When we first started talking to the studio about doing this, we said, 'We want to do a movie that looks like what you might find in an anime movie.' And we showed them Akira and Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll and said, 'We want to make something like that.'
I knew I wanted to do something that felt like a movie that could exist in the world of anime, the tone and the action and the character stuff. When I was starting out, I watched a lot of anime, particularly Otomo's 'Akira' and 'Memories.'
— Rian Johnson · IndieWire
My work always tries to combine what I've learnt from Japanese manga with what I've picked up from Western comics and films. I'm a big fan of American science fiction and European bande dessinée – I particularly loved films like Blade Runner, and artists like Moebius.
— Katsuhiro Otomo · Sight & Sound