Nerd Alert! 12 Unlikely Celebrities Who Love Anime

Leonardo DiCaprio is a professed lover of Studio Ghibli, and has been trying to get an Akira movie made for over a decade. If you’re scoffing at these as surface-level anime pulls, though, your respect might increase a little knowing that he’s also a huge fan of Ninja Scroll, and has been trying to get a movie version of that made as well.

The next time one of your film nerd friends makes fun of anime, let them know that if Quentin Tarantino was in the room, he’d disagree. He even gave it actual screentime in Kill Bill Vol. 1. For the animated sequence in that movie, Tarantino specifically sought out the help of animation studio Production I.G. out of reverence for their work on Ghost in the Shell.

Odds are that most bodybuilding gyms contain a couple closet anime fans going for the Goku look. Famously ripped dude Terry Crews is an anime fan himself, and he also loves Ghost in the Shell. In a Reddit AMA, he told fans that he watches it multiple times a year. He also racked up legit weeb cred by streaming a Danganronpa game on Twitch, and sharing his love for character Junko Enoshima.

Michael B. Jordan is a full-on anime fan. He’s even able to hold his own in a long-time hobby of nerds: correcting people. When a Polygon reporter, knowing about his anime fandom, asked if a punch in Creed III was a Dragon Ball Z tribute, Jordan quickly corrected him, explaining it was actually a nod to a fight between Naruto and Sasuke in Naruto: Shippuden. In the same interview, he added that he watches anime “every day.”

Self-described weeb Megan Thee Stallion has given about a million not-so-subtle nods to anime. She’s done photo shoots in cosplay, mentioned anime in her lyrics, and yes, she's seen Jojo.

Maybe not particularly surprising, given that most people listening to Lavigne in her prime probably had a couple episodes of Bleach downloaded off KaZaA, but still. She’s a fan of One Piece and gave permission for her songs “How You Remind Me” and “Bad Reputation” to be used in One Piece Z.

Keanu Reeves isn’t only a fan of anime, but has been involved in bringing it to the screen. At one point, he was tapped to play Spike Spiegel in a live-action Cowboy Bebop. He also created his own comic, BZRKR, which he's working on having made into an anime series as we speak.

As time goes on, Robin Williams’ nerdy tendencies have come more into the spotlight, and they include a love for anime. We even got a list of his top five from the late comedian himself. His recs include classics Cowboy Bebop, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell and Akira, but a deeper cut sneaks onto the list too with Blood: The Last Vampire.

Efron is a huge anime fan, name-dropping classics like Bleach and Death Note. He even personally put himself forward to play Light Yagami in a live-action Death Note adaptation. It’s not like any live-action Death Note adaptation could be worse than the one Netflix put out anyway.

Bill Burr “loved” the anime One Punch Man, and in a segment on his podcast that anime fans are sure to appreciate, lamented and lampooned the amount of hate he got just for saying he liked an anime show.

In an interview with Wired, Samuel L. Jackson responded to the question “Does Samuel L. Jackson like anime” with by saying, “Yes, I do.” Somewhat inadvisably, he followed that up with “Hentai, too.” 

No need for that, my guy.

Okay, so this one isn’t fully confirmed, but Rihanna has worn outfits that are shockingly similar to characters in Hunter x Hunter enough that it’s fair to consider it a winking show of appreciation.