Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse was such a massive undertaking, and was so successful that it even won an Academy Award. However, the film also has some obvious influences from anime, and we’re not just talking about Penny Parker.

Directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman recently sat down with IJN in Japan to talk about the film. There, Bob Persichetti revealed that one of the biggest inspirations in style was none other than Hayao Miyazaki. He said that they used his style to color the film’s tone as a whole. He explained that the legendary director’s works have already “penetrated deep into American Culture” so his “influence is inescapable when creating animated works”. Well, since they took some inspiration from Miyazaki, they also received the very same Oscar Award as the legendary director, and that is for Best Animated Feature Film.

As for Penny herself, Rothman said that Sailor Moon was one of the inspirations for her character and portrayal. Usagi, AKA Sailor Moon herself, was pretty perky and bubbly, and that character trait was pretty strong with Penny. “In a sense, we created Penny out of a bunch of different characters and doing them in our style,” said Ramsey.

Finally, Ramsey has said that they took inspiration for the film’s effects from Akira.

source: IJN