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Brandon Prior

Professor Speed-Schwartz

DGMA

30 November 2018

Katsuhiro Otomo: Dystopian Mastermind

Katsuhiro Otomo is best known for his Manga Akira, getting its own adaptation directed

by him to a film that saw its western release in December of 1989, soon approaching its 29th

anniversary this year. The film has a dystopian art style that was unseen at the time, and became

a major inspiration for many anime and manga artists. It also caused a complete upheavel on

what the public (especially the western public) viewed anime as, changing it from cheaply made

Japanese cartoons to sex-driven violent mature films. A lot of different parts of the film

contributed towards this, whether it’s the gritty, somewhat grounded character designs, or the

background design and worldbuilding that we see throughout the film, and these factors are often

seen throughout all of Otomo’s work.

Looking at another one of Otomo’s films, Steamboy, we can see the same strong

worldbuilding from Akira in this film. Both stories involve a world with fighting and strife, but

while Akira is set in a modern society with advanced technology, Steamboy is set in a very

steampunk setting, where the advanced technology is based on a more 1800’s era. The

backgrounds and set pieces for each scene are also thought out and crafted. If a battle is taking

place we get wider shots with clear views of all the war machines and soldiers, while more

personal encounters usually take place in tighter looking quarters. Scenes with a lot of characters

give breathing room for each of them, not letting the screen get too messy and cluttered, while

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scenes with only a few characters on screen will let them take up more space and give them finer

details. Take for example this shot here from Steamboy:

This shot is simultaneously showing the carnage on screen and filling empty space with rubble

while also giving the woman a lot of space for her walk forward. This is just one of many great

shot compositions in Otomo’s work. By taking the extra time to think of how this scene should

look, he managed to fit 6 bodies on screen, while of course still giving the woman walking room

to move.

Katsuhiro’s next strongest trait and the trait which will be the most helpful for my project

is his character designs and how they convey who the character is. For instance, from the film

Memories:

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This man’s design says a lot about his character just at a glance. We see he’s wearing

very formal attire, large glasses and a thin build. We can tell that this man is not a fighter and is

more likely the person helping behind a screen, as he is here. In contrast to this character we

have this character from the same film:

This character, who has a much more built body, and his attire is more action based, dimly

colored, and bulky. We see he’s holding a weapon of some form in his hand, and also has some

sort of object in his right ear, assumedly an earpiece for communications. With a single frame

from the film only, we can figure out a large amount of information for each character inside.

Effective character design and designing a character based on their personality are two things I

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strive to accomplish, and Katsuhiro Otomo manages to design his characters efficiently in each

of his films.

These traits and features are not absent from Otomo’s masterpiece film Akira either. The

city of Tokyo featured in the film feels simultaneously like an unrealistic utopia as it does a real

place you can visit, especially when looking at large establishing shots of the city.

This Neo-Tokyo featured in the film has been recreated and been the source of inspiration for

many other futuristic settings in all media. Most of these recreations don’t hide their source of

inspiration:

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(Neotokyo, Timesplitters 2)

(Neo-Tokyo, Akira)

The neon lights, colorful signs and concrete urban vibe is seen in most Otomo inspired films.

Another feature of Akira that has inspired other films is the character designs. Tetsuo Shima is a

shining example of how to show a character’s development through their design and how it

changes from the start of a film to the end.

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Closer to the beginning of the film when Tetsuo is first taken he has short hair, and his

expression is never usually extreme unless under pressure. His clothes remain bland and simple,

showing how his lack of the knowledge of his powers means he doesn’t see how important he

truly is. His demeanor starts annoyed and angry, confused as to why he’s being held hostage and

only wanting to escape. After his powers start to develop, we slowly see this side of Tetsuo

slipping further and further away from us, as he becomes more powerful and begins his insane

hunt for whoever Akira is.

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After Tetsuo continues to develop his powers and build his strength, he becomes more manic and

irrational, his hair sticking up on the back of his head rather than being settled and smooth like it

was at the start of the film. His facial expressions whenever he’s talking or screaming in pain and

anger have increased in severity. He now wears a red robe as a cape, signifying his belief in his

deity-level strength and knowledge, and as he takes more injuries to his arm and it becomes more

and more mechanical, it shows the loss of his human side. Tetsuo is just one example of strong

character design and character development from Katsuhiro Otomo’s films.

Katsuhiro Otomo is the artist I chose as inspiration for my animation because his skills in

character design and character development especially struck out to me as a trait I want to learn

and master for potentially my own series one day. There are lots of things from the films that I

will directly reference for my final project (such as the children in Akira) which I didn’t cover

here, but that just shows how amazing of an artist and an animator Katsuhiro Otomo is.

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Works Cited

Otomo, Katsuhiro. “Katsuhiro Otomo On Creating 'Akira' And Designing The Coolest Bike In

All Of Manga And Anime” Interview by Ollie Barder. Forbes, May 2017. URL:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2017/05/26/katsuhiro-otomo-on-creating-akira-

and-designing-the-coolest-bike-in-all-of-manga-and-anime/#37a64a7a6d25

Otomo, Katsuhiro. “Katsuhiro Otomo” Interview by Kuriko Sato. Midnight Eye, December

2006. URL: http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/katsuhiro-otomo/