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- Screenwriter and Director Katsuhiro Otomo, 1954
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Katsuhiro Otomo (大友 克洋 Ōtomo Katsuhiro, born April 14, 1954) is a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.
Katsuhiro Otomo was born in Miyagi Prefecture and grew up in Tome-gun. While he was in high school he was fascinated with movies, often taking a three hour train during school holidays just to see them. In 1973 he graduated high school and left Miyagi, heading to Tokyo with the hopes of becoming a manga artist. On October 4, 1973, he published his first work, a manga adaptation of Prosper Merimee's short novel Mateo Falcone, titled A Gun Report.
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, more successful manga such as Dōmu. Dōmu began serialization in January 1980 and ran for two years until completed. In 1983, it was published in book form and would win the Nihon SF Taisho Award, the Japanese equivalent to the Nebula Award.
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. In 1987, Otomo continued working in anime, directing an animated work for the first time: a segment, which he also wrote the screenplay and drew animation for, in the anthology feature Neo Tokyo. He followed this up with two segments in another anthology, Robot Carnival.
While the serialization of Akira was taking place, Otomo decided to animate it into a feature film, although the comic was yet to be finished. In 1988, the animated film Akira was released.
Otomo has recently worked extensively with noted studio Sunrise. The studio has animated and produced his recent projects, including the 2004 feature film Steamboy, 2006's Freedom Project and his latest project, SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers: The Next, released in 2007.
Otomo was going to be the executive producer of the live action adaptation of his manga series Akira.