Interesting, as Lucas did spend some time in Japan in the early 70’s and fans have speculated about the anime influence on Star Wars ever since. I certainly saw elements of Star Wars in Space Battleship Yamato when it reached American tv’s as Star Blazers.
You know, it’s funny I ran across this comment. I kind of thought while watching this how much it resembled the structure of a Yamato movie.
Specifically ‘Arrivederci’ and ‘Final’ with their multiple climaxes and especially with Holdo’s sacrifice, Leia’s speeches, etc. Even the Rose/Finn subplot reminded me of something that would be in those movies.
That’s not meant to be a negative by the way, I really enjoyed this one. Most of my issues are in the first half. After a certain amount of time I was basically totally on board.
I actually liked the Monte Carlo planet. Never did I feel like it went too camp.
I do have one thing though… Snoke stated that it was him who’d been infiltrating Rey’s mind on the planet. Did I misinterpret that? Was he bluffing? The film makes so much more sense if it was actually Ben.