Katsuhiro Otomo appreciation thread

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Otomofan

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I had so much fun posting my favorite Frank Miller images, I decided to start a thread for my favorite artist of all time. Like my name implies, I am a huge fan of Katsuhiro Otomo. AKIRA is one of the greatest science fiction comic books of all time. The anime is definitely one of the most visually impressive animated films in history. Otomo has also done amazing illustrations over the years, in comic books, album covers, posters, and many more. He has a sense of graphic design and an eye for architecture far superior to his contemporaries in Japan and around the world.

Let's start with AKIRA, his most well known work.

Here are some covers from YOUNG Magazine, the weekly comic book where AKIRA was initially serialized.

young virgin cover.jpg
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Each of the 6 volumes of the manga had a big frontispiece made up of images from the books. I really like these, and I'm not entirely sure, but I think Otomo may have colored these himself.

00AKIRA 01-表紙08.jpg
00AKIRA 02-表紙05.jpg
00AKIRA 03-表紙05.jpg
00AKIRA 04-表紙07.jpg
00AKIRA 05-表紙07.jpg
00AKIRA 06-表紙07.jpg

AKIRA is almost 2000 pages long. Here's just a few of my very favorite images.

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Here is the lobby poster for the movie for its initial American release by Streamline pictures. I don't think Otomo actually drew this image himself, but it's one of my favorites cause it just takes me back to 1990, when I saw the movie for the first time at my local arthouse theater.

akira streamline.jpg

The cover for the laserdisc, painted by Otomo:

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The cover for the first Japanese DVD release, also painted by Otomo, around 2001.

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The most recent picture of Kaneda and the bike, from early 2016:

tribute cover.jpg
 
Otomo's most well-known manga after AKIRA is "Domu."

I first read it when Dark Horse released the English language version in the mid 90s. A few years later, I came to Japan for the first time, and my jaw just dropped when I saw these huge apartment building complexes in and around Tokyo for the first time. They look exactly like this in real life. His drawings were so real, it was like I had already been there.

Domu poster.jpg
Domu - a Child's Dream 124-125.jpg
Domu - a Child's Dream 162-163.jpg
domu.jpg

Otomo also drew dozens of short stories for manga magazines over the years. Unfortunately, almost none of these were ever released outside of Japan. I'll include a bunch of images spanning his entire career.

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I have always loved the dark humor in Otomo's art. Here we see a ballistic missile on its way to it's target, and the next page is a happy couple that think they're seeing a beautiful shooting star.

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彼女の想いで・・・-005.jpg
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Here are some illustrations he's done over the years for record covers, event posters, and some of his self-portraits.

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otomo mural.jpg
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My favourite artist by a good distance. Takes everything I love about European comics, and everything I love about Japanese comics, and melds them together in a beautiful fusion of styles and cultures.
 
Awesome art, thanks for sharing Otomofan! Happy that many of these come in the Akira Club book.

If possible could you share some Steamboy art? That movie's artbook is one of my printed grails, but damn if the second hand prices are off the chart!
 
The only Steamboy item I have is the hardcover of the storyboards, all hand drawn by Otomo himself. Also, a few painted pieces he did that were reprinted in some of his art books.

Confession time: I love Otomo. He's a true genius. BUT....I don't like Steamboy and I never have. I've forced myself to watch it several times but I just find it dreadfully dull, I don't like how "brown" all the color pallet seems, the characters aren't great, and I think the story is dumb. I know it's blasphemous, but I just plain can't get into Steamboy no matter how I try.

I don't have any clean scans of Steamboy stuff like the AKIRA stuff above, but I'll try to take some pics with my phone of the storyboards and posters...but it won't be as nice and clear....sorry!
 
There may be some Roujin Z images in "Kaba 2," his second art book. But probably only the chair/bed/robot thing. Cause I believe all the characters were designed by the incredibly talented Hisashi Eguchi.

Eguchi is second only to Otomo as far as Japanese artists. Damn it, I'm gonna have to start a thread on him too. Man, he's awesome. His thing is cute girls. Thick black lines, pastel colors, and a Roy Lichtenstein influence.

OK.....off on a tangent now but here's a few Eguchi images:

Eguchi cowgirls.jpeg
Eguchi SG.jpg
Eguchi door.jpg
Eguchi bra.jpg
 
Ah don't worry man! I really like Steamboy although I don't love it like say Howl's Moving Castle, my favorite Ghibli film (Chihiro and Totoro be damned).

What Steamboy lacks in storytelling it compensates in design, I just love steampunk illustrations.

Hopefully the man gives feature films another shot in the future.

Thanks for sharing!
 
I can't stand anything Wes Andersen has done after "Royal Tenenbaums" so I won't be seeing his new movie.

I will, however, admire the Japanese release movie poster by Otomo.

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As I was re-reading AKIRA Club this image stood out to me, because the bold lines of color really remind me of my other favorite Frank Miller, in his later Sin City style. Of course this pic is from 1983 so it predates Sin City by quite a bit.

I know neither artist invented the big thick lines technique or anything, I just thought it was cool.

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Here's another Otomo item I'll never own...one of those "designer" collaborations, which basically means "overpriced" and super limited, so people line and up and scramble to get something that really isn't worth it. But it's "rare" so people fall in like sheep clawing to get theirs. (See "Supreme" for more details.)

This was a big giant oversize poster sold simultaneously in New York and Tokyo for just a few hours. (I was in Ohio of course.) It's really really big, like 3 feet by 5 feet maybe, or bigger, so it's actually really impractical, especially in Japan and our tiny apartments.

The images aren't even new; it's just a collage of stuff from the AKIRA manga arranged by a Japanese artist; not even Otomo. Price wasn't "outrageous" but at $130 still overpriced. Now people are trying to get $400 for it, of course. Worst part is, Otomo even signed some for some ungrateful bastards in NY that immediately put them on ebay for thousands of dollars. Grrrrr..... Oh well...at least the reason I missed out was cause I was getting Frank Miller's autograph so it all kinda balanced out.

I guess I'd buy this big ass poster for about a hundred bucks, cause I'm a sucker. But scalpers can kiss my butt. And the scalpers with his autograph can kiss something a lot more unpleasant. Repeatedly. Jerkoffs.

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When Otomo's comic "Domu" was published back in the early 80s, it actually had a soundtrack released on LP. I have the LP, but I've never listened to it. Well, all these years later it's being reissued on CD. Here's the cover illustration for both:

domu.jpg
 
Otomo's signature at the recent Syd Mead exhibit in Tokyo.

He once said Kaneda's bike was inspired by the lightcycles from TRON, so this was a way to thank him for the inspiration.

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