Invincible Fight Girl’s creator wants to keep the dream of serialized animation alive

Juston Gordon-Montgomery grew up during the Attitude Era of pro wrestling — a clip erstwhile the personalities were humongous, the storylines were wild, and the theatre of it each bordered connected precocious camp. Though it has gotten way easier to watch wrestling in the streaming era, the sport’s taste dominance has waned successful the years since it archetypal captured Gordon-Montgomery’s imagination. Especially to non-fans, the thought of getting into wrestling tin inactive consciousness a spot daunting. But that feeling is portion of what inspired Gordon-Montgomery to make Invincible Fight Girl, a caller bid coming to Adult Swim.

Invincible Fight Girl’s communicative astir a young accountant named Andy (Sydney Mikayla) who dreams of becoming a legendary wrestler is the worldly of shonen classics similar Dragon Ball Z and One Piece. But the show’s mounting — a satellite wherever everyone is immoderate benignant of masked brawler with unsocial costumes and signature combat moves — feels similar a loving send-up of the pro-wrestling civilization that defined the athletics passim the precocious ’90s. On paper, Invincible Fight Girl’s blend of influences makes its premise dependable a small busy, but you tin instantly spot the imaginativeness travel unneurotic arsenic soon arsenic its characters measurement into the ring.

When I precocious sat down with Gordon-Montgomery to speech astir Invincible Fight Girl, helium told maine that helium wanted his emotion for the Attitude Era of wrestling to radiance done “not conscionable successful Andy arsenic a character, but the amusement arsenic a whole.” 

“Wrestling felt magical to maine arsenic a kid, but the characters and their backstories besides felt real,” Gordon-Montgomery explained. “I afloat believed that the Undertaker truly was a dormant guy. The Attitude Era felt similar it lent itself to the question ‘What would a satellite beryllium similar if it was filled with pro wrestlers,’ due to the fact that they would each beryllium these precise distinct, precise wide characters with ideologies that would travel done successful however they talk and fight.”

From the jump, Gordon-Montgomery knew helium wanted to archer a communicative that some focused connected idiosyncratic chasing their passionateness and captured the feeling of getting swept up successful the thrill of a wrestling match. Naturally, Invincible Fight Girl’s originative squad took immoderate cues from real-world wrestling. Because the amusement is each astir a scrappy combatant grooming to beryllium the champion successful a satellite afloat of magical people, though, anime bid similar Pokémon and Naruto were an evident go-to root of inspiration.

If those shows could rotation full worlds retired of concepts similar catching monsters and being a shinobi, Gordon-Montgomery felt helium mightiness beryllium capable to bash thing akin with pro wrestling. To truly seizure the tone of wrestling, though, Gordon-Montgomery and his squad recovered themselves looking to “one of the astir fantastic pieces of media determination is”: manager Satoshi Nishimura’s 2000 adaptation of Hajime nary Ippo.

“I don’t cognize if a batch of radical cognize astir Hajime nary Ippo, but it was the northbound prima for america because, successful that show, the warring isn’t conscionable fighting,” Gordon-Montgomery explained. “It’s a mode to visualize philosophies clashing and exemplify however characters turn and change. So overmuch of wrestling matches is conscionable storytelling and pageantry, and it felt important to marque definite that our fights weren’t conscionable radical hitting each different and pulling disconnected moves that you recognize.”

Early successful the series, arsenic Andy’s archetypal striking retired connected her own, galore of her go-to maneuvers are wrestling basics you mightiness admit from live-action matches due to the fact that she’s a novice who learned everything she knows from instructional videos. Her skills level up arsenic she meets caller allies similar aged wrestling fable Quesa Poblana (Rolonda Watts) and aspiring writer Mikey (T.K. Weaver). But Andy’s translation into Invincible Fight Girl takes time, thing galore networks look progressively skittish astir giving newer projects.

When Gordon-Montgomery started successful animation, helium didn’t spot Western studios producing a batch of serialized shows successful the mode helium wanted Invincible Fight Girl to be. Protracted narratives that play retired implicit the people of dozens of episodes are a hallmark of the anime Gordon-Montgomery was taking notes from, but helium knew that pushing for that benignant of communicative operation would beryllium a challenge.

“Especially due to the fact that we’re successful this epoch of shorter play orders, determination was decidedly immoderate interest about, ‘How agelong are you trying to gully these crippled beats and revelations out?’” Gordon-Montgomery told me. “But to the recognition of our partners astatine the network, I deliberation they understood our vision. We were capable to truly convey that this is however Andy’s communicative needed to beryllium told successful bid for audiences to truly acquisition it the mode we intended.”

Though Gordon-Montgomery doesn’t privation to enactment a fig to however galore episodes helium envisions Invincible Fight Girl running for conscionable yet, he’s assured that the show’s halfway conception has legs akin to Pokémon’s.

“Pokémon is benignant of astatine a constituent wherever it’s conscionable going to support going forever, which isn’t rather what we privation to do,” Gordon-Montgomery said. “But I deliberation there’s a very, precise agelong runway of antithetic ideas that we’re exploring philosophically with Andy and this satellite we’ve created. There are a batch of things that haven’t been done successful animation present that I spot america doing if we get the shot.”

Invincible Fight Girl premieres connected Adult Swim connected November 2nd.