When Neill Blomkamp's Chappie opens in theaters on March 6, anime fans might find themselves experiencing a little déjà vu from the film's robotic star. After all, he does look a little familiar.

Turns out, it's completely intentional. According to Blomkamp, Chappie is an homage to Appleseed 's Briareos:

" Masamune Shirow , he has one robot called Briareos that has these rabbit ears. I just love that as a design feature, so I put that on the robot in the short... When I made Chappie, I was like, 'Obviously, the robot will be based on that robot, and the fictional company that made that robot will make the fictional robots in the full feature film.'"

Chappie's design first came to life in 2003 in one of Blomkamp's shorts. It coincided with a time in the director's life when he was interested in manga and anime.

Here's the trailer for those who haven't seen it:

Source: The Star Online; images from Chappie Facebook, Chappie Official

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the tip!