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Miyazaki said: "A supernatural teenager stands on the ruins of Tokyo, and everyone will say that this is Katsuyo Otomo. ”
Author: Triplefire Little Cutie
Three entertainment masters masterpiece column, each issue recommends the growth path of a famous artist or the creative process of a famous work. Review of the last issue: How did the new house Zhaozhi, who got up at 5 o'clock every day to change the storyboard, save money to make those "divine works"? | masterpiece
Miyazaki said: "A supernatural teenager stands on the ruins of Tokyo, and everyone will say that this is Katsuyo Otomo. Perhaps because Katsuyo Otomo's personal sense of destruction is too strong, Osamu Tezuka's posthumous work "Metropolis" also needs to invite Otomo to re-serve as a screenwriter.
In 1973, when katsuhiro Otomo debuted as a manga artist at the age of 1973 and published his debut in the Supplement action, he probably did not expect that he would later become famous in Japan and the world as an animation supervisor.
After his debut, Katsuyo Otomo created dozens of short manga, among which "Dream" won the 4th Japan SF Awards when he was 29 years old, and in the past this award was only awarded to science fiction authors, and Otomo Katsuyo became the first manga author to receive this honor.
Regarding his manga works, Katsuyo Otomo commented: "My manga is very realistic in the subtle parts of the characters and backgrounds, and the animation continues this feature. My works do not give people the feeling of flatness like ordinary comics, but have a deep space and produce a sense of intimidating realism. ”
It was also in this year that Katsuyo Otomo became involved in animation and took on the role design of the animated film "Phantom Wars", and in 1986, he collaborated with Yoshiaki Kawajiri and Hayashi Taro on the anime short story collection "Labyrinth Story".
This experimental collection of animation consists of three stories, "Labyrinth Story", "The Running Man", and "The Order to Stop the Fortifications", each story highlights the completely different styles of the three overseers, and the plot is independent, so the work as a whole cannot be completely narrated.
Katsuyo Otomo's dedication and fascination with science fiction stories has been well demonstrated in "Order for The Suspension of Fortifications", and in his later works, he can often see the meticulous portrayal of machines and technology.
Two years later, Katsuhiro Otomo served as the supervisor, original and script for the theatrical animation Akira, which is regarded as Katsuyo Otomo's most important masterpiece and the first Japanese animation to be recognized by the Western market, making Katsuyo Otomo the first Japanese animation supervisor to enjoy international prestige.
However, after this, Katsuyo Otomo often collaborates with others on short animation, which can be called a complete "belonging" to Katsuyo Otomo's animation works in the minority, let's enjoy two long-form animated films that Katsuyo Otomo is supervising.
Akira: The most classic dystopian animation
1988 - "Akira"
Katsuhiro Otomo, Homeroom Teacher, original, screenplay
The theatrical animation of Akira is based on katsuhiro Otomo's own manga of the same name, which won the 8th Kodansha Manga Award in 1984.
This animated film was selected by wired as the only Asian film in the best 20 science fiction films in the history of the film, and the only animated film, and countless people regard "Akira" as an unsurpassed dystopian masterpiece.
The film is about 2019 AD, Tokyo is in an unprecedented revolutionary riot, Kaneda and Tetsuo are good friends from childhood to adulthood, in a Biker Party chase struggle, Tetsuo and a superpowered child are taken away by the military. It turns out that the military has been secretly using the human body to do brain experiments, trying to evoke the energy Akira that has been sleeping for a long time and is enough to destroy the world, and Tie Xiong's brain has been transformed into a stand-in for Akira to return to Earth.
Due to the too fine picture performance of the manga, the original work was once considered "impossible to make a movie", but Katsuyo Otomo poured great enthusiasm and energy into "Akira" and completed more than 700 pages of film sub-shot scripts alone, each sub-shot is extremely detailed, even the advertising words on the glass windows and the dilapidated cars parked outside the bar are described in detail.
The final screen, "Akira", with a total of 150,000 paintings and simulating the shape of a live-action mouth, cost about 1 billion yen to produce, setting a record for Japanese animation at that time.
From the background to the props, all reflect the characteristics of Katsuyo Otomo's "authenticity" - the depiction of each building and even the windows on the building is extremely serious, and in the era when computer special effects were just starting out, glass shards, smoke, flames, explosions, lasers, the most difficult special effects in animation were all hand-drawn.
Before the film was released, Katsuyo Otomo described the concept of the work to reporters: "When I thought of making "Akira" into a movie, the first thing that came to mind was to make the work have a sense of chaos. This requires more attention to detail, increased storyboarding, a sense of speed, and a mosaic of everything set throughout the work.
"In the process of enjoying the movie, the audience may have a rather chaotic feeling, but after enjoying it, leaving that situation and thinking about it, it can piece together something tangible, and I hope that this animation can bring such a feeling to the audience." 」
On July 16, 1988, "Akira" was officially released in 90 movie theaters under Toho, and then translated into 6 Chinese was released around the world, and it topped the box office in its first week of release in North America, becoming Katsuyo Otomo's most prestigious animation that has never been able to surpass itself.
"Steam Boy": 9 years of 2.4 billion to make a box office hit
2004 - Steam Boy
Katsuhiro Otomo is responsible for planning, original project, script, supervision, art setting, and layout
Compared to the previous "Akira" that belonged to Katsuhiro Otomo, "Steam Boy" took longer to produce and cost more, took 9 years and cost 2.4 billion yen to be born, and once again set a new record for Japanese animation in 2004.
In the same year of its release, Steam Boy was also invited to the Venice Film Festival in September and was screened as the closing ceremony of the festival.
However, judging from the box office results, "Steam Boy" only received less than 60 million yen in Japan, and only about 10 million US dollars in overseas box office, which is only about half of the production cost.
As for word of mouth, the Yahoo Movie platform in Japan gives a failing score of 2.79 out of 5. The Douban score of 7.7 is the lowest score among the animation works in which Katsuyo Otomo participated.
Admittedly, the production cost of "Steam Boy" was not in vain, and Katsuyo Otomo depicted the steam world of 19th-century Britain, designed many exquisite mechanical appliances, and depicted the steam city in detail. From the magnificent architectural scenes to the daily transportation, there is no place to pick out a hint of laziness, presumably any steampunk lover will become Katsuyo Otomo's die-hard loyalist because of the picture.
But the advantages of "Steam Boy" are limited to this, and the biggest controversy of the film lies in the plot and human settings, which to some extent can be regarded as the same problem encountered in the domestic animation film market.
The film tells the story of the protagonist Ray, who is an inventor with his father and grandfather, and has controversies and a series of contradictions over whether science will benefit mankind or destroy the world.
But Katsuyo Otomo's thinking on science is a bit thin and superficial in "Steam Boy". For example, Ray's grandfather believed that science was a means to bring happiness to people, but he used the most cutting-edge and high-end science and technology to create a children's playground, just like NASA's funds were allocated to Disneyland, which is probably not to bring happiness to people.
Someone sharply commented on "Steam Boy": "There are too many sensational plots, which makes people wonder whether this script is written for young children." ”
After Akira, Katsuyo Otomo, whether he directed or collaborated with others, explored almost only one theme in his work— whether the proliferation of science was pro or con. This theme succeeded Katsuyo Otomo in Akira, but in later works it bound Katsuyo Otomo.
After "Steam Boy", Katsuyo Otomo even ran to direct a comic live-action movie "Bug Master", I don't know if he was stimulated by the box office and word of mouth of "Steam Boy". In 2013, Katsuyo Otomo joined forces with other supervisors again to collaborate on the anime collection Short Peace, but its influence was still limited.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that in addition to the identity of animation supervisor and manga artist, Katsuyo Otomo is also very fond of art design, and many of his works have been designed by himself in multiple versions of posters, and his poster design can even be said to be the third important ability in addition to manga and animation.
Katsuyo Otomo, who is listed alongside Hayao Miyazaki and Oshii as the three giants of Japanese animation supervision, has left a strong mark in the history of Japanese animation, but it is difficult to say whether he can create excellent animation that surpassed the "Akira" 30 years ago in the future.
After all, at a time when Japanese "cute" animation has become the mainstream of the market, these heavy and serious supervisors who do not like to obey the market are indeed not very popular with young people.