Introduction

Katsuhiro Otomo is a 47 year old Japanese manga and anime artist. To clarify these terms, in Japan a manga artist is a comic strip artist, and an anime artist is an animation artist.
Mr. Otomo has had phenomenal success in both these fields, his works are known all over the world. His most famous works being Akira, a two hour long Japanese anime that follows the lives of a motorcycle gang, who get mixed up in a secret army experiment to try and control psychic powers.
Otomo�s style is very highly regarded by all that view his works. Compared to the majority of Japanese manga or anime, his character design and over all style is very adult and even disturbing. He has shy�d away from the childish characters and bright colours, in order to produce a number of works that are very serious, engaging and enthralling to watch.
His published manga and anime have become cult favorites of fans all over world, his work stands far above the rest, and so has received numerous awards from governing bodies, also his movies have been hailed by the critics as being on a par with the likes of real life action movies masterpieces, such as �Blade Runner�, �Mad Max� and �A Clockwork Orange�.

Over his career he has achieved phenomenal success for himself and the companies he works for. He is at the moment working on his latest venture, an anime movie compiled of three stories from his early works. The feature length presentation will undoubtedly follow in the footsteps of his other works, and ultimately secure his place in Japanese manga anime history.

Background

Mr. Otomo was born in an area of Japan known as the Miyago Prefecture in the month of April 1954. The Miyago Prefecture is situated 400 kms north-east of Tokyo, and is one of Japans many agricultural fishing provinces.
Throughout his childhood years he attended the Samuma high school, this rural school over the years has turned out an number of manga and anime artist�s, which Otomo would ultimately follow in this direction, to a career in these fields. Throughout his school years Otomo became enthralled and transfixed by the youthful rebellion movies of the day, including the American classics �Bonnie and Clyde�, �Easy Rider�, �Five Easy Pieces� and �The Strawberry Statement�. He loved these types of movie, and consequently they had a very big influence over his future works, which can be seen by the viewer in his comic strips and his movies.
His love for these movies can clearly be seen by the commitment showed by Otomo to get to the nearest movie theater, which was a three hour train ride away, which he used to have to endure every time he wanted to watch his big screen favorites.

In the year 1973, Otomo graduated from Sanuma high school. At age 19 he decided to pack up his bags and move out of the rural area and follow his dream to become a manga comic strip artist, he ultimately moved to Japans capital city Tokyo.
In the very same year, Otomo had his first professional comic strip published, it was an adaptation of Prosper Memimee�s �Mateo Falone�. which he entitled �Jyu-Sei�, when translated means �A Gun Report�. This manga comic strip appeared in a weekly magazine aptly titled �Action�.
Action continued to publish Otomo work for the next several years, in which Otomo created various short stories with a length of around 20 to 30 pages. These short stories of Otomo�s were in the years afterwards, collected together and reprinted in four volumes (also reprinted in English language ) aptly entitled �Memories�.

Over the years Otomo achieved a promising degree of success with his short stories. This gave Otomo the inspiration and motivation to go on to bigger and better things. He started work on a lengthy serial manga comic strip entitled �Fireball�. Otomo�s famous creative character styling finally started to come into its own while working on this manga, and a new enthusiasm started to emanate around his work. A Japanese journal entitled �Asahi� quoted �Just like the new wave movies that have closed the chapter of the old fashioned Hollywood style , Otomo is now going to break with traditional of the Japanese comic strip style�.

Fireball

His story �Fireball� is based upon the humans beings fighting against the mega computer theme. �Fireball� however for some reason was never completed, but while it was running it established Otomo as a cult comic creator among the high school and college youth, addicted to the visual comic culture, which was his main target audience. This science fiction themed manga fueled Otomo�s fascination for this genre, and this is the point at where Otomo creates his most astounding works �Domu� and �Akira�.

Main Works

�Domu�

In 1980 Otomo was brought phenomenal success by his latest work �Domu�, published by Dark Horse Comics, this title became the best seller in Japan on release. It continued to dominate the market, and held this spot on the charts until its climax in 1982. Altogether the story spanned 230 pages, and caused quite a bit of controversy due to its uneasy content.

�Akira�

Urged on by the phenomenal success of �Domu� Otomo engaged in a new project called �Akira�. Akira began its bi-monthly serialisation in 1982, in a publication called �Young Magazine�.

Akira : Manga Caption

This was the movie that introduced Otomo to the world. �Akira� became a massive hit in every country it played, and won the acclaim of the critics who stated that it rivaled the cult classic masterpieces �Blade Runner�, �Clockwork Orange�, and �Mad Max�. The comic was then as a result of the films success, translated into virtually every language on the planet, and stands as the ultimate Japanese manga and anime the world over. The film ultimately spawned all manner of merchandise including T-shirts, lunch box�s and toys.

In an interview with Mr. Otomo he had this to say about his goals and his vision of Akira.

"I wanted to make a movie that would be a jumble of images, instead of just showing the highlights of each scene. I wanted to show the details, and if such detail could be seen as a mosaic of the whole, and in retrospect, if the viewer could recall the movie in that way, then that would fit my intention."

"That�s why I created Neo-Tokyo to frame and enhance the image I had of AKIRA. Although the movies title is the name of a child, in fact it does not revolve around any single character. No one person is the main character, yet it is possible for many to be seen as such. All people have drama in their lives, so the plot is simply the intermingling of many such dramas."

The Akira part of Otomo�s life altogether spanned 10 years.

Manga to Anime

Otomo relished the chance to translate Akira from the manga comic strip to a big screen anime. But he wanted the story to stay as true to the original format as possible, so he became as involved in every part of the animation as possible, from creating the storyboards the animation and direction of the film. But as the animation side of things was new to him, he did have to overcome and learn new techniques, in order to bring the story alive. In his own words:

"One of the problems I had in creating this movie was connecting the scenes. Although I had sufficient images from the script to cover the major scenes, the problem was linking the ones leading to the climax. Another problem was the flow or tempo of the story. Because the movie had to fit within a framework of two hours, it was important not to waste any time cutting to other scenes. In comic stories, one is allowed greater freedom to digress, but if you try the same thing in a movie, it loses its clarity and sharpness."

"When I was working on the storyboards, I kept the consideration of animation always in mind, but it was very difficult. There were so many simple scenes, such as a character walking toward the camera, which makes things difficult. On a TV the camera can pan to the upper sections, but in this movie the characters whole body had to be in view, and its movements had to seem lifelike. The many such supposedly simple scenes like these created the greatest problems for me."

"In the final sequences, which feature Tetsuo`s transformation, a lot of the action can only be captured by animation. To show such scenes with a sense of realism depends a lot on the appearance of the backgrounds. If a comic character is established from the beginning, even realistic endings do not change that first impression. The viewer suspends disbelief in the character and is not surprised by anything that happens. For example, in order to show spectacular scenes or extraordinary powers, the artist has to depict normal backgrounds and scenes with a great sense of reality. In so doing, the scenes of devastation take on a added sense of realism. I also pay much attention to the value of artwork and color in enhancing reality."

"I feel that everybody does this in all movies; if the audience doesn�t believe in the character, then the movie will be a failure. So it is very necessary to create a sense of reality for the story to develop".

As this quote from Otomo proves, the transition from comic strip artist to animation artist is very difficult, even for the most accomplished. From the static poses of a manga, to an animated scene containing the fluid motion of the characters, does require a lot more thought on behalf of the artist. Probably the most difficult part of the transition for Otomo, was the timing of the characters movement, althought this sense of timing does come to the artist with a lot of analytical thought and expierience. The transition to animation director was a lot easier for Otomo, a comic strip artist is in his own right a directer. He has to select the order of scenes, and has to decide the final angle of the shot. This expierience of being a comic strip director would easily cross over form manga to anime, perhaps this goes to explain the position of Otomo as his life and career has moved on. His transition into an anime career as it has gone on, has seen Otomo delve deeper and deeper into the directors role.

New Works

Since Akira Otomo has ventured into other areas, he has created television commercials and magazine advertisements for numerous companies, the likes of Cannon and Honda. He has also directed a live action sixteen millimeter film entitled �Jyu-o Warerani�.

He is working today, directing a movie of his earliest works called �Memories�. The movie contains three of the original stories: -

Kanojo no Omoide ________ Memories of Her
Saishu Heiki ________ Weapon of Strongest Stench
Taiho no Machi ________ Town of Artillery

Staying true to himself and his fans these three stories continue his unique style of science fiction, black humor, and fantasy. Otomo suggests that this film is directed to an older audience than that of his former movies, and that he is trying to incorporate and aim the movie to a much wider audience world wide.
Two of the stories are directed as his former movies have been, but �Town of Artillery� is to be shot using just one take, he refers to the film as being in � long distance�. He got the idea as he created the storyboards, hoping and dreaming up new ways to bring across to the viewer new depths of atmosphere and staging.

Conclusion

Katsuhiro Otomo has over the years has achieved great success with his work, The visions and dreams that he has recorded in order to bring them to us is nothing short of extraordinary. What is inspiring is the fact that as well as being so dedicated to his work, he has involved himself in so many of the manga and anime processes. His former work still carrying on even now, for instance his original Akira publication is to be re-published across America in its original black and white format.

Otomo stands at the pinnacle of his career and is at this moment putting the finishing touches to his latest venture �Memories�. And with word that this feature is to follow the same lines as his former work in way of style, vision and animation, as well as experimenting with new directorial directions, his standing in the worldwide animation industry as well as to the animation fanatics, is and will be recognized for many many years into the future.