Robert Downey Jr. may no longer be Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but in another universe entirely, he's risen to the highest office in America.
In Crunchyroll's latest Making of an Anime documentary, the Crunchyroll Original series, The God of High School takes the spotlight. A newly released clip from the program, which takes viewers inside studio MAPPA, reveals that inspiration for the anime's fictional U.S president came directly from Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of the MCU's founding Avenger.
The character first appears in the second episode of the tournament series, sporting the same beard and distinctly E.D.I.T.H.-looking glasses that Downey Jr. wore to play the Marvel superhero. In the clip above, Yongje Park, the creator of The God of High School webtoon on which the anime is based, points out that when he first drew the corresponding manhwa episode over a decade ago, Barack Obama, who was in office at the time, was his model. However, he "really likes" the choice that director Sunghoo Park made to use Downey Jr. for the animated adaptation.
"With sort of the air of an American president, we made our own American president," the director explains. Sunghoo Park also designed the character model himself, though he admits it wasn't quite a conscious decision to settle on the Hollywood actor as Obama's replacement at first. "It sort of... ended up just being Downey Jr." As an extra Easter egg for Japanese audiences, Keiji Fujiwara, who has become synonymous with the actor from dubbing all of Downey Jr.'s live-action film roles since 2000, was drafted to voice the character. Fujiwara is perhaps best known to anime fans as the voice of Fullmetal Alchemist's Maes Hughes.
Both Yongje Park and Sunghoo Park both express their love for Marvel in the clip, too, with Yongje crediting Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War as two of his favorite MCU films. Sunghoo takes his fan credentials one step further, however, by revealing an Avengers tattoo on his arm.
"Behind the Scenes of The God of High School | Making of an Anime" will premiere Monday, July 20 at 8 AM PT on Crunchyroll and YouTube.com/Crunchyroll.
Based on the webtoon by Yongje Park, new episodes of The God of High School stream on Crunchyroll every Monday at 7.30 AM PT.