( read my review for Vol 1 here. )

Released to great anticipation in 2004 after an arduous 10 year production period, AKIRA director Katsuhiro Otomo’s epic scale steampunk animated film Steamboy ultimately failed to wow fans and critics, ending its domestic theatrical run in the red, earning only $18.9 million against a production budget of $26 million. At the time its release back in 2004, it was apparently the most expensive Japanese film ever made.

I like to think of the film as a failed masterpiece; the story and drama never quite reached the lofty heights of Otomo’s magnum opus AKIRA, but it is nonetheless a most visually stunning piece of animated cinema. The amount of creative labor invested is evident in the beautifully drawn, meticulously detailed storyboards; now collected in this new 2 volume set.

This new edition released with the Otomo Complete Works series of art books is in my opinion superior to the older, now out of print edition released back in 2004 ( read my review here ).

2 main technical points to consider – This new edition is slightly larger in print size, thus allowing for more detail and fidelity in the reproductions. Secondly, the print quality itself is better; by comparison, the older edition’s drawings are darker and overly contrasted, losing the nuanced details of Otomo’s pencil/graphite drawings that can be better seen and appreciated in the new edition.

Another addition point to consider is that the new edition now comes in 2 volumes, expanding the total page count to allow for more rough sketches/omitted drawings to be included in each volume. Indeed, both volumes have a page count of 480 pages ( so coming to a total of 960 pages for Vol 1 + 2 ), while the single volume older edition is only 771 pages.

The quality of drawings in this 2nd volume is almost as detailed and refined as the first book, quite a testament to Otomo’s dedication to the process as many storyboard drawings for other animated films I’ve seen often drop on quality toward the end, possibly because of time constraints and budget considerations. Also, while I do not have concrete proof of this, it is quite likely that Otomo might have been using these storyboard drawings as a base for the layout drawings, a process that one of his famous proteges Satoshi Kon utilized.

( image above ) The first few pages of the book steps the reader through a list of technical jargon used when working in the Japanese animation industry ( pertaining to camera movement/layering, etc ), many of which I had to learn when I was working at Sunrise. Regrettably, I’ve since forgotten most of them.

(image above left) This dramatic pose by Ray Steam quickly reminds me of the Steamboy billboard that used to decorate the entrance of Sunrise Ogikubo ( image below ), where I worked on the OVA series FREEDOM, and also housed many of the original Steamboy artists and crew.

Steamboy might not have been the anime masterpiece that AKIRA fans were hoping for, but the visual brilliance of the film alone still elevates it above many others, and Otomo’s stunningly beautiful storyboards for the movie is one of the ways of enjoying it. This book ( together with Vol 1; read my review here ) comes highly recommended.

“Steamboy Storyboards Vol 2 ( Otomo Complete Works ) 大友克洋全集” details :

Dimensions – 7.01 x 0.94 x 9.84 inches
Softcover with dust jacket, 480 pages
B&W, In Japanese language

  
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