Key Highlights
- Obsession star Inde Navarrette studied anime series like Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer to learn screenwriting and structural storytelling during a career lull.
- Major industry figures including Michael B. Jordan, Tom Cruise, and Alejandro G. Iñárritu are actively engaging with anime’s visual techniques and creative production processes.
- The trend demonstrates how anime has transitioned from a niche interest into a foundational influence on modern Hollywood filmmaking, narrative design, and cinematography.
How Inde Navarrette Turned to Anime to Master Scriptwriting
For many aspiring creators, film school serves as the traditional gateway to understanding cinematic form. For actress Inde Navarrette, best known for her role in Obsession, Japanese animation provided an unconventional masterclass in screenwriting. During an uncertain period between wrapping production on Obsession and awaiting its official release, Navarrette immersed herself in television and cinema to dissect narrative craft, paying specific attention to how anime commands audience engagement.
Rather than consuming the medium casually, Navarrette analyzed its underlying construction. What I like is anime, so like, why do I like that?
Navarrette told The Hollywood Reporter, detailing how she set out to contrast the plotting and narrative dynamics of blockbuster hits like Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer.
Her key insight centered on pacing and structural divergence across titles. With Jujutsu Kaisen, they play with timelines, right? With Demon Slayer, they don’t; it’s very linear,
she explained. And what does that mean, and how does that affect storytelling?
Navarrette was particularly captivated by the nonlinear execution of Jujutsu Kaisen, specifically its ability to seed minor details episodes in advance before delivering high-impact revelations. A prime example is the show’s second season, which opens with a five-episode flashback exploring the history between Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto, establishing vital emotional resonance. Applying these structural principles to her own writing, Navarrette utilized the format to enhance her personal screenwriting projects.
Hollywood’s Growing Creative Embrace of Japanese Animation
Navarrette is far from the only talent in Western entertainment looking toward anime to solve creative problems. In a 2025 Vanity Fair feature, actor and director Michael B. Jordan shared his admiration for My Hero Academia with fellow actors Austin Butler and Paul Mescal, citing the series to illustrate anime’s mastery of heightened emotion. When helming his directorial debut, Creed III, Jordan drew heavily on fighting aesthetics and narrative friction found in Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, and Hajime no Ippo.
Jordan directly mapped the rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke onto the central conflict between Adonis Creed and Damian Anderson, translating anime’s exaggerated physical clashes and visual representations of internal turmoil directly into the boxing ring. Where Navarrette found lessons in script plotting, Jordan integrated anime’s staging, tension, and kinetic camera language into live-action filmmaking.
Industry Veterans Take Notice of Production Craft
The medium’s influence reaches well beyond rising screenwriters and mid-career directors. Top-tier industry heavyweights have also expressed direct interest in Japanese studio craft. Recently, actor Tom Cruise and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu visited a Tokyo exhibition honoring the 15th anniversary of MAPPA, the animation studio responsible for acclaimed series such as Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, and Attack on Titan: The Final Season.
In documentation released on MAPPA’s official YouTube channel, Cruise was seen closely examining the original hand-drawn animation frames from Jujutsu Kaisen, asking detailed questions about the traditional technical disciplines behind the studio’s production pipeline.
Why This Matters
For decades, anime appreciation in Western media was often treated as a peripheral subculture or a guilty pleasure. Today, prominent directors, actors, and writers discuss it openly as a premier storytelling format that rivals traditional Western approaches to serialized drama and action choreography.
The explicit incorporation of anime techniques by talents like Michael B. Jordan and Inde Navarrette underscores an evolving creative pipeline. As contemporary creators who grew up watching anime step behind the camera and into writers’ rooms, anime’s signature narrative devices—such as complex temporal shifts, serialized emotional arcs, and dynamic fight staging—are becoming institutionalized into mainstream Hollywood filmmaking.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Inde Navarrette use anime to study screenwriting?
Inde Navarrette analyzed the structural differences between shows like Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer. She specifically focused on how Jujutsu Kaisen uses nonlinear timelines and delayed payoffs to enrich character relationships, incorporating those storytelling concepts into her own writing.
Which anime inspired Michael B. Jordan’s work on Creed III?
Michael B. Jordan cited Naruto, Dragon Ball Z, and boxing anime Hajime no Ippo as key creative references for Creed III. He specifically utilized the dynamic between Naruto and Sasuke to shape the dramatic tension and choreography in the showdown between Adonis Creed and Damian Anderson.
Which animation studio did Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu visit?
Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu visited an exhibition in Tokyo dedicated to the 15th anniversary of MAPPA, the studio behind popular anime adaptations such as Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, and Attack on Titan: The Final Season.
