It was just a few months ago when it appeared that big streaming platforms like Netflix finally released that there was in fact a huge audience for anime. In the span of a few weeks we found out that Netflix bought up streaming rights to Neon Genesis Evangelion (EVA) and greenlit a long-rumored Cowboy Bebop live action.

And while the industry might just be beginning to warm up to the idea that people like and watch anime, filmmakers have been watching and often homaging - if not straight stealing - from some of their favorite source materials for years.


Some of those mainstream filmmakers influenced might be more obvious than others, like the Wajowskis with The Matrix or any of the direct anime to live action reboots like the recent Ghost in the Shell.

However, for the astute anime fans like Darren Aronofsky and Christopher Nolan, the works of some of the great anime artists like Satoshi Kon with Paprika and Hayao Miyazaki with Princess Mononoke are ripe for cinematic inspiration.

Anime Inspiring Filmmakers

If you’d like to check out more, the video is part of a series on “How to Get Started With Anime” by Film Crux which you can check out here.

Which anime inspirations stood out to you? Are there any others that you’d add to the list? Let us know in the comments!