KatsuhiroOtomo

When one thinks of Manga and anime it is hard to think of the genre without thinking of Katsuhiro Otomo. Even if you don't recognize the name, and you should, you should definitely recgonize his works such as Akira, Domu, and Fireball.

It was Akira that brought Katsuhiro world fame and was one of the animated masterpieces instrumental in bringing Japanese animation before the eyes of the west. Katsuhiro has a sense of style and flair in his movies that stand out from the crowd of other Japanese animators.

Katsuhiro Otomo was born in April of 1954 in the Miyago Prefecture in Japan, a fishing province which was about 400 kilometers North of Tokyo. He attended Sanuma High School, a school that was particularly favored by other comic book artists. Other would be Japanese comic book artists also attended school there.

In highschool Katsuhiro described himself as being "crazy about cinema." American films at the time seemed to be capturing the attention of the world. Japan was no different, and Katsuhiro was deeply influenced by them. The influence of American films would be later be seen in such works as Akira and Domu.

After graduating from highschool, Otomo moved to Tokyo with the dream of becoming a comic book artist. His first professional work was an adaptation of the Prosper Merimee Novelle Mateo Falcone. This series appeared in a weekly magazine. Over the years Otomo has created a number of short stories which have been collected together and translated in the English language in a manuscript called Memories.

Achieving a degree of success and attention with these works, Otomo began work on a much longer project. In 1979 the publication of "Fireball Began. Fireball was a story which had a theme of "human versus supercomputer." This was long before the "Matrix" was ever even conceived of.

Though "Fireball" only appeared in limited circulation, and is at this time still uncompleted, "Fireball" was the beginning of Otomo's venture into science fiction. This work would be the harbinger to his other acclaimed works, Akira and Domu.

Domu was released in 1980 and was a phenomenal success. It's success was due to its monumental controversy. Domu dove into areas that few other Japanese comics dared to venture. Domu was a violent work, more violent than other works at the time. It won Japan's Science Fiction Grand Prix in 1983 for the best science fiction story. It marked history in being the first time the award had ever been given to a comic book work.

Otomo had made history. and it was only the beginning. The next work he produced would be the work to which he would become world known, the epic "Akira." Akira was a massively illustrated 2000 page piece which spanned six volumes.

Akira went on to win every possible award that Japan awarded to comic book artists, and it spawned a video game and an animated feature film directed by Otomo himself. The manga has been translated into just about every language, and it has spawned numerous merchandise from t-shirts to cups. Otomo currently lives and works in Tokyo.