Fan art from Starlog magazine, Japanese edition, No.10, 1979.

Space Jockey model kit from Hobby Japan EX, Autumn 1993.

Queen Chest Burster model.

Hobby Japan EX Autumn 1993.

Facehugger model.

Hobby Japan EX, 1993

Alien fan art from Mark 1 Vol. 3, 1985.

Alien model from Hobby Japan No.156, 1982.

If you’re like me, and I know I am, then you stay up into the wee hours of the night wondering what films influenced Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira.

Well thanks to the book Akira Mechanix 2019, I found this handy list of what movies helped create everyone’s favorite story about drug addicted teen bikers with super powers.

This list also reaffirms my belief that Japanese otakus and manga authors fucking love Mad Max.

• 1984 (the one with John Hurt)
• WarGames
• Alien (hey, another movie with John Hurt)
• Aliens
• Scanners
• Damnation Alley
• The Terminator
• Tron
• Burst City (only Japanese movie on the list)
• The Fury
• Blade Runner
• Max Headroom
• Mad Max
• Mad Max 2
• The Revengers
• Brazil
• Metropolis
• The Running Man

Now fire up your laserdisc players and get watching!

My 1979 Kenner Alien figure.

Best Alien toy ever.

More from that Famicom Choco book.

It’s everyone’s favorite intergalactic bounty hunter, Samus Aran, and the monsters of Metroid!

It’s pretty well known that Metroid was heavily influenced by the movie Alien, though I suppose with the emphasis on alien planets, Metroid resembles Prometheus more now.

It has always bugged me how just about every Alien videogame uses the space marine run-and-gun style of Aliens as the game play model.

Why not make a more survival-horror oriented game that resembles Alien or Alien3 more?

Family.