Invincible Battle Woman desires to maintain the dream of serialized animation alive

Juston Gordon-Montgomery grew up throughout the Perspective Period of professional wrestling — a time when the personalities had been humongous, the storylines had been wild, and the theater of all of it bordered on excessive camp. Although it has gotten means simpler to observe wrestling within the streaming period, the game’s cultural dominance has waned within the years because it first captured Gordon-Montgomery’s creativeness. Particularly to non-fans, the concept of entering into wrestling can nonetheless really feel a bit daunting. However that feeling is a part of what impressed Gordon-Montgomery to create Invincible Battle Woman, a brand new collection coming to Grownup Swim.

Invincible Battle Woman’s story a couple of younger accountant named Andy (Sydney Mikayla) who goals of turning into a legendary wrestler is the stuff of shonen classics like Dragon Ball Z and One Piece. However the present’s setting — a world the place everybody is a few kind of masked brawler with distinctive costumes and signature fight strikes — looks like a loving send-up of the pro-wrestling tradition that outlined the game all through the late ’90s. On paper, Invincible Battle Woman’s mix of influences makes its premise sound a bit of busy, however you may instantly see the imaginative and prescient come collectively as quickly as its characters step into the ring.

Once I just lately sat down with Gordon-Montgomery to speak about Invincible Battle Woman, he instructed me that he wished his love for the Perspective Period of wrestling to shine by means of “not simply in Andy as a personality, however the present as an entire.” 

“Wrestling felt magical to me as a child, however the characters and their backstories additionally felt actual,” Gordon-Montgomery defined. “I absolutely believed that the Undertaker actually was a lifeless man. The Perspective Period felt prefer it lent itself to the query ‘What would a world be like if it was full of professional wrestlers,’ as a result of they might all be these very distinct, very clear characters with ideologies that might come by means of in how they communicate and combat.”

From the leap, Gordon-Montgomery knew he wished to inform a narrative that each centered on somebody chasing their ardour and captured the sensation of getting swept up within the thrill of a wrestling match. Naturally, Invincible Battle Woman’s artistic workforce took some cues from real-world wrestling. As a result of the present is all a couple of scrappy fighter coaching to be the perfect in a world stuffed with magical individuals, although, anime collection like Pokémon and Naruto had been an apparent go-to supply of inspiration.

If these exhibits might spin complete worlds out of ideas like catching monsters and being a shinobi, Gordon-Montgomery felt he may be capable to do one thing comparable with professional wrestling. To essentially seize the spirit of wrestling, although, Gordon-Montgomery and his workforce discovered themselves seeking to “one of the improbable items of media there’s”: director Satoshi Nishimura’s 2000 adaptation of Hajime no Ippo.

“I don’t know if lots of people find out about Hajime no Ippo, but it surely was the north star for us as a result of, in that present, the preventing isn’t simply preventing,” Gordon-Montgomery defined. “It’s a solution to visualize philosophies clashing and illustrate how characters develop and alter. A lot of wrestling matches is simply storytelling and pageantry, and it felt vital to be sure that our fights weren’t simply individuals hitting one another and pulling off strikes that you simply acknowledge.”

Early within the collection, as Andy’s first putting out on her personal, lots of her go-to maneuvers are wrestling fundamentals you may acknowledge from live-action matches as a result of she’s a novice who realized every little thing she is aware of from educational movies. Her abilities degree up as she meets new allies like aged wrestling legend Quesa Poblana (Rolonda Watts) and aspiring journalist Mikey (T.Ok. Weaver). However Andy’s transformation into Invincible Battle Woman takes time, one thing many networks appear more and more skittish about giving newer initiatives.

When Gordon-Montgomery began in animation, he didn’t see Western studios producing a number of serialized exhibits in the best way he wished Invincible Battle Woman to be. Protracted narratives that play out over the course of dozens of episodes are a trademark of the anime Gordon-Montgomery was taking notes from, however he knew that pushing for that type of story construction can be a problem.

“Particularly as a result of we’re on this period of shorter season orders, there was undoubtedly some concern about, ‘How lengthy are you attempting to attract these plot beats and revelations out?’” Gordon-Montgomery instructed me. “However to the credit score of our companions on the community, I believe they understood our imaginative and prescient. We had been in a position to actually convey that that is how Andy’s story wanted to be instructed to ensure that audiences to actually expertise it the best way we supposed.”

Although Gordon-Montgomery doesn’t wish to put a quantity to what number of episodes he envisions Invincible Battle Woman operating for simply but, he’s assured that the present’s core idea has legs akin to Pokémon’s.

“Pokémon is type of at a degree the place it’s simply going to maintain going endlessly, which isn’t fairly what we wish to do,” Gordon-Montgomery mentioned. “However I believe there’s a really, very lengthy runway of various concepts that we’re exploring philosophically with Andy and this world we’ve created. There are a number of issues that haven’t been accomplished in animation right here that I see us doing if we get the shot.”

Invincible Battle Woman premieres on Grownup Swim on November 2nd.