37 Facts About Katsuhiro Otomo

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator, and film director.

Katsuhiro Otomo first rose to prominence as a pioneer founder of the New Wave in the 1970s.

Katsuhiro Otomo is best known as the creator of Akira, both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation.

In 2005, Otomo was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, promoted to Officier of the order in 2014, and became the fourth manga artist ever inducted into the American Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2012.

Katsuhiro Otomo was born in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture and grew up in Tome District.

Katsuhiro Otomo said that living in the very rural Tohoku region left him with nothing to do as a child, so he read a lot of manga.

Limited by his parents to buying one manga book a month, Katsuhiro Otomo typically chose Kobunsha's Shonen magazine, which included Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka and Tetsujin 28-go by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, series which he would copy drawing in elementary school.

In high school, Katsuhiro Otomo developed an interest in movies, that led to his ambition to become an illustrator or film director.

Katsuhiro Otomo did exactly that, and began his career in Tokyo as a 19-year old professional manga artist.

On October 4,1973, Katsuhiro Otomo published his first work, a manga adaptation of Prosper Merimee's short story Mateo Falcone, titled A Gun Report.

In 1979, after writing multiple short-stories for the magazine Weekly Manga Action, Katsuhiro Otomo created his first science-fiction work, titled Fireball.

Also in 1981, Katsuhiro Otomo drew A Farewell to Weapons for the November 16 issue of Kodansha's Young Magazine.

In 1982, Katsuhiro Otomo began what would become his most acclaimed and famous work: Akira.

In 1990, Katsuhiro Otomo did a brief interview with MTV for a general segment on the Japanese manga scene at the time.

Katsuhiro Otomo created the one-shot Hi no Yojin about people who put out fires in Japan's Edo period for the debut issue of Comic Cue in January 1995.

Katsuhiro Otomo wrote the 2002 picture book Hipira: The Little Vampire, which was illustrated by Shinji Kimura.

Katsuhiro Otomo created the full-color work DJ Teck no Morning Attack for the April 2012 issue of Geijutsu Shincho.

Katsuhiro Otomo was initially reported in 2012 to be working on his first long-form manga since Akira.

At the age of 25, Katsuhiro Otomo spent about 5 million yen to make a 16 mm live-action film about an hour long.

Katsuhiro Otomo said that making this private film showed him roughly how to make and direct movies.

In 1982, Katsuhiro Otomo made his anime debut, working as character designer for the animated film Harmagedon: Genma Wars.

In 1987, Katsuhiro Otomo directed an animated work for the first time: a segment, which he wrote the screenplay and drew animation for, in the anthology feature Neo Tokyo.

Katsuhiro Otomo followed this up with two segments in another anthology released that year, Robot Carnival.

Katsuhiro Otomo was executive producer of 1995's Memories, an anthology film based on three of his stories.

The 2001 animated film Metropolis features a script written by Katsuhiro Otomo that adapts Tezuka's manga of the same name.

Katsuhiro Otomo directed the 2006 live-action film Mushishi, based on Yuki Urushibara's manga of the same name.

In 2013, Katsuhiro Otomo took part in Short Peace, an anthology consisting on 4 short films; he directed Combustible, a tragic love story set in the Edo period based on his 1995 manga Hi no Yojin, while Hajime Katoki directed A Farewell to Weapons, depicting a battle in a ruined Tokyo based on Katsuhiro Otomo's 1981 manga of the same name.

Katsuhiro Otomo directed the music video for Aya Nakano's 2016 song "Juku-Hatachi".

Katsuhiro Otomo is a fan of the singer and previously drew the cover to her 2014 album Warui Kuse.

Reports have suggested that Katsuhiro Otomo will be the executive producer of the live-action film adaptation of Akira.

Katsuhiro Otomo is considered to be one of the artists of the New Wave in manga in the late 1970s and 1980s especially due to his visual innovation.

Katsuhiro Otomo includes homages to his favorite childhood manga in his work, and there were three manga authors that he really respected at that time; Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori and Mitsuteru Yokoyama.

Katsuhiro Otomo strongly praised the framing done by Tetsuya Chiba, whose work he studied a lot out of admiration at a store in Kichijoji, for making it easy to grasp how tangible the backgrounds and characters are.

American film director Rian Johnson is a big fan of Katsuhiro Otomo and pointed out similarities between how telekinesis is depicted in Domu and its depiction in his film Looper.

Together they have one child, a son named Shohei Katsuhiro Otomo, who is an artist.

Besides his own animation, Katsuhiro Otomo has contributed art designs to Harmagedon: Genma Wars, the Crusher Joe film, the seven-part OVA series Freedom Project, and Space Dandy episode 22.

Katsuhiro Otomo oversaw the composition of the Spriggan animated film and directed the music video Juku-Hatachi for Aya Nakano.