ages that demonstrated what the future of cinema might just look like.
But, just like any artistic project, although The Matrix is a unique piece of cinema, it also borrows considerably from the world of cinema, taking creative inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, John Woo’s Hard Boiled and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. But, most noticeably, The Matrix took inspiration from the landscape of Japanese anime, a previously untapped resource for the world of Hollywood cinema.
Akira and Ninja Scroll informed The Matrix’s visual style
A considerable source of inspiration for the Wachowskis, the seminal 1988 anime shares several similarities with The Matrix. Whilst they both display similar story beats, being set in bleak post-war cyberpunk settings with themes regarding war and the rebirth of civilisation that largely concern underground rebel groups, Akira’s greatest contribution was its visual style.
It’s fair to say that the approach to action in The Matrix was revolutionary, with the visual style being unlike anything cinema had ever seen before, particularly thanks to the use of the innovative ‘Bullet Time’ technique. But, just like Akira, The Matrix uses the optical illusion of overlapping imagery to make it seem as though the action of a particular scene is being played out at supernatural speed.
Many revolutionary filmmakers and movies were considered in the construction of The Matrix’s special effects and visual style, with the 1993 Yoshiaki Kawajiri film Ninja Scroll also having a huge impact. Whilst dissimilar in content, telling the story of a swordsman who is tasked with taking out demonic clans of killers, its rapid art style and gorgeous visuals would directly inspire the Wachowskis.
As the duo stated in an interview, “We liked Ghost in the Shell and the Ninja Scroll and Akira in anime. One thing that they do that we tried to bring to our film was a juxtaposition of time and space in action beats”.
The Matrix is something of a remake of 1995’s Ghost in the Shell
Whilst Akira informed some of the story beats in The Matrix, Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell would be, all in all, the 1999 classic’s greatest influence. Set in the mid-21st century in the fictional Japanese city of Niihama, Oshii’s film tells the story of a cyborg policewoman who is tasked with hunting down a hacker called the Puppet Master who is wreaking havoc across the city.
When approached by the Wachowkis to make the movie, producer Joel Silver recalled that Ghost in the Shell was presented to him at the very same time, with the sisterly duo stating: “We wanna do that for real”. The similarities between the two films are self-evident, too, with some scenes, split-second moments and shots being direct callbacks and homages to the original anime.
The most obvious connection is the iconic green font that has now become synonymous with The Matrix. Directly lifted from the opening credits of the 1995 anime, the typeface was created by designer Simon Whiteley and includes mirror images of half-width kana characters and Western Latin letters and numerals. The result is famously the product of Ghost in the Shell and a secret sushi recipe.
Did Megazone 23 lay the groundwork for The Matrix?
Yet, it wasn’t just the most iconic anime movies of all time that informed The Matrix; the Wachowski pulled from a number of unlikely sources, too. Despite having never named the direct-to-video Noboru Ishiguro movie Megazone 23 as a direct inspiration, the similarities between the two films are very noticeable, even if the 1985 animated movie isn’t discussed much in fan circles.
Just before the topics of existential and technological angst were rife in popular culture, Megazone 23 was exploring such themes before they went mainstream. Also sharing some similarities with Akira, the film, set in 1980s Tokyo, tells the story of a young motorcycle lover who discovers that his bike holds a profound truth about the nature of the world around him following the death of his friend.
What’s fascinating about Megazone 23 isn’t its similarities to Akira – although that is curious – it is in its concluding act that nods profusely in The Matrix’s direction. At the end of Ishiguro’s film, it is revealed that the animated world of contemporary Japan is actually an enormous spaceship that is being controlled and powered by AI. The discovery leads to a battle between rogue agents and underground rebels to fight for planetary control, which all ends up in a wild action set piece that smells quite strongly of The Matrix.
