The ultimate fate of the Pacific Rim franchise is still a bit uncertain, despite the recent attachment of Daredevil showrunner Steven S. DeKnight as the director of the delayed sequel — but fans should feel a little better knowing that the giant robots-versus-monsters saga is still inspiring some cool projects online, even if they are unofficial.
One great example is the title sequence for a Pacific Rim anime created by Jeremie Carreon that offers a glimpse of the weird, wonderful potential of Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 film. It also makes a pretty strong case for Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures green-lighting an official Pacific Rim anime.
Clocking in at 41 seconds, the intro to the faux series features a pair of Jaeger pilots leaping into action aboard Gypsy Danger when a Kaiju creature emerges to threaten the world. Carreon cites the “retro mech anime genre” as inspiration for his take on Pacific Rim, specifically the late ’70s giant-robot series Voltes V.
According to Carreon, the title sequence was animated in Photoshop and After Effects, with Logic X Pro used to edit the music.
There’s a lot to like about Carreon’s animated sequence, which manages to capture the spirit of Pacific Rim while bringing things to a more all-ages level. Fans of classic giant-robot anime will likely find themselves feeling a bit nostalgic after watching Carreon’s homage to the genre.
At this point, there’s no word on when cameras will begin rolling on the Pacific Rim sequel, but the February 2016 announcement that DeKnight will helm the film is certainly a step in the right direction for fans eagerly anticipating more giant robots-versus-monsters adventures. The most recent draft of the sequel’s script was penned by Prometheus writer Jon Spaihts, but Legendary and Universal Pictures have yet to put the project back on their public release calendar after removing it late last year.
