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ANN Katsuhiro Otomo page

My average ranking: 6.42

Director Pantheon: Katsuhiro Otomo Rating
Akira (movie) Good

I find it impossible to reconcile Otomo's often exquisite graphics with his consistently sour worldview. Otomo doesn't examine violence; he revels in it. If there was some sort of satirical point then it would be worthwhile, however violence as entertainment is just a form of pornography. Mind you, it's not the only anime around with that problem. Having said that, the animation and music for the motorcycle sequence early in the film are unforgettable. Unfortunately the movie never again reaches these heights.
Cannon Fodder (movie) Decent

A typical ugly, violent Otomo world. Also, typically, Otomo doesn't provide the viewer with a moral point of view. (Neither does Tarantino but that's the joke - Otomo isn't that sophisticated.) I can only conclude that Otomo likes making ugly, violent films. Shame, because he's a great animator. (Part of the Memories anthology.)
Combustible (movie) Good

Combustible.
Gundam: Mission to the Rise (special) Not really good

Although it's visually exciting this special is, at not quite three minutes, far too short to amount to anything.
(The) Order to Stop Construction (movie) Good

In the aftermath of a local coup, a Japanese salary man is sent to the jungles of South America to stop a giant construction project that has been taken over by robots who will not allow mere orders to stop them completing their assignment. Like most of Otomo’s work there is some wonderful hand painted animation and glorious scenery here. Yet, like the previous two segments in this anthology, there are moments of glaring shortcuts. I’ve never warmed to Otomo’s works. As with Kawajiri’s grotesqueries, Otomo’s satirical posturing lacks any ideological foundation to give it any point. It’s there because it gives the viewer a thrill. You could call it satire porn. The visuals are superb but the theme of robots taking over is oh so worn out. The main character, a buck toothed, shortsighted cliché from people’s worst nightmares in the 1940s, represents what exactly? Colonialism? Japanese imperialism? Who knows? So why present him that way? If there’s no target or no detectable underlying moral stance it just comes across as misanthropic. This is the final segment of the Neo Tokyo anthology.
Robot Carnival (OAV) Very good

OP, ED & coda segments: Good

A runaway mechanised juggernaut blunders across a desert. When it arrives at a village it unleashes an arsenal of special effects, including high-explosive fireworks, streamers, mechanical brass bands and spinning, clockwork ballerinas that whistle like falling bombs. It brings not celebration, but dismay to the villagers. Even the remnants it leaves buried in the sand are lethal.

Thematically this is Otomo's. Over time I'm getting a better grasp on his obsession with mindless, relentless violence. He highlights both how brutal it is by the awful, albeit spectacular, effect it has on its victims and how stupid it is, generally by presenting it via elaborate gags. You can also throw in breathtaking animation and intricate artwork. The catch is I find I'm more likely to be entertained than convinced. There's a negativity in his worldview that undermines the inspiration in his visual sensibility.

The characters are Fukushima's. They are quite different from Otomo's usual fare, avoiding his usual sour portrayals, but displaying their own weird grotesqueness, accentuated by the gutteral, indecipherable speech. There's something both appealingly childlike and slightly repellant about the human characters. I like those sorts of internal contradictions. The juggenaut itself is a fantastical creation that uses the film's title as a plot device in a thoroughly Monty Pythonesque way.

Steamboy (movie) Good

Steamboy improves with multiple viewings. Initially its flaws detract from its astonishing qualities. The flaws? The characters are flat and unappealing while the plot is pedestrian. Luckily, where the film excels - the beautiful, detailed artwork and the phantasmagorical action scenes - it is without peer. As a bonus, it is possible to warm to the hero, James Ray Steam, while the spoiled heiress, Scarlet O'Hara (seriously, that's her name) doesn't seem quite so awful third or fourth time round. It doesn't really matter in the end because the spectacle is so wonderful.