Warning: Spoilers below for Creed III!Creed III's fight scenes incorporate significant anime influences, including from some popular anime properties. In Creed III, Adonis "Donnie" Creed (Michael B. Jordan) has retired as the world's heavyweight boxing champion and receives an unexpected visit from his childhood friend Damian "Dame" Walters (Jonathan Majors). As it turns out, Damian is bitterly envious of Donnie's boxing success. He is determined to sur it to the point of endangering Donnie's fighters at his local gym and even sparking a rivalry with Donnie himself.
As the third Creed movie and the ninth chapter of Sylvester Stallone's Rocky movie franchise, Creed III also marks the directorial debut of Michael B. Jordan. As has been the case throughout the Creed franchise, Creed III's fight scenes have been singled out for praise in its overall positive reception, and this time, they pack a different kind of punch. As a big anime fan, Michael B. Jordan sought to implement an anime influence on Creed III's fight scenes, laying out some specific examples in an interview with Polygon. Here are the anime influences on Creed III and how they add to the movie's incredible fight scenes.
Creed 3's Camerawork Is Very Anime-Inspired
The approach to capturing the fight scenes of Creed III taken by Jordan and cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau in general evokes the feel of an anime on multiple levels. One of the biggest can be seen in the frequency of close-ups in Creed III's fight scenes. Compared to Ryan Coogler's Creed movie camerawork, the camera in Creed III zeroes in on the faces and eyes of Donnie, Damian, and other boxers in the movie's boxing fights much more frequently, which is often seen during intense moments in various anime. That approach also is not restricted strictly to the characters themselves either.
The boxing rings, gloves, and shorts bearing the names of the two lead characters frequently become the camera's focal point, often from unorthodox angles. Anime frequently employs angled views of different perspectives on action scenes to give it a larger-than-life feel, which is the exact approach Jordan takes in framing the action of Creed III. However, this is just the beginning of the anime inspirations behind Creed III's fight scenes.
Dragon Ball Z Influences
Polygon interview, Jordan cites Dragon Ball Z as one of the primary anime influences on Creed III. The relationship between Dragon Ball's protagonists, Goku and Vegeta, partially forms the basis for Donnie and Damian's rivalry. When it comes to Creed III's fight scenes, the verbal sparring is oddly one of the more notable parallels with Dragon Ball Z. For as action-packed as it is, Dragon Ball Z is just as heavy on characters like Goku, Vegeta, and others trading verbal barbs with one another mid-fight, often even pausing for long stretches to do so.
While Creed III never stops any of its fights outright to show this, there is a noticeable increase in the amount of trash-talking among boxers during the actual fights. Damian goes out of his way to get under his opponent's skin in the middle of every boxing match. At the same time, despite being older and wiser in Creed III, Adonis Creed's bad temper leaves him susceptible to responding in kind in between punches. While shades of Goku and Vegeta can be seen in Donnie and Damian, there are also more overt anime influences in Creed III.
Naruto Influences
Naruto's influence on Creed III runs deep in the final fight between Donnie and Damian. One specific moment of Donnie and Damian simultaneously landing punches on each other is pulled right from Naruto, with Jordan specifically citing episode 450 of Naruto: Shippuden as its origin point. Jordan also further states in the Polygon interview that the dynamic of Donnie and Damian's rivalry is drawn from Naruto and Sasuke as "a relationship between two brothers," which cleverly inverts the dynamic of Rocky and Apollo Creed being boxing rivals turned friends.
Donnie and Damian's fight is a largely even showdown, akin to Naruto and Sasuke's fight. Creed III draws upon this aspect of Naruto both to give the final fight some epic longevity and to add to the emotional aspect of Donnie and Damian's falling out. As two former friends duking it out in the ring, Donnie and Damian have all the epic power seen in Naruto's fight scenes, but it also goes considerably deeper.
Donnie & Damian's Final Fight Is Right Out Of An Anime
Creed III's final match between Donnie and Damian is by far the most anime-esque of the film, with many slow-mo shots of punches landing to emphasize their impact. A particularly powerful uppercut from Damian to Donnie's torso is one such example. The power of the hit is vividly felt through the shot of Donnie's rippling flesh and beads of sweat flying from his body. Creed III also does something no other Rocky or Creed fight has ever done before when the stadium suddenly goes dark, the entire audience disappears, and prison bars suddenly appear around the ring, leaving Damian and Donnie to wage war on each other in solitude.
While this is meant to be a visual showcase of Donnie and Damian's mental state in the fight, it is also pulled from the kind of action seen in an anime. Indeed, a live-action comparison can even be made to Neo's final showdown with Agent Smith in The Matrix Revolutions, with the slow-mo shots and each character's singular focus on eliminating the other being felt in Creed III. While many Agent Smiths are onlookers to Neo and Smith's fight, Jordan simply inverts this with the arena being vacant and accomplishes exactly what The Matrix franchise did of creating a live-action anime.
With several possible Rocky movie spin-offs after Creed III (and Creed IV already confirmed by Jordan), Donnie's future boxing matches are sure to continue getting more intense. After the standards set by Creed III's fight scenes, those of Creed IV could continue bringing the power of anime action into the Creed franchise. With the anime inspiration brought to the movie's fights, it can truly be said that Creed III's fight scenes are like no other boxing fights in the Rocky or Creed movies.
