| Katsuhiro Otomo | |
|---|---|
| File:FIBD2016OtomoHermann (cropped).jpg Otomo in 2016 | |
| Born | April 14, 1954 Miyagi Prefecture, Japan |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Area(s) | |
Notable works | Dōmu Akira Metropolis Steamboy |
| Awards |
|
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Katsuhiro Otomo (大友 克洋, Ōtomo Katsuhiro, born April 14, 1954) is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga and anime franchise Akira, including 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,[1] promoted to Officier of the order in 2014,[2] became the fourth manga artist ever inducted into the American Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2012,[3] and was awarded the Purple Medal of Honor from the Japanese government in 2013.[4] Otomo later received the Winsor McCay Award at the 41st Annie Awards in 2014 and the 2015 Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême, the first manga artist to receive the award.[5][6] Artists influenced by Otomo and his work include Naoki Urasawa, Naoki Yamamoto and Makoto Aida.[7]
Early life[]
Katsuhiro Otomo was born in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture and grew up in Tome-gun. While he was in high school he was fascinated with movies, often taking a three-hour train ride during school holidays just to see them. In 1973 he graduated high school and left Miyagi, heading to Tokyo with the hopes of becoming a manga artist. On October 4, 1973, he published his first work, a manga adaptation of Prosper Mérimée's short novel Mateo Falcone, titled A Gun Report.
Career[]
In 1979, after writing multiple short-stories for the magazine Action, 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 for two years until completed. In 1983, it was published in book form and would win the Nihon SF Taisho Award,[8] the Japanese equivalent to the Nebula Award.
In 1982, Otomo made his anime debut, working as character designer for the animated film Harmagedon. The next year, Otomo began work on a manga which would become his most acclaimed and famous work: Akira. It took eight years to complete and would eventually culminate in 2000 pages of artwork.
By the mid-1980s, Otomo's work had become influential in Japan. His early manga work notably influenced a number of Japanese video game designers by the mid-1980s, including Enix's Yuji Horii (The Portopia Serial Murder Case and Dragon Quest), Capcom's Noritaka Funamizu (Gun.Smoke and Hyper Dyne Side Arms), UPL's Tsutomu Fujisawa (Ninja-Kid), Thinking Rabbit's Hiroyuki Imabayashi (Sokoban), dB-SOFT's Naoto Shinada (Volguard), Hot-B's Jun Kuriyama (Psychic City), and Microcabin's Masashi Katou (Eiyuu Densetsu Saga).[9]
In 1987, Otomo continued working in anime, directing 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, Robot Carnival.
While the serialization of Akira was taking place, Otomo decided to animate it into a feature film, although the comic was yet to be finished. In 1988, the animated film Akira was released. In 1990, Otomo did a brief interview with MTV for a general segment on the Japanese manga scene at the time.[10]
Otomo has recently worked extensively with noted studio Sunrise. The studio has animated and produced his recent projects, including the 2004 feature film Steamboy, 2006's Freedom Project and his latest project, SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers: The Next, released in 2007.
Reports have suggested that Otomo will be the executive producer of the live action adaptation of his manga series Akira.[11]
In a 2012 interview, Otomo said he will start a new manga series, set during Japan's Meiji period (late 1800s early 1900s).[12] It will be his first long-form work since Akira.
In 2013, Otomo released his newest film in over 9 years since Steamboy, called Short Peace, an anthology consisting on 4 shorts: His own short based on one of his stories called Combustible, a tragic love story set in the Edo period, Tsukumo, directed by Shuhei Morita in which everyday tools metamorphose into supernatural things, Gambo, directed by Hiroaki Ando, which features a battle between an oni goblin and a polar bear, and Buki yo Saraba directed by Hajime Katoki, depicting a battle in a ruined Tokyo. Combustible won the Grand Prize of the Cultural Affairs Agency's Japan Media Arts Festival Animation awards in 2012,[13] and it was shortlisted for the 2013 Best Animated Short at the 85th Academy Awards, but it failed to get nominated. Tsukumo, under the title Possessions, would become nominated for the 2014 Best Animated Short at the 86th Academy Awards.
Katsuhiro Otomo was later nominated for Angoulême's Top Prize 2014 (Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême)[14]
Personal life[]
Otomo is married to Yoko Otomo. Together they have one child, a son named Shohei Otomo, who is also an artist.[15]
Bibliography[]
Manga[]
| Year | Title | Role(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1973 | A Gun Report | Writer, Penciller |
| 1979 | Short Peace | Writer, Penciller |
| 1979 | Highway Star | Writer, Penciller |
| 1979 | Fireball | Writer, Penciller |
| 1980 | Dōmu | Writer, Penciller |
| 1980 | Kibun wa mō Sensō | Writer, Penciller |
| 1981 | Sayonara Nippon | Writer, Penciller |
| 1981 | Hansel & Gretel | Writer, Penciller |
| 1982 | Akira | Writer, Penciller |
| 1984 | Visitors | Writer, Penciller |
| 1990 | Kanojo no Omoide... | Writer, Penciller |
| 1990 | The Legend of Mother Sarah | Writer |
| 1996 | SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers | Writer, Penciller |
| 1996 | Batman: Black & White #4 (The Third Mask) | Writer, Penciller |
| 2001 | Hipira: The Little Vampire | Writer |
| 2006 | Park | Writer, Penciller |
| 2012 | DJ Teck's Morning Attack | Writer, Penciller |
Artbooks[]
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Kaba | |
| 1995 | Akira Club | |
| 2003 | Akira Animation Archives | |
| 2012 | Kaba 2 |
Filmography[]
Director[]
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Neo Tokyo | Segment: "Construction Cancellation Order" |
| 1987 | Robot Carnival | Segments: "Opening" and "Ending" |
| 1988 | Akira | |
| 1991 | World Apartment Horror | Live-action |
| 1995 | Memories | Segment: "Cannon Fodder" |
| 2004 | Steamboy | |
| 2006 | Mushishi | Live-action |
| 2013 | Short Peace | Segment: "Combustible" |
| TBA | Orbital Era | |
| TBA | Akira | Anime Series |
Screenwriter[]
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Neo Tokyo | Segment: "Construction Cancellation Order" |
| 1987 | Robot Carnival | Segments: "Opening" and "Ending" |
| 1988 | Akira | |
| 1991 | Roujin Z | |
| 1995 | Memories | Segments: "Cannon Fodder" and "Stink Bomb" |
| 2001 | Metropolis | |
| 2004 | Steamboy | |
| 2006 | Mushishi | Live-action |
| 2013 | Short Peace | Segment: "Combustible" |
| TBA | Orbital Era |
Additional work[]
Besides his own animation, Otomo has contributed his art to anime as varied as the Genma Taisen movie, Harmagedon, the Crusher Joe movie, a special Gundam anniversary short film, the seven-part OVA series Freedom Project, and Space Dandy episode 22.
Notes[]
- ↑ "Katsuhiro Otomo Receives Japan Medal with Purple Ribbon". Anime News Network. November 1, 2013. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-11-01/katsuhiro-otomo-receives-japan-medal-with-purple-ribbon.
- ↑ "Akira's Katsuhiro Otomo Announces Live-Action Film Plans". Anime News Network. December 14, 2014. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-12-14/akira-katsuhiro-otomo-announces-live-action-film-plans/.82150.
- ↑ "ANIME NEWS: Katsuhiro Otomo inducted into Eisner's Hall of Fame". Asahi Shimbun. August 14, 2012. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan/anime_news/AJ201208140052.
- ↑ "ANIME NEWS: 'Akira' creator Katsuhiro Otomo honored by government". Asahi Shimbun. November 13, 2013. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan/anime_news/AJ201311130042.
- ↑ https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-katsuhiro-otomo-annie-awards-20140131,0,7303756.story#axzz2s8Mi4U2B
- ↑ https://news.yahoo.com/japans-otomo-first-manga-artist-win-top-french-193542264.html
- ↑ "大友克洋特集がAERAで、浦沢直樹や山本直樹らが影響語る" . Natalie. 2013-08-13. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ "Nihon SF Taisho Award Winners List". Science Fiction Writers of Japan. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ "59 Developers, 20 Questions: 1985 Interview Special". Beep. October 1985. http://shmuplations.com/20questions1985. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
- ↑ (in en) MTV spotlights Japanese comics (1990), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e3rz4gbaB0, retrieved 2019-11-18
- ↑ "Live action Akira movie coming, DiCaprio and Otomo signed on to produce". Autoblog. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ "Akira's Katsuhiro Otomo Working on New Manga". Otaku USA Magazine. 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ Shimbun, The Yomiuri. "The Japan News". The Japan News. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
{{cite web}}: - ↑ "Akira's Katsuhiro Otomo Nominated for Angoulême's Top Prize". Anime News Network. January 24, 2014. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-01-24/akira-katsuhiro-otomo-nominated-for-angouleme-top-prize.
- ↑ Bailey, John (21 November 2017). "Tattooed sumo stars as artist Shohei Otomo brings his ballpoints to Melbourne". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
{{cite web}}:
References[]
- "Freedom". (May 2007) Newtype USA. p. 23.
External links[]
- Katsuhiro Ôtomo at the Internet Movie Database
- Katsuhiro Otomo at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
- Katsuhiro Ôtomo at the The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Template:Katsuhiro Otomo Template:Akira manga
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