If you can take your mind off the intense tournament action for just a second, you might notice a seemingly familiar face in The God of High School anime. As Yongje Parkcreator of the hit WEBTOON seriesis quick to point out, the president looks an awful lot like Robert Downey Jr., but what is Tony Stark doing there in the first place? Is it just a happy coincidence that the president looks like Iron Man in the anime?
As it turns out, this was a very intentional decision. Yongje Park notes that when he drew this episode over a decade ago, Barack Obama was the President of the United States. The anime's director Sunghoo Park said Obama won't be making an appearance in the anime, though. "With sort of the air of an American president, we made our own American president, he added.
So, who do you turn to when you want to depict that type of leader? Naturally, Robert Downey Jr. fits the bill!
Credit for this choice doesn't go to character designer Akita Manabu like you might expect. Sunghoo Park designed the character himself, and he sums up the process pretty simply, punctuated with a laugh: "It sort of ended up just being Robert Downey Jr." The connection doesn't stop there. The director went on to point out that, when it was time to give the character a voice, "The voice is the person who specializes in doing Iron Man in Japan."
That voice belongs to none other than Keiji Fujiwara, known for a massive amount of roles that range from Maes Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood to Kimura in Hajime no Ippo, Leorio in Hunter x Hunter, Axel in the Kingdom Hearts series, and beyond. Sadly, Keiji Fujiwara passed away in April of 2020, but his legacy lives on in this and countless iconic roles over the years.
This all worked out nicely for The God of High School creator Yongje Park, who says he's "a fan of Marvel and other American comics." He really dug the action in Captain America: Civil War and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Sunghoo Park agrees. "Civil War is just awesome," he added, confirming that they both have fantastic taste in Marvel movies.
.It's not as easy as it sounds to just draw up a character that looks like a celebrity, however. Park notes that drawing a character modeled after an actual person requires extreme caution. It sounds like it was worth the effort, though, especially if you ask Yongje Park, who said, "I think Robert Downey Jr. matches the image of a strong U.S. president portrayed in the comic, so I think it's a great match!"
