Hollywood has met with an increasing rarity, and The Creator is a prime example of this predicament. This original science fiction movie doesn’t have ideas taken from any preexisting film, comic book, TV, or book franchise. Albeit this fact, Gareth Edwards’ work is massively influenced by sci-fi classics from the 1970s and 1980s. One of those ideas seems to be drawn from one of the most iconic and best anime movies of all time, Akira.
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What happens in the movie The Creator?
A war between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) is ongoing. Joshua, played by John David Washington is a hardcore ex-special forces agent plagued by the sorrow of his wife disappearing. He is recruited to kill the Creator, the mind behind advanced AIs who can potentially end this war.
Joshua and his crew traverse beyond the enemy lines into the core of the AI-concentrated territory. Upon revelation of the actual weapon, which could’ve been the reason behind the obliteration of humanity, it is just an AI in the form of a child played by Madeline Yuna Voyles.
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What anime is The Creator inspired by?
The setting of The Creator takes place in a futuristic dystopian world. This portrays an intriguing form of Asia, which is ruled by Artificial Intelligence. Among those who are completely robots resided the simulants who resembled humans while having robotic technology.
AIs were obviously able to outperform humans in several tasks, which resulted in discord and a deep sense of isolation and distress. This element was rather similar to the anime Akira. The primary topic of the manga was to present how the young people were revolting against a world that had no regard for its civilians.
What elements does The Creator share with Akira?
Gareth Edward told With Ashley and Co. in the interview about their vision regarding the story and how the Production Designer’s ideas were a breakthrough
“James Clyne, who is our Production Designer, should take credit for a lot of that. We wanted to put a tank in the movie that felt like something that should be in an anime film. You know, like one of these futuristic, crazy, over-the-top tanks.”.
He continued further to With Ashley and Co.
“But if you just scale up a tank it doesn’t look very exciting. So it was like trying to create negative space and cut things out, where it still retains the basics of a tank, but has a shape you wouldn’t expect. Our secret hope was that we wanted Bandai, which is the company who makes all the toy models of Manga and anime characters.”
AIs in The Creator portray themselves as higher beings than humans. In Akira, as well as in The Creator, the meaning behind their existence lies within powers, values, and morals. There was a village in The Creator where AIs coexisted with Humans following a Buddhist tradition. Similar to how Akira was worshipped by the cult, the destiny of Alphie was foretold in the prophecy by the machines. However, this balanced coexistence gets overwhelmed by the war, which results in a sense of foreboding and the annihilation of humanity.
The Creator is in cinemas now.
Source: With Ashley and Co.
