April 14 - Katsuhiro Ôtomo

Happy 66th Birthday, Katsuhiro Ôtomo! Born today in 1954, this Japanese manga artist, screenwriter and film director is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. 

Often stylized as AKIRA, the story is a Japanese cyberpunk manga series written and illustrated by Ôtomo. It was initially serialized in the pages of Young Magazine, a seinen manga magazine, 

  

Running from December 6, 1982 – June 11, 1990, Akira then collected into six tankobon volumes by its publisher Kodansha between 1984 and 1991. 

  

During that time, the series was adapted into the 1988 Japanese animated sci-fi post-apocalyptic cyberpunk film 'Akira'. Ôtomo co-wrote and directed. 

  

In 1988, the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry.  

  

In dystopian 2019, thirty-one years after the nuking of the city, Shotaro Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata), a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo Shima (Nozomu Sasaki) from a secret government project. 

He later acquires incredible telekinetic abilities after a motorcycle accident, eventually threatening an entire military complex amidst chaos and rebellion in the sprawling futuristic metropolis of Neo-Tokyo. 

  

Later on, Tetsuo battles anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo's supernatural powers suddenly manifest. A final battle is fought in Tokyo Olympiad, exposing the experiment's secrets.  

  

While most of the character designs and settings were adapted from the manga, the plot differs considerably and does not include much of the last half of the manga.  

  

The soundtrack, which draws heavily from traditional Indonesian gamelan as well as Japanese noh music, was composed by Japanese artiest and scientist Shōji Yamashiro and performed by Japanese musical collective Geinoh Yamashirogumi. 

  

'Akira' still holds the record for the most expensive animated movie ever made in Japanese history. 

With a budget of ¥1.1 billion ($9 million), the film grossed ¥1.7 billion at the Japanese box office and eventually $49 million worldwide. 

  

It is also widely regarded by critics as one of the greatest animated and science fiction films ever made, as well as a landmark in Japanese animation.It is also a pivotal film in the cyberpunk genre, particularly the Japanese cyberpunk subgenre, as well as adult animation.  

  

The film had a significant impact on popular culture worldwide, paving the way for the growth of anime and Japanese popular culture in the Western world as well as influencing numerous works in animation, comics, film, music, television and video games. 

  

Ôtomo was quoted as saying the Vietnam era "rebel" movies, being the 1967 American  Technicolor biographical drama/true crime film 'Bonnie and Clyde' and the 1970 American drama/road film 'Five Easy Pieces' (among others) were his chief inspiration for his writing work and subsequently, Domu: A Child's Dream and 'Akira'. 

He is also a fan of American film director Nicholas Ray’s 1955 American WarnerColor drama/youth novel film ‘Rebel Without a Cause' and American film director, screenwriter, producer and photographer Stanley Kubrick's 1968 American/British epic sci-fi/adventure film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’.  

  

Ôtomo has been active from 1979-present. 

  

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