What Inspired ‘Rocket King’?

Every story starts somewhere. ‘Rocket King’ didn’t start with a script or a storyboard. It started with a kid pretending to go supernova in his living room.

“I used to pretend to be characters in animes/mangas and play fight,” he laughs. “Then I wanted to grow out of that and make my own characters.” That’s where it all began.

“Some of the last characters I used to to play fight in my head with were the ‘Rocket King’ characters,” but as you’d expect they looked a lot different in his head to how they looked today.

Back then, they were on a boat, something SB says was inspired by One Piece,  Specifically “The One Piece Z” Movie, he credits as “the whole entire reason why [he] created Rocket King”

The original end goal of Rocket King’s main character? Not Brennan. Not even being King. “The main character’s original end goal… was to go to the moon,” an idea SB tells me was inspired by the series Oh! Edo Rocket.

“In that series, this guy wants to fly to the moon,” he says, “I wanted the moon to be this almost unreachable thing, like if you make it there, you’re the King of the World.”

SB doesn’t read a lot of manga, so most of his inspiration comes from anime instead. As the source of inspiration grew, so did the world. Naruto, Dragon Ball, —each served as inspiration to draw from. It gave the more traditional Shonen sense I think. "I think everyone who makes Shonen, goes back to the Dragonball, Naruto, Shonen Jump as major inspirations". But

He says Pokemon, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Samurai Champloo how to understand how to create a story of people going on a adventure, specfically for this manga

Gurren Lagann added the spirit of rebellion. He even points to one of the characters in Rocket King whose entire design was “completely inspired” by someone from the Gurren Lagann, but “[he’s] not going to say who…”

As for the villains? SB says, “I thought of these environmentalists being the bad guys, that’s kind of the idea where N.O.N.S. came from.” It started as a kid’s imagination, but over time it became a story about power and love, and the tension between the two.

Toward the end of our discussion about his inspirations, SB circles back to the classics, the ones that sparked that fuse of creativity.

He reflects, “One Piece, Naruto… those stories made me want to make my own.”

When you look at Naruto’s “I want to be Hokage” and One Piece’s “I want to be King of the Pirates,” it’s easy to see why those shows were major inspirations when our hero, Brennan, says in his own way “I want to be King of the world.”

“I wouldn’t be here without them so I’m grateful for [the creators’] hard work; now I think it’s time to put in my own”

Rocket King is just getting started.                                                                   Stay tuned.