Steamboy

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Anime movie
title Steamboy
Original title ス チ ー ム ボ ー イ
transcription Suchīmubōi
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 2004
Studio Sunrise
length 126 minutes
genre Action , steampunk
Rod
Director Katsuhiro Otomo
idea Katsuhiro Otomo
script Katsuhiro Otomo
Sadayuki Murai
production Hideyuki Tomioka , Shinji Komori
music Steve Jablonsky
synchronization

Steamboy ( Japanese ス チ ー ム ボ ー イ Suchīmubōi ) is an anime film from 2004 by director and writer Katsuhiro Otomo . The steampunk film takes place in a fictional Victorian England of the 19th century, in which a young inventor finds himself in the middle of a conflict over the revolutionary steam generator Steamball.

content

13-year-old James “Ray” Steam hopes to be just as successful as his father and grandfather. So he's working on his own steam-powered means of transport. One day he received the “Steamball” in the mail from his grandfather Lloyd. The ball uses compressed liquids as a new type of energy source. When suddenly mysterious gentlemen appear who have looked at the steamball, Ray flees together with his grandfather. He is rescued by the inventor Robert Stephenson, but ultimately abducted by the men to the O'Hara family together with the steamball. There Ray meets his father Eddie, who works for O'Hara, and also gets to know Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of the family. O'Hara wants to use Eddie's inventions for weapons they sell. Ray refuses and prefers to team up with Stephenson instead. At the world exhibition, where O'Hara want to present their weapons, there is then a battle between the opponents. Finally, Ray and Lloyd can save London from major destruction during the weapons demonstration.

Production and publication

The film was made at Studio Sunrise under the direction of Katsuhiro Otomo , who also wrote the script with Sadayuki Murai . The responsible producers were Hideyuki Tomioka and Shinji Komori . The artistic direction was Shinji Kimura and the character design comes from Atsushi Irie and Katsumi Matsuda , based on ideas from Katsushiro Otomo. The mechanical design was created by Makoto Kobayashi and the computer animations were created under the direction of Hiroaki Ando . Takeshi Seyama was responsible for the editing . Much of the animation was, among many other studios, especially in Studio 4 ° C .

Over 180,000 drawings were made during production. 400 computer-generated scenes with around 2,000 cuts were created for the computer-animated scenes and backgrounds. However, the majority of the film was created as a hand-drawn, digitally implemented 2D animation. The film was commissioned in the mid-1990s and was in production for almost ten years. In 1995, under Otomo's direction, the Cannon Fodder segment in the episode film Memories was created , which also tells of a steam robot battle and can be understood as a pilot for Steamboy. In 1998 there was an interruption due to financing problems until two studios, Sunrise and Studio 4 ° C, were found with which Steamboy could be completed. The high costs and the long production time also resulted from the fact that Otomo used computers intensively for the first time. Savings and simplifications were expected. But the greater possibilities, for example in the color palette and the option to undo everything and try again, together with the increased demands of the producers, led to the opposite. So producers demanded the creation of complete 3D models, which turned out to be just as time-consuming as in real films. The budget ended up being about $ 20.2 million. Long before its release, it was promoted and expected as an extraordinary anime, especially for foreign countries, as Otomo's previous directorial work Akira was very successful both in Japan and in the West. This made the film the most expensive anime production to date.

The designs and functionality of the various steam-powered machines were worked out in detail during production, even if they can only be seen briefly, in order to show the most consistent and credible picture of the technology of the film world. For research, Otomo and his team traveled to London, York and Manchester to get to know the urban landscape, its atmosphere and individual buildings, as well as to visit museums from the 19th century.

The film was released in Japanese theaters on July 17, 2004. Theatrical releases followed, including in the United States and Italy, as well as publications on commercial media in English, Portuguese, Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Polish and Chinese, among others. Internationally, a version of the 126-minute film was shown shortened to 104 minutes. In Germany, the anime was shown for the first time at the Cinasia Film Festival in Cologne in December 2004, but only with English subtitles. On June 7, 2005, Steamboy was released in German by Columbia TriStar , in the uncut original version on DVD, which was advertised as the Director's Cut.

synchronization

The German dubbing was created under the dialogue direction and based on a book by Peter Woratz by the dubbing company Scalamedia in Munich.

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū ) German speaker
Ray Steam Anne Suzuki Tim Schwarzmaier
Eddie Steam Masane Tsukayama Christian Tramitz
Scarlett O'Hara Manami Konishi Gabrielle Pietermann
Lloyd Steam Katsuo Nakamura Thomas Fritsch
Emma Sanae Kobayashi Jacqueline Belle
mother Keiko Aizawa Dagmar Dempe
Commander in chief Osamu Saka Joachim Höppner
technician Oliver Stritzel
O'Hara's informer Ekkehardt Belle

music

The music for the film was composed by Steve Jablonsky , who used monumental orchestral music. In 2004 the soundtrack was released by Colosseum in Germany.

Analysis and reception

Steamboy is considered to be one of the most important films, especially anime, that brought the steampunk genre to cinemas around the turn of the millennium, as well as one of the most important animes with apocalyptic themes of its time. Communication scientist and Japanologist Thomas Lamarre sees Steamboy as a story about the use of atomic power and the steamball as a symbol for the atomic bomb - including a reference to heavy water . In the history-defining struggle, a version of the Cold War is performed in a world of the 1860s with their technology. However, the result of this staging is not very interesting, as this dynamic seems outdated in today's world. From Lamarre's point of view, it is more interesting how Otomo's production refers to the visual technology of the 19th century. His extensive use of many image levels, which move against each other and usually create a movement past the viewer, is reminiscent of techniques such as dioramas . At the same time, this animation technique is common and widespread in anime.

Felix T. Gregor cites the film as an example of modern science fiction anime, as it presents a “possible impossibility” in that historically impossible events appear as a fictional possibility through the narrative with realistic staging. Steamboy is also paradigmatic for Japan's handling of the past in the form of “modern nostalgia” . He also points to great similarities to the film The Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki, released in the same year , in which steam technology and the conflict between man and technology also play an important role. What the Howl's Moving Castle is in Miyazaki's film, the Steamtower is the ultimate weapon in Steamboy . In Otomo's work, science is seen not only as a tool, but as that which first creates ideas and reality, in which power becomes possible. The film's claim to reality is not only expressed in the technical implementation, but also in references to the real world of the 19th century, especially its imperialism , which was also practiced by Japan . This fails at the end of the film that is redeeming, but forms a contrast to reality.

Brian Camp and Julie Davis name the film as one of the 100 Must-See Anime. It was Otomos' most sophisticated film to date about the conflict between man and technology, which also addressed this topic directly in the form of the battle at the end, in which the worldviews of father and son clash. In addition to this message, Steamboy also functions as an action and adventure film with the many fighting and hunting scenes and the exotic machines. The detailed designs of the machines and backgrounds from Manchester and London as well as the currently matching costumes are also praised. The character designs are expressive and clear. The use of 3D animations fits seamlessly into the world otherwise animated in 2D optics. The lack of success in the West is due to the oversaturation of the audience with films about retro technology that had previously come from Hollywood and Japan. The young audience, who grew up with much more modern technology, was also more difficult to get excited about the scenario.

According to the Anime Encyclopedia , you can see that the long-awaited successor to Akira has been in production for a very long time and the anime has been revised over and over again to meet the demands of its director. Like the inventors in its story, the film itself seems obsessed with its own creation, as if it only existed for its own sake. In terms of content, it is hardly different from its predecessor Akira: An action-packed race develops over a new type of energy source, which ends in a battle that, similar to the Godzilla film, destroys entire districts. The images of the steampunk world were reminiscent of Otomos Cannon Fodder , a segment from the episode film Memoirs , and the early works of Hayao Miyazaki, such as The Castle in the Sky and Sherlock Hound . At the box office in the United States, the film had little success.

According to AnimaniA , Otomo is setting new standards with the film and "shines [...] with a perfection that has hardly been seen before". The combination of cel animations of the characters and computer-animated “pompous” backgrounds was “virtuoso”. The "already visually breathtaking images" would be "set in scene perfectly and at high speed using unbelievable tracking shots". In addition to the “bombastic” sound effects, there would be a “breathtaking” soundtrack that plunges the images “into a moving and rousing river”. However , the anime does not live up to expectations that the content is as sophisticated as Akira , because the storylines are mostly predictable, superficial and lag behind the images. As a result, the film received mixed reviews, especially in the United States. Still, the anime offers at least a rousing story and evolving characters. Compared to Akira , to whom there are also some similarities in the character design, the narrative is less pessimistic and at the same time more realistic in the character drawing. The social criticism, however, looks like "wrapped in cotton wool" compared to its predecessor. The German version was well done in terms of both the synchronization and the technical implementation. For fans, the DVD is a "must buy".

For the manga scene , Steamboy brings its core message - science and progress must not be pursued at the expense of ethics - well to the viewer. The film still looks good, the animation is "flawless" and the steampunk world is convincingly brought to life. Compared to Akira , the story is told more clearly and understandably, without the characters becoming too simple. The protagonist, however, remains pale, and the secondary characters with their radical views are more interesting. Scarlett's role and function in the film also remains a mystery, as it neither contributes to the statement nor to loosening up. With such superfluous-looking elements, the film turned out to be quite lengthy in the end, so the shortened international version is not surprising. Overall, Steamboy is a “really decent” film, but not on the level of a Ghibli film.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition. Berkeley 2006, Stone Bridge Press, ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5 , p. 616.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h AnimaniA 06/2005, p. 10ff.
  3. ↑ a b c d AnimaniA 11/2004, p. 36ff.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Brian Camp, Julie Davis: Anime Classics Zettai !: 100 Must-See Japanese Animation Masterpieces . Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2007, pp. 162-165 .
  5. ↑ Jonathan Clements: Anime - A History . Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, ISBN 978-1-84457-390-5 , pp. 196 .
  6. ↑ a b AnimaniA 03/2005, p. 55.
  7. ↑ a b Steamboy. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on September 22, 2019 .
  8. ↑ AnimaniA 03/2005, p. 68.
  9. ^ Bernice Murphy: Twenty-First-Century Popular Fiction . Edinburgh University Press, 2018, ISBN 978-1-4744-1486-9 , pp. 229 .
  10. ↑ Elizabeth Ho: Victorian Maids and Neo-Victorian Laborin Kaoru Mori's Emma: A Victorian Romance . In: Neo-Victorian Studies . tape 6 , no. 2 , 2013, p. 40 ( neovictorianstudies.com [PDF]).
  11. ^ Rebecca Onion: Reclaiming the Machine: An Introductory Look at Steampunk in Everyday Practice . In: Neo-Victorian Studies . tape 1 , no. 1 , 2008, p. 141 ( neovictorianstudies.com [PDF]).
  12. ^ A b Felix T. Gregor: Do people in Japan dream of mechanical flight locks? - About cyberpunk and steampunk in Japanese anime . In: Pablo Abend, Marc Bonner, Tanja Weber (Eds.): Just Little Bits of History Repeating: Medien | Nostalgia | Retromania . LIT Verlag Münster, 2017, ISBN 978-3-643-13881-1 , p. 95-101 .
  13. ↑ Michael Broderick: Superflat Eschatology . In: Nichola Dobson (Ed.): Animation Studies - Animated Dialogues, 2007 . Society for Animation Studies, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, USA 2007, p. 29, 34 .
  14. ↑ Thomas Lamarre : The Anime Machine. A Media Theory of Animation . University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 978-0-8166-5154-2 , pp. 6th f .
  15. ↑ a b AnimaniA 07/2005, p. 30.
  16. ↑ Manga scene No. 27, p. 19.