Guillermo del Toro was involved in some movies I really love such as Hellboy, Pans Labyrinth, Biutiful, Puss in Boots and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Some movies didn’t worked for me like Hellboy II and some left me breathless like Splice. Well…even years after watching Splice I’m not sure what I think about the movie. Nevertheless he’s a genius! But the latest news about Pacific Rim and the Live-Action Adaption of Monster made me wonder. Does he like anime?

Is it just me or is Pacific Rim very similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion?

Pacific Rim, Film, 2013: People are building manned giant robots to fight giant monsters, that suddenly appeared.

Wait … .

Neon Genesis Evangelion (NGE), Anime, 1995: People are building manned giant robots to fight giant monsters, that suddenly appeared.

Very short summary I know.

The difference: NGE was there way earlier.

Lets have a look at the trailers:

compared to:

So what’s my problem? It’s very similar and I watched producers/writers/filmmakers being inspired by manga or anime very often without crediting it. Furthermore there are announcements about life-action adaptions which simply don’t come to life like Cowboy Bebop or NGE! Several sources reported that Del Toro wants to make a hommage to Kaiju movies (like Godzilla) and Francisco Goya’s The Colossus. And maybe to NGE too?

For me Neon Genesis Evangelion is a mindblowing milestone of storytelling. I will watch Pacific Rim for sure but please… don’t let me see a copy of NGE. A life-action adaption was announced some years ago and the production stills were amazing (see picture above). It was exciting to see this incredible anime be brought to life until the production was reported as on ice. A film with lots of influence of NGE wouldn’t be a compensation.

Del Toro is going to adapt Naoki Urasawas „Monster“ as HBO Life-Action-Series

This week movie-websites were suddenly flooded by the news of a manga life-action adaption through Guillermo del Toro for HBO. The central object of all the talk is the manga Monster by genius mangaka Naoki Urasawa. I have to admit I’m a huge fan … Monster, Pluto and my favourite is 20th Century Boys. So for me this are reeaaally big news!

Monster is the story of surgeon Kenzō Tenma who works in a hospital in Düsseldorf, Germany and suffers because of the unmoral decisions and points of views of his boss and collegues. At work he has to decide between two patients (a child and the mayor) that hover between life and death. He decides for the boy instead of the mayor and is able to save the child. The mayor dies. His career seems to be ruined but life goes on, years are passing by, Tenma became chief physician and everything seems to be okay. Then he finds out that the boy (Johann Liebert) is a psychopath, who already killed people and will go on with cruelness. Tenma decides to stop Johann and correct the mistake he made by saving this persons life before. If you haven’t ever read a serious thriller-comic (or haven’t read manga at all), you should probably give Urasawas works a try.

Urasawas manga are full of conspiracies, heroes who have to suffer and were misunderstood, questions of morality, action and drama. But his stories are never too dark – they are really balanced, sometimes funny or then suddenly heartwarming. His drawing style is always very realistic and not a bit cheesy. In my opinion he is a real master of storystelling. The content is always enormously captivating and exciting. But you’ll need a bit time if you want to read his stories. There are so many characters and lines of actions! They possible cross different countries and years or decades but they will meet in the end and believe me – these are the most exciting and well planned stories I ever read. With such an original script the tv show should be huge and I can’t image what could possibly go wrong.

And there is my question again … is it just coincidence or is Guillermo del Toro possibly an anime fan? I really would like to know what he thinks about the NGE-similarities and Urasawas manga.