Michael B. Jordan names his favourite anime series of all time
The third film in the Creed boxing film franchise proved that Michael B. Jordan is just as good a director as he is an actor. (He is also a mightily fine boxer too.) Interestingly, Jordan is something of a self-confessed anime lover, and although he admits it is a “nerdy” obsession, he used some of his favourite anime series to shape his most recent cinematic offering.
Jordan told IGN that he wanted to use the spirit of anime to inform Creed III. “Without nerding out too much, you’ve seen so many fights throughout the Rocky and Creed franchise, and I really wanted to put my spin on it,” he said. “How to make these fights different. From Hajime no Ippo to Megalo Box to Naruto to My Hero Academia, all those different anime that I’ve watched growing up.”
He added, “There’s an inherent spirit to them in how they fight, you know? Their bonds and relationship and all that good stuff. But it’s very similar to the brotherhood and bond that we have, and his [Creed’s] relationship to his family as well. So I tried to key in on some of those key moments. And yeah, they’re in there. They’re in a lot of the fights.”
Then, Jordan further opened up to BBC on the unique way that anime depicts internal thought. He noted, “Usually in anime, when the protagonists and antagonists are fighting, physically they’re trying to take each other’s heads off, they’re trying to kill each other, they’re trying to win the physical battle. But emotionally, they’re usually someplace quiet, talking about how they feel. Because fighting was the only way they could communicate with one another.”
Jordan’s co-star Jonathan Majors said that Jordan had him watch some key scenes from some of his favourite animes to get a flavour of what he wanted from Creed III. “Michael is a big fan of anime. He always talked about the complexities of the friendships in those stories and the rivalries and all that,” Majors told Entertainment IE. “He showed me one of his favourite anime cartoons, and it was these two best friends, and we really parallel this in some ways in our picture. They get to a point in the fight and their battles where everything else seems to fall away.“
As for some of Jordan’s favourite anime series that he took undoubted (and admitted) inspiration from, he named some of the most-beloved animes in the Western world. Amongst them are Naruto, simply one of the best animes in terms of his emotive storytelling, Dragon Ball, which features some of the best fight scenes in anime’s history; and several others, including Bleach and One Piece. Check out the complete list of Jordan’s favourite animes below.
Michael B. Jordan’s favourite anime series:
- One Piece
- Dragon Ball
- Naruto
- Bleach
- Hunter X Hunter
- My Hero Academia
- Hajime no Ippo
- Megalo Box
