Simon is the New Tetsuo

A great advantage of living in Los Angeles is how many advanced screenings and sneak previews one gets to watch. As this is the film entertainment capital of the United States, many international releases, hard-to-find pictures, and independent movies are relatively easy to find, and sometimes, if you're lucky, free! Yesterday, after having been notified and bought tickets about a month ago, we were able to check out Katsuhiro Otomo's new feature-length animated film, Steamboy. Brought to the Egyptian Theater by the American Cinematheque and Ain't It Cool News, the audience was able to catch this spectacular piece of science-fiction a full month before wide American Release. After taking in a few interesting commercials and a brief introduction, we were thrust knee-deep into what was probably one of the best animes I've seen in the last year.

Before getting into it, I'll go into a bit of background. I've written about Mr. Otomo before, a bit briefly, but it cannot be emphasized enough that he is one of the most influential mangaka in Japan and one of the most stunning comic artists I've seen. His first and only other completed anime, Akira, brought the art form to Western Shores, opening up the floodgates which haven't closed since. Based on the much easier to understand manga of the same name, Akira expands upon themes presented in an earlier work (Domu) and combines them with the popular theme of science's place in humanity. Revolutionary for its time, the themes are still present in Steamboy, but are considerably less dense, and less emphasized.

Which brings us back to the movie. Steamboy is neither supremely high tech nor is it terribly unique in its steam-based theme, but that doesn't matter at all, its the characters and usage of this technology that get bonus points. One in a family of self-taught scientific geniuses, Ray Steam works in his grandfather's old workshop on inventions of his own while his father and grandfather are busy conducting experiments for the O'Hara Foundation. A mysterious package arrives from his grandfather followed also by two mysterious gentlemen with motives of their own. From there, the plot just barrels along viciously. Simple in concept, it only gets more twisted.

Animation-wise, the combination of hand-drawn and computer generated imagery is perhaps the most seamless to date. Production IG has really outdone themselves this time and what we've seen in Ghost in the Shell 2 and this film are just scraping the barrel of what the combination is capable of. What Titan AE and many others have tried to do, Mr. Otomo and IG have accomplished, which turns out to be pretty awesome stuff.

Having already seen one hyped anime this year, I was hoping this movie would be much less heavy-handed, and a ton more fun. I wasn't at all disappointed. Mr. Otomo has stated this movie was made in stark contrast to the dirge-like tone of Akira, non-stop action and fun fun fun. It's jam-packed with insanely imaginative ideas and designs. I mean, there's a steam-powered automatic dog-walker! Each action sequence also has been meticulously designed for highest impact also. From the get-go, we have a chase through the streets of a small town English Village with Ray piloting a steam-motorized unicycle and a self-propelled military tractor which destroys house, train, and everything in its sight. Even with the rapid pace, Mr. Otomo doesn't forget to make his characters three-dimensional. Motivations are complex, people get hurt, there is the true feeling that there is sweat and blood behind every exertion. I really expect nothing less from someone who created the complex protagonists from Akira.

What would be most interesting to see now would have to be the American dubbed version of the film. The version we saw was the Director's Cut with full Japanese Dialogue. Seeing the list of actors cast (Patrick Stewart, Alfred Molina, and Anna Paquin) makes me glad they're sticking to the English roots of the film, but I wonder how Ms. Paquin will do as Ray Steam. I know it's common practice to cast women in the young boy's role in most anime, but I have yet to see it accomplished in an American feature. Truth be told, I'm hoping these actors can capture the intensity of the original cast, and in doing so maintain the intensity of the film. I was thoroughly impressed by the movie, and have once again seen affirmation that the traditional hand-drawn animated form is not dead.

At least in Japan...

Overall Score: 4 out of 5 stars