Kayne West’s favorite Japanese artists who influenced his work
Katsuhiro Otomo (大友克洋)
『童夢』(Domu) (C)2022 MASH・ROOM
『AKIRA』(C)1988 マッシュルーム/アキラ制作委員会
Katsuhiro Otomo is a manga artist, animator and a movie director. He directed “AKIRA” the movie in 1988 based on his own manga, which became a global sensation. AKIRA is considered a classic cyber/apocalyptic piece that changed the world of manga and anime completely. Some people describe his influence on Japanese manga as “before and after Otomo.” For example, Otomo leveraged his tremendous drawing techniques to realize movie-like scenes with just one picture, rather than using simplified sequences of frames to explain the development of the story. He introduced a variety of approaches and techniques that were never used in conventional manga before, paving ways for a new kind of hyper-realism, if you will.
In the 90’s and 00’s, he gradually shifted his focus to directing movies. After “AKIRA,” he directed “Steam Boy (2004), “蟲師 (mushi shi, 2007),” and was involved in “Short Peace (2013).” He is now making “ORBITAL ERA.”
In 2022, Japanese publishing company Kodansha started releasing “OTOMO THE COMPLETE WORKS.” As many of his early works were no longer available and he constantly received offers to re-publish them, he finally decided to compile them and publish them as one complete, coherent project. It will include various Otomo works such as manga, anime, illustration, original scripts for other people’s works, and screenplays.
Here is the titles set to be released in 2022:
1 (Jan 2022)
“Dome” vol 8
“Animation AKIRA Storyboards 1” vol 21
2 (March 2022)
“BOOGIE WOOGIE WALTZ” vol 2
“Animation AKIRA Storyboards 2” vol 22
3 (May 2022)
“Highway Star” vol 3
“Scripts 1” vol 25
4 (July 2022)
“Animation AKIRA” vol 20
“さよならにっぽん (Sayonara Nippon)” vol 4
5 (Sep 2022)
“Fire-Ball” vol 5
“The Live Action 蟲師 (mushi shi)” vol 35
6 (Nov 2022)
“銃声” vol 1
Here’s the trailers of the films Otomo directed.
Akira (Japanese version) trailer: 1988
Steamboy (Japanese version) Trailer: 2004
Short Peace (Japanese version) Trailer: 2013
ORBITAL ERA: 1st teaser (2020)