Stolen from Twitter, thank you 7th for retweeting, but
this interview with Zack Snyder reveals some interesting influences on Man of Steel's fight sequences:
Anime-Anime said:
(this follows a bit where Anime-Anime congratulates Snyder on the action sequences but says that they're very reminiscent of Dragonball, although that's not a bad thing)
Are you aware of "Dragonball"? If so, did anything in particular inspire you?
I've seen a few episodes of Dragonball. I know it's a major work of anime, and that it has suitably huge-scale battles depicted beautifully. However, in response to your question, there's another anime I've forgotten the name of, where loads of city buildings get destroyed... I know there are loads of such scenes in anime, but this one in particular is possibly like Man Of Steel. I'm sure it's a TV series... hold on a minute *he phones his staff* In the US it's called "Birdy the Mighty".
Oh, "Tetsuwan Birdy"!
Yes!
In Birdy there are also characters who fight in super-powered suits, right?
Absolutely. The city battle scenes in it are so good, they have a huge impact. Also, because in Man Of Steel the fighting is mostly one-on-one hand-to-hand stuff, rather than in, say, The Avengers where they're fighting a huge force, the movie's much more like the fantastic style of anime than other movies.
Honnyaku Konnyaku has posted Youtube links for comparison between Birdy Decode and Man Of Steel.
I like the Birdy sequence, but pretty much hated the Zod fight in Man Of Steel. I think the difference is that for me in live action everything
has to look believable (or at least believably stylised, if that makes sense) whereas Man Of Steel slips into blockbuster CG mode and it's completely impossible to believe that anyone's actually doing anything you see on the screen. Birdy, on the other hand, is consistent within its own universe (well, consistent-ish when you've got individual animator styles all over the place!).
