Katsuhiro Otomo

Katsuhiro Otomo (p. 14/04/1954, Miyagi) - one of the most famous manga and anime directors. From childhood he loved NF western movies and literature, and subsequently had a strong influence on his work. Of particular influence on him had a French artist and comic book author Moebius (real name - Jean Giraud).

Otomo manga debut was a novel by Prosper Merimee's "Mateo Falcone" (1973), the first significant work - manga "Ognevik" [Fireball] (1979), and the first really popular manga - "Children's Dreams" [Domu] (1980). In 1983 she received the prestigious award - the Grand Prix of Japan NF. This was the first time that the prize awarded manga.

In 1982, Otomo began publishing the manga "Akira" [Akira] (1982-1990) in the youth magazine "Young". It is "Akira" was the forerunner of "apocalyptic" tragic style and brought the art and the level of narration in the manga to new, previously unknown heights.

In 1983, Otomo worked as a designer of characters for a full-length anime Rintaro "The Great War with GEMM" [Genma Taisen] (1983)

. In 1987 he became the organizer and chief director of assembly-cyberpunk novels - OAV "Robot Carnival" [Robot Carnival], . He also participated in the creation of another of the same book - OAV "The Tale of the Labyrinth Mani Mani" [Mani Mani Meikyu Monagatari],
.

In 1988, motivated by "Akira" Otomo took self-titled full-length film, the first anime with 24 frames per second, which became widely known not only in Japan but also abroad.

Since 1990, Otomo has ceased to draw manga and only began to write the texts themselves, leaving the other picture.

In 1991, he wrote the manga "ZeD" [ZeD], devoted to the new important problem of contemporary life in Japan - the problem of old age. On most manga critics speak without much enthusiasm, but it OAV-screen version, released by director Hiroyuki Kitakubo called "The Old Man Z" [Roujin Z], has become very popular.

In 1995, Otomo collected their old stories and filmed them in the anime called "Memories" [Memories] - collection of stories of three very different styles and trends. He, however, was directed only to the third stories, leaving the first Koji Morimoto, and second - Okamura Tensayu [Okamura Tensai]

. Among his recent projects include a full-length sci-fi anime "Spriggan" [Spriggan] (1998), . directed by Hiroshi Kawasaki, . as well as the capacities anime "Metropolis" [Metropolis] (2001), . the same name based on the manga by Osamu Tezuka,
. This film was directed by Rintaro, and it was created in the studio "Madhouse".

Aesthetics works Otomo close to the aesthetics of modern European and American radical comics, the origins of which are in the philosophy of the punk movement. Hence the interest Otomo to the most marginalized sectors of society - adolescents and the elderly, always found in manga and anime to the idea of the end, a satirical attitude toward the new "salvation" Religion and Modern Society.