Legendary Hollywood director, Steven Spielberg (ET, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park), recently visited Tokyo for the premiere of Ready Player One. And he didn’t come alone because Tye Sheridan (Parzival/Wade Watts), Olivia Cooke (Art3mis/Samantha Cook), and Win Morisaki (Daito/Toshiro) also went with him.

Now, Spielberg has a ton of love for Japan, and is quite the Japanophile himself. He’s also a huge fan of Ghost in the Shell and Akira. This is why Art3mis uses Akira’s bike in the film.

Now, many regard Spielberg as one of the greatest American directors in the history of cinema. And during the event, he talked about meeting another legendary filmmaker in Hayao Miyazaki. As they say, it takes one to know one, and this applies to the director’s praises for Miyazaki as a great director and storyteller.

For his meeting with Miyazaki, Spielberg said “I especially, you know, admire the whole world of Miyazaki, and his taste and his storytelling abilities. His Spirited Away is one of the greatest animated films ever made, might be better than any Disney film I’ve ever seen. He was a real influence I got”. Meanwhile, for Akira, he reaffirmed something many of us already know, as he said “I think my favorite Japanese character is the motorcycle from Akira. I love that machine.”

source: MaidigiTV