Amazing fan artist creates anime-style trailer for Star Wars, designs for Rocky, Terminator, more

https://ift.tt/2pyZrR5 Casey Baseel

Hollywood blockbusters of the ‘80s and ‘90s look incredible when reimagined as anime from the same time period.

Next month the Star Wars Resistance TV series is set to premier. With Japan’s Polygon Pictures contributing to the visuals, the series represents a meeting point between the Star Wars franchise and Japanese animation, but between the decidedly Western character designs and CG, it doesn’t look particularly “anime.”

That’s not something that can be said about this video from fan animator and YouTuber Dmitry Grozov, however.

With an aesthetic that looks like it came off the design sheets for a late ‘80s/early ‘90s anime OVA, Grozov (who also goes by the pseudonym Ahriman) recreates a number of iconic scenes from the very first Star Wars film, retroactively subtitled A New Hope. We see Luke stare forlornly at the twin sunset, Leia being less than impressed at the farm boy who’s come to rescue her, and Han’s suddenly concluded conversation with bounty hunter Greedo.

▼ And yes, anime-style Han shoots first.

While the characters slip a bit off model in certain cuts, it’s still an amazingly cool video, and the consistency hiccups are forgivable when you take into consideration that the credits list Maria Shestakova as the sole animation assistant, meaning the artwork and animation for the video was a two-person job.

Since it’s presented as a trailer, the sweet video only contains about a minute and a half of animation, which is leaving lots of people wanting to see more of Grozov’s vision of A New Hope. But after looking through Grozov’s Instagram (where he goes by the name megagrozov), we’d be just as happy seeing anime trailers for the other ‘80s and ‘90s blockbusters he’s done incredible anime-style art for, like Rocky IV…

…Predator…

…Die Hard…

…and Terminator (both the first and second films).

Grozov even has artwork for cult classics that didn’t necessarily set the box office on fire in their initial release, like The Fifth Element…

…Mortal Kombat…

…and Blade Runner.

▼ Anime director Shinichiro Watanabe would be proud.

So far, the Star Wars trailer is Grozov’s only completed anime-style project, and since it was almost entirely self-made, odds are we’ll have a bit of a wait until his next…unless he teams up with this guy, since they seem to have the same tastes in live-action and animated storytelling.

Source: YouTube/Dmitry Grozov via Otakomu
Images: YouTube/Dmitry Grozov