Guillermo del Toro's "Pacific Rim" remains one of the very best live-action films inspired by anime that wasn't actually based on anime (though it eventually became one). The 2013 movie is essentially about giant robots fighting kaiju. Its influences are many, from kaiju movies like "Godzilla" and the work of Ray Harryhausen, but also clearly tokusatsu like del Toro's beloved "Ultraman" and even mecha anime like "Gunbuster," "Getter Robo," and "Mazinger Z."

"Pacific Rim," arguably more so than "The Matrix," feels like the biggest American movie inspired by anime, a movie made by someone who loves the medium, at a time when anime was starting to enter the mainstream. But if you asked Guillermo del Toro that question shortly before the release of the film, it seems he would have been a nervous wreck.

David S. Cohen's book "Pacific Rim: Man, Machines & Monsters — The Inner Workings of an Epic...