Katsuhiro Otomo was born in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture and grew up in Tome District. He said that living in the very rural Tōhoku region left him with nothing to do as a child, so he read a lot of manga.[8] 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's Shōnen magazine, which included Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka and Tetsujin 28-go by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, series which he would copy drawing in elementary school. However, he said it was after reading Shotaro Ishinomori's How to Draw Manga that he understood how to draw manga properly and started doing so more seriously.[8]
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, 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.[8]
Career
Manga
On October 4, 1973, Otomo published his first work, a manga adaptation of Prosper Mérimée's short story Mateo Falcone, titled A Gun Report.[9]
In 1979, after writing multiple short-stories for the magazine Weekly Manga 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 until July 1981. It was not published in book form until 1983, when it won the Nihon SF Taisho Award.[10] It also won the 1984 Seiun Award for Best Comic.[11]
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.[11] 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.[12]
Also in 1981, Otomo drew A Farewell to Weapons for the November 16 issue of Kodansha's Young Magazine. It was later included in the 1990 short story collection Kanojo no Omoide...[13]
Otomo posing on a replica of a futuristic motorcycle seen in his series Akira (2016)
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.[8] 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.[14] Otomo created the one-shot Hi no Yōjin about people who put out fires in Japan's Edo period for the debut issue of Comic Cue in January 1995.[15]
Otomo created the full-color work DJ Teck no Morning Attack for the April 2012 issue of Geijutsu Shincho.[17]
Following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Otomo, a native of the Tōhoku region, designed a relief that features a boy riding a robot goldfish in rough seas, while flanked by Fūjin and Raijin. 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 since March 2015.[18]
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.[19]
Otomo was initially reported in 2012 to be working on his first long-form manga since Akira.[20] Planning to draw the work that is set during Japan's Meiji period 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.[21] In 2018, Otomo said he is working on a full-length work, but the contents are secret.[22]
Film
At the age of 25, Otomo spent about 5 million yen to make a 16 mm live-action film about an hour long. He said that making this private film showed him roughly how to make and direct movies.[8] In 1982, Otomo made his anime 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.[8]
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. In 1988, he directed the animated film adaptation of his manga Akira.
Otomo was executive producer of 1995's Memories, 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.[23]
Otomo has worked extensively with the studio Sunrise. In 1998, he directed the CG short Gundam: Mission to the Rise to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their Gundam franchise.[24] 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.[25]
The 2001 animated film Metropolis features a script written by Otomo that adapts Tezuka's manga of the same name.[26]
In 2013, Otomo took part in Short Peace, 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,[15] while Hajime Katoki directed A Farewell to Weapons, depicting a battle in a ruined Tokyo based on Otomo's 1981 manga of the same name.[13]Combustible won the Grand Prize in the Animation category of the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2012,[28] and was shortlisted for the 2013 Best Animated Short at the 85th Academy Awards, but failed to get nominated.
Otomo directed the music video for Aya Nakano's 2016 song "Juku-Hatachi".[29] He is a fan of the singer and previously drew the cover to her 2014 album Warui Kuse.[29]
Reports have suggested that Otomo will be the executive producer of the live-action film adaptation of Akira.[30] In 2019, he announced that he is writing and directing an animated film adaptation of his 2001 manga Orbital Era with Sunrise.[31]
Style
Otomo said that when he started his professional career in the late 1970s, "almost all manga was gekiga like Golgo 13. So it was all gekiga or sports manga, nothing to do with science fiction." 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 came about. [...] There was no hard science fiction manga [...] so I wanted to change that and do something more realistic and believable."[8]
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 and Yoshitaro Isaka was popular, so he wanted to create manga characters with this illustrative art style.[8] 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.[32] French cartoonist Moebius, who is known for realistic character designs, is often cited as one of Otomo's biggest influences.[33] Otomo is considered to be one of the artists of the New Wave in manga in the late 1970s and 1980s especially due to his visual innovation.[34]
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 and Mitsuteru Yokoyama. 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, and the title character of Akira is also known as No. 28 in homage to Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28-go in addition to the two series having the "same overall plot."[8] 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's manga, which showed him how important backdrops are to a story.[32] 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.[35]
When asked about his influences in designing the mecha in Farewell to Weapons, Otomo pointed out that Studio Nue's work was popular at the time, specifically mentioning the powered suit designs by Kazutaka Miyatake and Naoyuki Kato. 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."[8]
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, Naoki Yamamoto, Makoto Aida and Hiroya Oku.[36][37][38] When talking in 1997 about the future of manga, Urasawa opined that "[Osamu] Tezuka 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."[39]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.[40]
Director Satoshi Kon, who worked as an assistant to Otomo in both manga and film, cited Akira and especially Domu as influences.[42] American film director Rian Johnson is a big fan of Otomo and pointed out similarities between how telekinesis is depicted in Domu and its depiction in his film Looper.[43]
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, Taiyo Matsumoto, Masamune Shirow, Asaf and Tomer Hanuka, and Stan Sakai.[44] 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.[45] 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, Paul Pope, Boulet, François Boucq, Giannis Milonogiannis and Ian Bertram.[46]
Bibliography
Manga
Year(s)
Title
Notes
1973
A Gun Report (銃声)
Short story based on Prosper Mérimée, published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 4th August 1973.
1973
Best Friend (親友)
Short story based on Edogawa Ranpo, published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 6th October 1973.
1973
Uncle Smiley (スマイリーおじさん)
Short story based on Mark Twain, published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 3th November 1973.
1973
Hashi to soshite... (橋とそして...)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 29th November 1973.
1973
Kodomotachi wa Doko E... (子供たちは何処へ...)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 20th December 1973.
1974
Shanghai Wind (上海かぜ)
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 26th January 1974.
1974
Mitsuryō no Yoru (密漁の夜)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 28th February 1974.
1974
BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 25th April 1974, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1974
BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 23rd May 1974, later collected in GOOD WEATHER.
1974
ONE DOWN
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 4th July 1974.
1974
Mezameyo to Yobu Koe Ari (目覚めよと呼ぶ声あり)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 15th August 1974, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1974
Shinjū '74 Aki (心中ー'74秋ー)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 3rd October 1974, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1974
Anya Kōro 〔Kizu Darake no Tenshi・1〕 (暗夜行路〔傷だらけの天使・1〕)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 31st October 1974, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1974
Pakku Kuso Omoshiroku mo Nakatta Kyō no Owari ni 〔Kizu Darake no Tenshi・2〕 (パック糞面白くもなかった今日の終わりに〔傷だらけの天使・2〕)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 5th December 1974, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1975
Tankyori Sōsha no Rentai 〔Kizu Darake no Tenshi・3〕 (短距離走者の連帯〔傷だらけの天使・3〕)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 6th February 1975, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1975
Shūaku no Kishimi 〔Kizu Darake no Tenshi・4〕 (醜悪の軋み〔傷だらけの天使・4〕)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 6th March 1975, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 5th June 1975, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1975
Sukat to Sukkiri 〔Kizu Darake no Tenshi・6〕 (スカッとスッキリ〔傷だらけの天使 ・6〕)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 7th August 1975, later collected in HIGHWAY STAR.
1975
Tsujigiri (辻斬り)
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 23rd August 1975, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1975
ROCK 〔Kizu Darake no Tenshi・7〕 (ROCK〔傷だらけの天使・7〕)
Short story published in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション) on 27th November 1975, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1976
Kagami (鏡)
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 3rd January 1976, later collected in BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ.
1976
Kagami Jigoku (鏡地獄)
Short story based on a work by Edogawa Ranpo, published in 別冊漫画アクション on 21st March 1976.
1976
AME-LINGO (アメリンゴ)
Published in two parts on 8th and 15th of April 1976 in Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション), later collected in GOOD WEATHER.
1976
Shusei Sanchi no Yuki Chan (酒井さんちのユキエちゃん)
Short story published in 別冊漫画アクション on 16th July 1976, later collected in HIGHWAY STAR.
1976
Okasu (犯す)
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 9th August 1976, later collected in Short Peace.
1976
HIGHWAY STAR (ハイウェイスター)
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 1st September 1976, later collected in HIGHWAY STAR.
1976
CHUCK CHECK CHICKEN
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 3rd November 1976, later collected in GOOD WEATHER.
1976
School-boy on good time
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 3rd December 1976, later collected in Short Peace.
1977
Yume no Sōkyū (夢の蒼穹)
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 7th January 1977, later collected in Short Peace.
1977
Space Patrol Sigma (宇宙パトロール・シゲマ)
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 1st February 1977, later collected in Short Peace.
1977
‘ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 5th April 1977, later collected in Short Peace.
1977
NOTHING WILL BE AS IT WAS
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 13th May 1977, later collected in Short Peace.
1977
WHISKY GO-GO
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 14th June 1977, later collected in Short Peace.
1977
Seisō (星霜)
Short story published in 別冊漫画アクション on 1st July 1977, later collected in HIGHWAY STAR.
1977
Suzume ga Chyun (雀が中)
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 12th July 1977, later collected in HIGHWAY STAR.
1977
Tenmō Nishite Morasazu (天網恢恢疎にして漏らさず)
Short story published in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 27th July 1977, later collected in HIGHWAY STAR.
1977
Miner Swing
Short story published by Futabasha in the August 24th 1977 special issue of Manga Action, that was later reissued as a part of "Kanojo no Omoide..." - a Katsuhiro Otomo short story collection.
1977–1978
Sayonara Nippon (さよならにっぽん)
Published as five parts in 1977.08.04, 1977.09.08, 1977.10.20, 1978.01.05 and 1978.02.23 issues of Weekly Manga Action (週刊漫画アクション), later collected in Sayonara Nippon.
1977
GOOD WEATHER
Published in two parts on 21st September and 2nd November of 1977 in Manga Action (漫画アクション増刊) on 27th July 1977, later collected in GOOD WEATHER.
Unfinished; Episode 1 was published in four parts in summer and autumn of 1980 and winter and March of 1981 issues of Manga Kisōtengai (マンガ奇想天外), Episode 2 was published in three parts in March, June and November of 1981 issues of Manga Kisōtengai.
Published by Kisō Tengaisha on 10th March 1979. Reissued by Futabasha in 1984 as the third installment in the Katsuhiro Otomo Masterpiece Collection, with the addition of "Yume no Sōkyū" (夢の蒼穹).
