‘Stranger Things’: Duffer Brothers Say Series Had Anime Influences

There are a myriad of influences on Netflix’s phenomenon, Stranger Things. Viewers may recognize the many tributes to the works of Stephen King and Steven Spielberg that helped bring out the nostalgic value of this 1980’s set series. As someone who adores that era of filmmaking and storytelling, I was in ecstasy binge-watching the entire season obsessively looking for more easter eggs.

But the influence did not just come exclusively from 1980’s pop culture. In fact, Stranger Things had a bit of inspiration from anime – particularly in the masterpiece Akira and the series called Elfen Lied. Matt Duffer, half of the dynamic duo behind the popular series explained the influences that those anime left on their first season:

“But then weirdly it’s like, I haven’t seen it for a long time. More recently I had seen an anime called Elfen Lied that is clearly inspired by Akira. And that was really influential. When I watched it I thought it felt like an ultraviolent E.T. There were a lot of things in there that I really liked and that made their way into the show, particularly related to the character of Eleven.”

As I was watching the progression of Eleven (portrayed by breakthrough Millie Bobby Brown) throughout Stranger Things, I was reminded of Akira, and for all the talk about bringing a live-action adaptation of that film, I feel that with Stranger Things and Josh Trank’s Chronicle, we already got a sense of what that potential film can bring to the table.

All episodes of Stranger Things are available to stream on Netflix. The highly-anticipated second season is currently in production and will be available to stream in 2017.

Source: The Daily Beast