“Matrix” creators Larry and Andy Wachowski are fervent anime fans, who cite “Akira,” Mamoru Oshii’s “Ghost in the Shell” and Kawajiri’s “Ninja Scroll” as influences on their work. Even the comic heroes of “Dai-Guard” (“office workers saving the world!”) require special training and dedication to pilot their Edsel of a robot. Domon Kasshu in “Mobile Fighter G Gundam” and Guts in “Berserk” pursue rigorous courses of study that include sword fights under icy waterfalls. Similarly, Shinji Ikari, the reluctant hero of “Evangelion,” can’t resist his fate: He is the “Third Child” who must learn to pilot the giant biorobot Unit 01. In the “Matrix” films, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) believes Neo (Keanu Reeves) is “the One” who will destroy the Matrix, and teaches him to fight in the cyber-world. These monstrous regimes can be overthrown only by a destined hero whose powers have been refined through intensive training. In “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” the sinister cabal SEELE (whose members may be humans or machines) plots to alter the course of human evolution. In “Cowboy Bebop: The Movie,” Spike Spiegel has to prevent Vincent, a victim of military bioexperiments, from loosing a plague of deadly nano-robots. Tetsuo, the antihero of Katsuhiro Otomo’s landmark feature “Akira,” is the product of an attempt to create a human bioweapon. “The Animatrix” will be released on DVD and video Tuesday after first appearing on the Web earlier this year.īeyond their look, the “Matrix” features and many anime films share a dystopian vision of a future in which humans are the slaves, targets or puppets of technology run amok. Seven artists from Japan, the United States and South Korea were commissioned to make the shorts, including noted directors Peter Chung (“Aeon Flux”), Yoshiaki Kawajiri (“Wicked City”), Koji Morimoto (“Robot Carnival”) and Shinichiro Watanabe (“Cowboy Bebop”). “The Animatrix,” a 90-minute compilation of short animated films inspired by the world of “The Matrix,” pushes the cultural cross-pollination even further. “The Matrix” and its sequel “The Matrix Reloaded” exemplify the increasing influence of anime on American live-action films.
But fans of Japanese animation recognized much of what they saw was a live-action adaptation of anime. When “The Matrix” burst onto the screen in 1999, American audiences were dazzled by its spectacular effects: characters leaping from the top of one sky- scraper to another, hand-to-hand combat that sent the participants flying - knocking chunks of concrete out of walls - or doing 360-degree flips in midair.
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