Steamboy

In the year 2004, Katsuhiro Ôtomo, writer and director of the enormously influential anime, "Akira" (1988), returned to film-making after almost 10 years since his last directorial effort ("Memorîzu" or "Memories"), with another epic story of action and science-fiction named "Suchîmubôi", literally "Steamboy". In this film, Ôtomo dives into the sci-fi sub-genre commonly known as "Steampunk", stories often set in the 19th century where highly advanced steam machines are the fantastic technology of the time creating alternative history and settings. The Steampunk sub-genre shares many similarities with cyberpunk fiction, so it's probably not a surprise that the maker of "Akira", one of the most celebrated works of cyberpunk fiction, would decide to make a story for this very similar sub-genre. Ôtomo's background and the similarities between the sub-genres force an inevitable comparison to "Akira", but while "Steamboy" is far from the masterpiece that "Akira" was, it's one of the best feature length animated films of the decade.

Set in Victorian Britain, "Steamboy" is the story of Ray Steam (Anne Suzuki), a young kid from Manchester who spends his free time working at a factory and inventing steam machines following the example of his father Dr. Edward Steam (Masane Tsukayama) and his grandfather Dr. Lloyd Steam (Katsuo Nakamura), both renowned inventors working in America. One day, he receives a box from his grandfather containing a small spheric steam machine, with explicit orders of not giving it to anyone except to famed inventor Robert Stephenson (Kiyoshi Kodama). Soon he receives the visit of agents from O'Hara, the company where his grandfather works, violently demanding the spheric machine. Ray's grandfather appears too, and helps Ray to escape with the sphere, making Ray to realize that the small machine contains a power beyond his imagination.

"Steamboy" is definitely a classic example of Steampunk fiction as it takes a historical setting and gives it a spin by adding the element of fantastic super science. Written by Katsuhiro Ôtomo and Sadayuki Murai, "Steamboy" uses the sub-genre's setting and elements to tell a story about science, its possibilities and specially its consequences if handled in a bad way. Ôtomo uses the characters of the Steam family to describe what he sees as the two possible uses of science, and makes a sharp (although heavy handed) criticism to our modern capitalist society. In this way, it shares some of "Akira"'s themes, but "Steamboy" offers a more optimist tone, as it's essentially a story about the birth of modern science (in an exaggerated fantasy way of course) where mankind is still on time to learn the enormous responsibility of using science. Overall it's a pretty straight forward story of action and adventure, but the use of this themes through the movie makes the story really captivating.

As expected, the animation of the film is flawless, with a great (and often unnoticeable) combination of both traditional 2-D and 3-D animation that bring the incredible Steampunk machines to life. The movie has an exiting look, mix of real Victorian designs and Ôtomo's very own sci-fi style, paying honest tribute to the pulp adventures and Victorian literature that form the basis of the Steampunk sub-genre. Director Katsuhiro Ôtomo's eye for visuals is still there, and the epic finale is one of the best staged scenes in an animated film of the last years. The movie moves at a fast pace, probably too fast for its own good, but the plot still unfolds nicely. It's certainly not a landmark like "Akira", but Katsuhiro Ôtomo has delivered another great animated story.

I've seen the original Japanese track, so sadly I can't comment on the English dubbing. In the original audio, Anne Suzuki makes an outstanding job as Ray, not only because the character is male (and she is female), but because the character is old enough to his voice be "manly". Suzuki makes Ray very convincing, as the young kid discovering the benefits (and dangers) of science. Masane Tsukayama plays Ray's father, giving a certain dignity and power to the character and avoiding most of the clichés this kind of character tend to have. On the same tone is Katsuo Nakamura, who in turn plays Ray's grandfather. Nakamura's eccentric character is effectively portrayed by the experienced actor, and is one of the highlights of the film. Finally, Manami Konishi plays Scarlett O'Hara, the young heir of the O'Hara company, making this spoiled little brat (obviously inspired by "Gone with the wind") annoying enough for the character without going too over the top.

Probably the film's biggest flaw is that simply is not "Akira", what I mean is that given that Katsuhiro Ôtomo's 1988 movie was such a landmark in anime, the expectations for "Steamboy" were probably impossible to live up to. However, this doesn't mean that "Steamboy" is a bad movie, simply that it can be disappointing if one is expecting another "Akira". "Steamboy" is a simple, but remarkable epic adventure with the only ambition of being entertaining. It's upbeat tone may look typical of anime at first sight, but despite this optimism, "Steamboy" offers the same dark subject that "Akira": Man must learn to use the science before it's too late. In this aspect it could be seen as a prequel (set several centuries before) to the world of "Akira", as the science in "Steamboy" seems to be getting advanced at a very fast pace. In the end, the only real flaw of the movie is that despite having a runtime of 2 hours, the film feels rushed, and leaves one wanting for more.

Director Katsuhiro Ôtomo spend almost 10 years conceiving and developing "Steamboy", and the effort certainly payed off. Sci-fi fans will find an excellent adventure in "Steamboy", specially if they are fans of the Steampunk sub-genre. With its excellent animation and captivating story, "Steamboy" is an excellent introduction to Katsuhiro Ôtomo's work. It's not going to change anime again, but Ôtomo's movie is still definitely one of the best. 8/10

Admiring the gadgets, machines and all the insanely gorgeous animation you won't have enough time to wonder where the plot or character development went.

Steamboy is set in Victorian England, the age of inventions and the industrial revolution. Dr. Steam has developed a ball that contains an enormous amount of pressure, that can be used to power huge amounts of steam machines. However, Dr. Steam's son and grandson both have their own designs...

I've never been a huge anime fan, but I've enjoyed every film I've seen that Otomo has been involved in, and this one is no exception to the rule. Since I enjoyed it as a non-anime fan, I recommend to all others like me who are curious about anime.

I was dragged to this movie by my son, knowing of Anime only Totoro, the Cartoon Network Anime shows, and passing things from the web.

I was astounded by the superb quality of the graphics, especial the CGI macro shots, throughout the film. I found myself thinking of people seeing early Disney features in the 1930's. The visuals looking through various magnifying lenses were absolutely incredible!

I was surprised to see how the setting in Victorian England had given me such an easier time visually comprehending familiar scenes, vehicles, etc instead of the usual anime Asian or Space-Age themes I had come to expect. In this way, I feel I was finally able to visually appreciate the quality of the artistry for the first time. Wow! The English dubbing was great, and again helped me appreciate the film. And the storyline was a perfect "Perils of Pauline" tied to a gone-bad "Mad Scientist" tale as seen in Frankenstien, the Invisible Man or any of 1,000 such movies.

I don't understand complaints of the ending "dragging on". *spoiler<?>* If not for the extra-twists in the list 30 min, we would all be complaining that the plot was flat and the ending dragged out of a dustbin. As it was, I burst out laughing at the twist and thought it clever, along with the two more twists including the one just before final credits. If you were taking yourself (as Monday Morning Quarterback) a little less seriously, you would see it was poking fun at the notion of a hero's "heroic moment".

Of course it was a comic book style plot, blowing up the famous historic buildings at the Victorian Exhibition using steam power! I easily accepted and enjoyed the diabolical plot twists for what they were. How can one accept the presence of a 20,000 foot tall steam powered flying rocket (built by a mad scientist and stuffed with secret weapons) and not expect escape bays, rocket packs, secret pods, and trap doors? Lighten up! Doesn't one certainly imply the other?

Steamboy has such a rare quality of production values that it almost merits a viewing for the aesthetics alone. But there is a story to the film; and although the hardcore fans of Otomo may have been expecting something a little deeper, and although the pacing and characterization is notably flawed, it still stands as an extremely fun yarn with no shortage of what you'd expect from a classic action/adventure flick. The film, in many respects, is comparable to works like Sky Captain and the Indiana Jones films; a classic storytelling style somewhat augmented for a modern audience.

Numerous characters such as Scarlett and the henchmen are essentially devoid of anything resembling development. Scarlett in particular seems to have had her personal developments skipped or accelerated just to give a comic or emotional foil to Ray and the others, and it sticks out noticeably. She's given the typical "redeeming moment" at the end of the film that has no real grounding or weight considering her screen presence; it comes and goes without making a single ripple in an audience.

Essentially, Steamboy crams too many action set pieces and grand ideas into a story too lightweight to fully support them, and the plot suffers because of it. But it's far from lacking meaning or emotion, so as long as you can detach yourself from expectations you're assured quite a ride.

As a final note, if anyone finds the explicit diatribes concerning science a little distracting, try to keep in mind that they all come from your stereotypical mad scientists types. It becomes somewhat more plausible!

Saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival, and I swooned with the massive audience in sheer awe at the absolutely astounding masterpiece that Otomo-san has created. 10 years in the making, the visual feast pays off with an incredible bang.

Although not as violent and complex as the powerhouse Akira, Steamboy is a straight-forward sci-fi-action-adventure story set in Victorian London, England that even strangers of the anime genre can follow with ease. I can see this film being another landmark hit in North America that will hopefully draw more people to appreciate anime. When this comes out in 2005, don't miss it for the world!