Michael B. Jordan’s red boxing shorts in Creed III are a direct reference to the classic 1988 anime movie Akira.
Raphael Phillips, a concept artist working in the field of TV, film and video games, revealed that the red boxing shorts worn by Adonis “Donnie” Creed in the latest installment of the Creed series were intentionally designed to invoke the spirit of Shotaro Kaneda from Akira. “Lizz Wolf hits me one Sunday afternoon in 2021 and was like: ‘Raph! Michael loves anime so much, what if we pitch him some Akira inspired shorts?'” Phillips wrote. “We took inspo from the design lines of Kaneda’s classic fit, and he loved it.”
Wolf, a costume designer for films like Jupiter’s Legacy, Pacific Rim Uprising and The Expendables, shared concept art of Jordan’s anime-inspired boxing shorts. “I just leaned into the love Michael B. Jordan had for anime,” Wolf wrote. “Here’s our honorable nod to Akira and Kaneda’s design. Raphael Phillips and Geo Pavlov solidly brought this into view.” Pavlov, the costume designer mentioned by Wolf, previously worked on the Wonder Woman movies by Patty Jenkins and House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones spinoff for HBO.
Creed III’s Anime Inspirations
In various interviews, Jordan talked about how certain action sequences from Creed III were inspired by anime series like Hajime no Ippo, Megalobox and Naruto. One big inspiration for the film was Dragon Ball Z, as the final fight between Jordan’s character and Damian “Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors) is reminiscent of some of the hardest fights Goku ever fought, such as fighting Frieza five minutes before the planet Namek explodes.
Creed III, starring and directed by Jordan, is the third film in the Creed series and the ninth installment of the Rocky film franchise formerly starring Sylvester Stallone. Reviews have been strong for Jordan’s feature directorial debut, calling it “revolutionary and familiar in the best ways.” The film is expected to gross between $36 and $40 million during its domestic opening weekend, knocking out Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania for the number one spot. Unlike the previous films, Stallone is absent in Creed III due to creative differences.
The film is now available exclusively in theaters worldwide.
Source: Twitter
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