Katsuhiro Otomo Interview (1993)

This interview was conducted after the movie was completed.
It was originally included on the Japanese Laserdisc of Akira,
released in 1993 by Pioneer LDC.

Questions

1. What was the first work that influenced you?
2. What was your first encounter with animation?
3. What are your feelings on having made animations yourself?
4. What made you decide to animate Akira?
5. What gave you trouble when animating it?

Katsuhiro Ôtomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation.

In 1979, after writing multiple short-stories for the magazine Action, Otomo created his first science-fiction work, titled Fireball. Although the manga was never completed, it is regarded as a milestone in Otomo's career as it contained many of the same themes he would explore in his later. In 1982, Otomo made his anime debut, working as character designer for the animated film Harmagedon. The next year, Otomo began work on a manga which would become his most acclaimed and famous work: Akira. It took eight years to complete and would eventually culminate in 2000 pages of artwork. While the serialization of Akira was taking place, Otomo decided to animate it into a feature film, although the manga was yet to be finished. In 1988, the animated film Akira was released.

Otomo became the fourth manga artist ever inducted into the American Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2012, and was awarded the Purple Medal of Honor from the Japanese government in 2013.