Naruto

Michael B. Jordan explicitly cited Japanese anime as the visual and emotional DNA for Creed III. He studied Hajime no Ippo obsessively, the way the anime frames boxing not as sport but as spiritual combat, the facial expressions at maximum intensity, the rivals who are actually brothers separated by circumstance. He also drew from Naruto's Sasuke vs. Naruto dynamic: the childhood connection, the corruption of the bond, the final fight as reclamation and destruction simultaneously. Jordan documented this in a 2023 Empire interview.