is a Japanese
manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of ''
Akira'', in terms of both the
original 1982 manga series and the
1988 animated film adaptation. He was decorated a ''Chevalier'' of the French
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2005, promoted to ''Officier'' of the order in 2014, became the fourth manga artist ever inducted into the American
Eisner Award Hall of Fame
The following is a list of winners of the Eisner Award, sorted by category.
The Eisner Awards have been presented since 1988, but there were no Eisner Awards in 1990 due to balloting mix-ups."Eisners Cancelled," ''The Comics Journal'' #137 (Sept. ...
in 2012, and was awarded the
Purple Medal of Honor from the Japanese government in 2013. Otomo later received the
Winsor McCay Award
The Winsor McCay Award is given to individuals in recognition of lifetime or career contributions to the art of animation in producing, directing, animating, design, writing, voice acting, sound and sound effects, technical work, music, profession ...
at the
41st Annie Awards
The 41st Annual Annie Awards honoring excellence in the field of animation of 2013 were held on February 1, 2014 at the University of California, Los Angeles's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California, presenting in 35 categories. On December 2, 201 ...
in 2014 and the 2015
Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême
The Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême is a lifetime achievement award given annually during the Angoulême International Comics Festival to a comics author. Although not a monetary award, it is considered the most prestigious award in Franco-Be ...
, the first manga artist to receive the award. Otomo is married to Yoko Otomo. Together they have one child, a son named
Shohei Otomo
, sometimes stylized professionally as SHOHEI, is a Japanese artist known for his drawings with ballpoint pens.
Early life
Shohei Otomo was born in 1980 and grew up in Tokyo.
He is the son of manga artist Katsuhiro Otomo and his wife, Yoko.
St ...
, who is also an artist.
Early life
Katsuhiro Otomo was born in
Tome,
Miyagi Prefecture and grew up in
Tome District. He said that living in the very rural
Tōhoku region
The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (''ken''): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata.
Tōhoku reta ...
left him with nothing to do as a child, so he read a lot of
manga.
As the only boy in a family with older and younger sisters, he enjoyed reading and drawing manga on his own and thought about becoming a manga artist. Limited by his parents to buying one manga book a month, Otomo typically chose
Kobunsha
Kobunsha ( ja, 光文社 ''Kōbunsha'') is a Japanese publishing company. It publishes literature, manga novels, and women's magazines.
Company history
Kobunsha was established on October 1, 1945, and belongs to the Kodansha group.
The company h ...
's ''Shōnen'' magazine, which included ''
Astro Boy
''Astro Boy'', known in Japan by its original name , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 '' tankōbon'' ...
'' by
Osamu Tezuka and ''
Tetsujin 28-go
, known as simply ''Tetsujin 28'' in international releases, is a 1956 manga written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who also created '' Giant Robo''. The series centers on the adventures of a young boy named Shotaro Kaneda, who ...
'' by
Mitsuteru Yokoyama
was a Japanese manga artist born in Suma Ward of Kobe City in Hyōgo Prefecture. His personal name was originally spelled , with the same pronunciation. His works include ''Tetsujin 28-go'', ''Giant Robo'', '' Akakage'', ''Babel II'', '' Sal ...
, series which he would copy drawing in elementary school. However, he said it was after reading
Shotaro Ishinomori
was a Japanese manga artist who became an influential figure in manga, anime, and , creating several immensely popular long-running series such as '' Cyborg 009,'' the ''Super Sentai'' series (later adapted into the ''Power Rangers'' series), ...
's ''How to Draw Manga'' that he understood how to draw manga properly and started doing so more seriously.
In high school, Otomo developed an interest in movies, that led to his ambition to become an illustrator or film director. At this time, one of his friends introduced him to an editor at
Futabasha
is a Japanese publishing company headquartered in Higashigokenchō, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.[会社概要]
" Futabasha. R ...
, who, after seeing Otomo's manga, told the high school student to contact him if he moved to Tokyo after graduating. Otomo did exactly that, and began his career as a professional manga artist.
Career
Manga
On October 4, 1973, Otomo published his first work, a manga adaptation of
Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...
's short story ''
Mateo Falcone
''Mateo Falcone'' is an 1829 short story by Prosper Mérimée. It first appeared in the May issue of ''Revue de Paris''. Its tightly focused narrative was well received and it has been called the original French short story.
Plot
The narrator rec ...
'', titled ''A Gun Report''.
In 1979, after writing multiple short-stories for the magazine ''
Weekly Manga Action
is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Futabasha. It is currently published twice a month, on the first and third Thursday. The magazine was originally formed as and began publishing weekly from July 7, 1967. It is considered the f ...
'', Otomo created his first science-fiction work, titled ''
Fireball''. Although the manga was never completed, it is regarded as a milestone in Otomo's career as it contained many of the same themes he would explore in his later, more successful manga such as ''
Dōmu''. ''Dōmu'' began serialization in January 1980 and ran until July 1981. It was not published in book form until 1983, when it won the
Nihon SF Taisho Award
The is a Japanese science fiction award. It has been compared to the Nebula Award as it is given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan or SFWJ. The Grand Prize is selected from not only Science Fiction novels, but also various SF m ...
. It also won the 1984
Seiun Award
The is a Japanese speculative fiction award given each year for the best science fiction works and achievements during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by , the awards are given at the annual Japan Science Fiction Convention. ...
for Best Comic.
In a collaboration with writer Toshihiko Yahagi, Otomo illustrated ''Kibun wa mō Sensō'' about a fictional war that erupts in the border between China and the Soviet Union. It was published in ''Weekly Manga Action'' from 1980 to 1981 and collected into one volume in 1982. It won the 1982 Seiun Award for Best Comic.
38 years later, the two created the one-shot sequel ''Kibun wa mō Sensō 3 (Datta Kamo Shirenai)'' for the April 16, 2019 issue of the magazine.
Also in 1981, Otomo drew ''A Farewell to Weapons'' for the November 16 issue of
Kodansha's ''
Young Magazine
is a Japanese weekly anthology magazine published in Tokyo each Monday by Kodansha. The magazine was started on June 23, 1980 and is targeted at the adult male ( ''seinen'') demographic. It was published bimonthly (under the title ), on the seco ...
''. It was later included in the 1990 short story collection ''Kanojo no Omoide...''.
In 1982, Otomo began what would become his most acclaimed and famous work: ''
Akira''. Kodansha had been asking him to write a series for their new ''Young Magazine'' for some time, but he had been busy with other work. From the first meeting with the publisher, ''Akira'' was to be only about ten chapters "or something like that," so Otomo said he was really not expecting it to be a success.
It was serialized for eight years and 2000 pages of artwork.
In 1990, Otomo did a brief interview with
MTV for a general segment on the Japanese manga scene at the time. Otomo created the one-shot ''Hi no Yōjin'' about people who put out fires in Japan's
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
for the debut issue of ''Comic Cue'' in January 1995.
Otomo wrote the 2001 picture book ''
Hipira: The Little Vampire'', which was illustrated by Shinji Kimura.
Otomo created the full-color work ''DJ Teck no Morning Attack'' for the April 2012 issue of ''Geijutsu Shincho''.
Following the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six mi ...
, Otomo, a native of the Tōhoku region, designed a
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
that features a boy riding a robot goldfish in rough seas, while flanked by
Fūjin
or is the Japanese god of the wind and one of the eldest Shinto gods. He is portrayed as a terrifying wizardly demon, resembling a red-headed green-skinned humanoid wearing a leopard skin, carrying a large bag of winds on his shoulders. In Ja ...
and
Raijin
, also known as , , , and Kamowakeikazuchi-no-kami is a god of lightning, thunder and storms in Japanese mythology and the Shinto religion. He is typically depicted with fierce and aggressive facial expressions, standing atop a cloud, beatin ...
. Intended to capture the region's will to overcome the natural disaster, it has been located on the first floor of the terminal building at
Sendai Airport
is an international airport located in the city of Natori, Miyagi, south southeast of Sendai metropolis, Sendai, Japan. The airport is alternatively referred to as .
History
In 1940, the Imperial Japanese Army built Sendai Airport in order ...
since March 2015.
In 2019, Kodansha announced that they will be re-releasing Otomo's entire body of manga since 1971 as part of "The Complete Works Project". It was noted that some of his manga were edited when initially compiled into book format, and this new project, personally overseen by Otomo, plans to restore them to how they appeared in their original serialization.
Otomo was initially reported in 2012 to be working on his first long-form manga since ''Akira''. Planning to draw the work that is set during Japan's
Meiji period
The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912.
The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...
without assistants, he was initially targeting a younger audience, but said the story had developed more towards an older one. Although planned to begin in fall 2012, Otomo revealed in November of that year that the series had been delayed. In 2018, Otomo said he is working on a full-length work, but the contents are secret.
Film
At the age of 25, Otomo spent about 5 million yen to make a
16 mm
16 mm film is a historically popular and economical gauge of film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 and 35 mm. It is generally used for non-theatrical (e.g., industrial, edu ...
live-action film about an hour long. He said that making this private film showed him roughly how to make and direct movies.
In 1982, Otomo made his
anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
debut, working as character designer for the animated film ''
Harmagedon: Genma Wars''. It was while working on this film that Otomo began to think he could do it by himself.
In 1987, Otomo directed an animated work for the first time: a segment, which he also wrote the screenplay and drew animation for, in the anthology feature ''
Neo Tokyo''. He followed this up with two segments in another anthology released that year, ''
Robot Carnival
is a Japanese anthology original video animation (OVA) and anime film released in 1987.
The film consists of nine shorts by different well-known directors, many of whom started out as animators with little to no directing experience. Each has ...
''. In 1988, he directed the
animated film adaptation of his manga ''Akira''.
Otomo was executive producer of 1995's ''
Memories
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...
'', an anthology film based on three of his stories. Additionally, he wrote the script for ''Stink Bomb'' and ''Cannon Fodder'', the latter of which he also directed.
Otomo has worked extensively with the studio
Sunrise
Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects.
Terminology
A ...
. In 1998, he directed the
CG short ''Gundam: Mission to the Rise'' to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their ''
Gundam
is a Japanese military fiction media franchise. Created by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), the franchise features giant robots, or mecha, with the name "Gundam". The franchise began on April 7, 1979, with ''Mobile ...
'' franchise. The studio has animated and produced his 2004 feature film ''
Steamboy'', 2006's ''
Freedom Project'', and 2007's ''SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers: The Next''. The last, is based on Otomo's 1980 manga ''SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorer'' and follows the son of its main characters.
The 2001 animated film ''
Metropolis
A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications.
A big ci ...
'' features a script written by Otomo that adapts Tezuka's manga of
the same name.
Otomo directed the 2006 live-action film ''
Mushishi
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Urushibara. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Afternoon Season Zōkan'' from 1999 to 2002, and in ''Monthly Afternoon'' from December 2002 to August 20 ...
'', based on
Yuki Urushibara
is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known for the series ''Mushishi'', for which she received an Excellence Prize for manga at the 2003 Japan Media Arts Festival and the 2006 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga. She is also known by t ...
's manga of
the same name.
In 2013, Otomo took part in ''
Short Peace
is a multimedia project composed of four short anime films produced by Sunrise and Shochiku, and a video game developed by Crispy's! and Grasshopper Manufacture. The four films were released in Japanese theaters on July 20, 2013 and were sc ...
'', an anthology consisting on 4 short films; he directed ''Combustible'', a tragic love story set in the Edo period based on his 1995 manga ''Hi no Yōjin'',
while
Hajime Katoki
is a Japanese mecha designer. A member of the studio Sunrise, he worked on the ''Gundam'' series as well as his work on video games, such as the ''Virtual On'' series and '' Policenauts''.
Biography
Born in 1963, Katoki created designs fo ...
directed ''A Farewell to Weapons'', depicting a battle in a ruined Tokyo based on Otomo's 1981 manga of the same name.
''Combustible'' won the Grand Prize in the Animation category of the
Japan Media Arts Festival
The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition.
Based on judging by a ...
in 2012, and was shortlisted for the 2013
Best Animated Short
The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...
at the
85th Academy Awards
The 85th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2012 and took place on February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p. ...
, but failed to get nominated.
Otomo directed the music video for
Aya Nakano
is a Japanese singer and songwriter from Kyoto. She is the daughter of a traditional Japanese weaver in Nishijin, Kyoto. At age 10 she joined the Kyoto City Junior Children’s Choir, where she studied the foundations of music and collaborated w ...
's 2016 song "Juku-Hatachi".
He is a fan of the singer and previously drew the cover to her 2014 album ''Warui Kuse''.
Reports have suggested that Otomo will be the executive producer of the live-action film adaptation of ''Akira''. In 2019, he announced that he is writing and directing an animated film adaptation of his 2001 manga ''Orbital Era'' with Sunrise.
Style
Otomo said that when he started his professional career in the late 1970s, "almost all manga was
gekiga
, literally "dramatic pictures", is a style of Japanese comics aimed at adult audiences and marked by a more cinematic art style and more mature themes. ''Gekiga'' was the predominant style of adult comics in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. It is ...
like ''
Golgo 13
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takao Saito, published in Shogakukan's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Big Comic'' since October 1968. The series follows the title character, a professional assassin for hire. ''Golgo ...
''. So it was all gekiga or
sports manga
is a genre of Japanese manga and anime that focuses on stories involving sports and other athletic and competitive pursuits. Though Japanese animated works depicting sports were released as early as the 1920s, sports manga did not emerge as a di ...
, nothing to do with
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
." Remembering how much he loved science fiction as a child, Otomo wanted to recreate that kind of excitement; "That was in part how something like ''
Domu
Xen (pronounced ) is a type-1 hypervisor, providing services that allow multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently. It was
originally developed by the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory a ...
'' came about.
..There was no
hard science fiction
Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by concern for scientific accuracy and logic. The term was first used in print in 1957 by P. Schuyler Miller in a review of John W. Campbell's ''Islands of Space'' in the Novemb ...
manga
..so I wanted to change that and do something more realistic and believable."
Describing his characterization style, Otomo said he first tried to draw and imitate "very traditional manga-like art," such as ''Astro Boy''. But by the time he was in high school, illustration work by people like
Tadanori Yokoo
is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter. Yokoo’s signature style of psychedelia and pastiche engages a wide span of modern visual and cultural phenomena from Japan and around the world.
Career
Tadanori Yokoo, bo ...
and Yoshitaro Isaka was popular, so he wanted to create manga characters with this illustrative art style.
When asked about how Japanese critics praise him as the first manga artist to draw realistic Japanese faces, Otomo said he always tries to balance fantasy and realism; "Depicting things too realistically actually damages the social realism of the piece, and if you go too far into the realm of fantasy, that hurts its imaginative ability." However, he said the realism of his early works probably came from having used friends as character models.
French ''
bande dessinée
(singular ; literally 'drawn strips'), abbreviated BDs and also referred to as Franco-Belgian comics (), are comics that are usually originally in French and created for readership in France and Belgium. These countries have a long tradition ...
'' artist
Moebius, who is known for realistic character designs, is often cited as one of Otomo's biggest influences.
Otomo includes homages to his favorite childhood manga in his work, and there were three manga authors that he really respected;
Osamu Tezuka,
Shotaro Ishinomori
was a Japanese manga artist who became an influential figure in manga, anime, and , creating several immensely popular long-running series such as '' Cyborg 009,'' the ''Super Sentai'' series (later adapted into the ''Power Rangers'' series), ...
and
Mitsuteru Yokoyama
was a Japanese manga artist born in Suma Ward of Kobe City in Hyōgo Prefecture. His personal name was originally spelled , with the same pronunciation. His works include ''Tetsujin 28-go'', ''Giant Robo'', '' Akakage'', ''Babel II'', '' Sal ...
. He named the main computer in ''Fireball'' ATOM after
Tezuka's character of the same name, the character nicknamed Ecchan in ''Domu'' is a reference to Ishinomori's ''
Sarutobi Ecchan
known in some countries as ''Hela Supergirl'', is a Japanese manga series by Shotaro Ishinomori. It was originally named , but was changed in 1971 when Toei Animation adapted it into an anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn a ...
'', and the title character of ''Akira'' is also known as No. 28 in homage to Yokoyama's ''
Tetsujin 28-go
, known as simply ''Tetsujin 28'' in international releases, is a 1956 manga written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who also created '' Giant Robo''. The series centers on the adventures of a young boy named Shotaro Kaneda, who ...
'' in addition to the two series having the "same overall plot."
Ever since depicting the apartment complex in ''Domu'', Otomo has had a large interest in architecture, proclaiming, "I don't think there was anyone before me who put this much effort into their depictions of buildings." He believes this habit of drawing detailed backgrounds was influenced by
Shigeru Mizuki
was a Japanese manga artist and historian, best known for his manga series ''GeGeGe no Kitarō''. Born in a hospital in Osaka and raised in the city of Sakaiminato, Tottori, he later moved to Chōfu, Tokyo where he remained until his death ...
's manga, which showed him how important backdrops are to a story.
Otomo strongly praised the framing done by
Tetsuya Chiba, whose work he studied a lot out of admiration, for making it easy to grasp how tangible the backgrounds and characters are.
When asked about his influences in designing the
mecha
In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japanese is ...
in ''Farewell to Weapons'', Otomo pointed out that
Studio Nue
Studio Nue, Inc. ( ja, スタジオぬえ) is a Japanese design studio formed in 1972 (as Crystal Art Studio) by Naoyuki Kato, Kenichi Matsuzaki, Kazutaka Miyatake, and Haruka Takachiho. Crystal Art Studio would change their name to Studio Nue ...
's work was popular at the time, specifically mentioning the powered suit designs by
Kazutaka Miyatake is a visual artist and anime designer known for the mechanical design of the ''Macross'' TV series and a number of its continuations from Studio Nue, of which he is a founding member. He has also contributed to the mecha design of other series such ...
and
Naoyuki Kato
is a Japanese illustrator, a native of Hamamatsu City, Japan.
Illustration works
A noted science-fiction artist since the 1970s, he has contributed to many science fiction/fantasy magazines, novels and games.
He was one of the four charter me ...
. He also stated that he is a fan of mecha by Takashi Watabe and Makoto Kobayashi and is fond of those seen in ''
Neon Genesis Evangelion'', but explained that all his influences are jumbled and mixed together; "In short, I digest many different things and ideas tend to pop out from that."
Legacy
It was around the 1979 publication of his ''Short Peace'' short story collection that Otomo's work became influential in Japan. Artists influenced by him and his work include
Hisashi Eguchi,
Naoki Urasawa
is a Japanese manga artist and musician. He has been drawing manga since he was four years old, and for most of his professional career has created two series simultaneously. The stories to many of these were co-written in collaboration with his ...
,
Naoki Yamamoto,
Makoto Aida and
Hiroya Oku
is a Japanese manga artist, who is the creator of '' Gantz'', '' Gigant'', '' Hen'' and ''Inuyashiki'', the first two of which have been serialized in '' Weekly Young Jump''. Originally influenced by Katsuhiro Otomo and Ryoichi Ikegami, .
When talking in 1997 about the future of manga, Urasawa opined that "
samuTezuka created the form that exists today, then
caricatures appeared next, and comics changed again when Katsuhiro Otomo came on the scene. I don't think there's any room left for further changes."
Masashi Kishimoto cited Otomo as one of his two biggest influences, but liked Otomo's art style the best and imitated it while trying to develop his own.
Otomo's manga work also notably influenced a number of
Japanese video game
Video games are a major industry in Japan. Japanese game development is often identified with the golden age of video games, including Nintendo under Shigeru Miyamoto and Hiroshi Yamauchi, Sega during the same time period, Sony Computer Enterta ...
designers by the mid-1980s, including
Enix
was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games.
The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...
's
Yuji Horii
(also written as Yuuji Horii; born January 6, 1954) is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing games, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger' ...
(''
The Portopia Serial Murder Case
, often translated to ''The Portopia Serial Murder Case'' in English, is an adventure game designed by Yuji Horii and published by Enix. It was first released on the NEC PC-6001 in June 1983, and has since been ported to other personal computers ...
'' and ''
Dragon Quest''),
Capcom's
Noritaka Funamizu
, sometimes credited as Poo, is a Japanese video game designer, director and producer formerly employed by Capcom. In 2004, he left Capcom to help found Crafts & Meister.
Career
Funamizu was employed by Capcom in 1985. Prior to that, he wrote f ...
(''
Gun.Smoke
is a 1985 vertical scrolling run-and-gun shooter arcade game produced by Capcom and designed by Yoshiki Okamoto. A Western-themed game, ''Gun.Smoke'' centers on a character named Billy Bob, a bounty hunter going after the criminals of the Wi ...
'' and ''
Hyper Dyne Side Arms
is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed and released by Capcom as an arcade video game in 1986. The player takes control of a flying mecha suit who must battle an alien army. ''Side Arms'' uses a two-directional attacking system similar ...
''),
UPL's Tsutomu Fujisawa (''
Ninja-Kid''),
Thinking Rabbit's Hiroyuki Imabayashi (''
Sokoban
is a puzzle video game in which the player pushes boxes around in a warehouse, trying to get them to storage locations. The game was designed in 1981 by Hiroyuki Imabayashi, and first published in December 1982.
Gameplay
The game is played on a ...
''),
dB-SOFT
was a Japanese software development company that was in business from 1980 to 2003 based in Sapporo, Hokkaido. They started as a video game developer, releasing titles for various home computer platforms (including the Family Computer), but su ...
's Naoto Shinada (''
Volguard''), Hot-B's Jun Kuriyama (''
Psychic City''), and
Microcabin
, sometimes written as Micro Cabin, is a Japan-based video game developer and publisher incorporated in 1982, which grew from the Ōyachi Electrics Microcomputer Club.
Known for their ''Xak'' series and its spinoff ''Fray in Magical Adventure'', ...
's Masashi Katou (''Eiyuu Densetsu Saga'').
Director
Satoshi Kon
was a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and manga artist from Sapporo, Hokkaido and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association (JAniCA). He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art Univer ...
, who worked as an assistant to Otomo in both manga and film, cited ''Akira'' and especially ''Domu'' as influences. American film director
Rian Johnson
Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film '' Brick'' (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Transitio ...
is a big fan of Otomo and pointed out similarities between how telekinesis is depicted in ''Domu'' and its depiction in his film ''
Looper
Looper may refer to:
Animals
* Cabbage looper (''Trichoplusia ni''), a member of the moth family Noctuidae
* Inchworm, of the insect order Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies
People
* Looper (surname), a Dutch-language surname with the mean ...
''.
In 2017, the book ''Otomo: A Global Tribute to the Mind Behind Akira'' was published in Japan, France and the United States, featuring writing and artwork from 80 artists such as
Masakazu Katsura
is a Japanese manga artist, known for several works of manga, including ''Wing-Man'', ''Shadow Lady'', ''DNA²'', '' Video Girl Ai'', '' I"s'', and '' Zetman''. He has also worked as character designer for '' Iria: Zeiram the Animation'', ''Ti ...
,
Taiyo Matsumoto,
Masamune Shirow
, better known by his pen name , is a Japanese manga artist. Shirow is best known for the manga '' Ghost in the Shell'', which has since been turned into three theatrical anime films, two anime television series, an anime television movie, an a ...
,
Asaf and
Tomer Hanuka
Tomer Hanuka ( he, תומר חנוכה; born 1974) is an illustrator and cartoonist.
Biography
At age twenty-two, Hanuka moved to New York City. Following his graduation from the School of Visual Arts in 2000, he quickly became a regular cont ...
, and
Stan Sakai
is a Japanese-born American cartoonist and comic book creator. He is best known as the creator of the comic series '' Usagi Yojimbo''.
Career
He began his career by lettering comic books (notably ''Groo the Wanderer'' by Sergio Aragonés and Ma ...
. From April 8 to May 8, 2021, comic art collector Phillipe Labaune's self-titled art gallery in New York City held "Good For Health, Bad For Education: A Tribute to Otomo" as its first exhibition. Including pieces originally curated by Julien Brugeas for the 2016 Angoulême International Comics Festival, it featured a total of 29 Otomo-inspired works by international artists such as
Sara Pichelli
Sara Pichelli (born 15 April 1983) is an Italian comics artist best known for first illustrating the Miles Morales version of ''Ultimate Spider-Man''. After starting her career in animation, Pichelli entered the comic book industry working for I ...
,
Paul Pope
Paul Pope (born September 25, 1970, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American alternative cartoonist. Pope's work combines the precision and romance of European comics artists with the energy and page design of the manga tradition. Pope' ...
,
Boulet,
François Boucq,
Giannis Milonogiannis
Giannis Milonogiannis (Greek: Γιάννης Μυλωνογιάννης) is a Greek comic book artist who was born in Maryland and grew up on the island of Crete, Greece. He first gained prominence in the American market with his English-languag ...
and
Ian Bertram
Ian Bertram is an American comic book artist and a New York's School of Visual Arts graduate. He is working and living in New York. He creates mystical, grotesque, and primal portraits of the strange. He has published with Marvel, DC, Image, and ...
.
Bibliography
Manga
Short story collections
Artbooks
Filmography
Anime
Live-action
Additional work
Besides his own animation, Otomo has contributed art designs to ''
Harmagedon: Genma Wars'', the ''
Crusher Joe
is a series of science fiction novels written by Haruka Takachiho and published by Asahi Sonorama from 1977 to 2005 (an additional trilogy was published between 2013 and 2016). During the late 1970s one of the founding fathers of Studi ...
'' film, the seven-part OVA series ''
Freedom Project'', and ''
Space Dandy
, is a 2014 Japanese comic science fiction anime television series produced by Bones. The series follows the misadventures of Dandy, an alien hunter who is "a dandy guy in space", in search for undiscovered and rare aliens with his robot assi ...
'' episode 22.
He also oversaw the composition of the ''
Spriggan
A spriggan is a legendary creature from Cornish mythology, Cornish folklore. Spriggans are particularly associated with West Penwith in Cornwall.
Etymology
''Spriggan'' is a dialect word, pronounced with the grapheme as /d͡ʒ/, sprid-jan, ...
'' animated film
and directed the music video for
Aya Nakano
is a Japanese singer and songwriter from Kyoto. She is the daughter of a traditional Japanese weaver in Nishijin, Kyoto. At age 10 she joined the Kyoto City Junior Children’s Choir, where she studied the foundations of music and collaborated w ...
.
Notes
References
* "Freedom". (May 2007) ''
Newtype USA
is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime (and to a lesser extent, tokusatsu, manga, Japanese science fiction, seiyuu, and video games). It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985, with i ...
''. p. 23.
External links
Otomo: The Complete Works*
*
Katsuhiro Ôtomoat ''
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo, Locus and British SF Awards. Two print editions appeared in 1979 and 1993. A third, continu ...
''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otomo, Katsuhiro
1954 births
Living people
Anime screenwriters
Annie Award winners
Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême winners
Japanese animators
Anime directors
Japanese film directors
Japanese animated film directors
Japanese animated film producers
Japanese screenwriters
Manga artists from Miyagi Prefecture
Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon
Science fiction film directors
Sunrise (company) people
Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees
Winner of Kodansha Manga Award (General)
Writers from Miyagi Prefecture
Cyberpunk writers