Manga On October 4, 1973, Otomo published his first work, a manga adaptation of
Prosper Mérimée's short story
Mateo Falcone, titled
A Gun Report. In 1979, after writing multiple short-stories for the magazine
Weekly Manga 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 until July 1981. It was not published in book form until 1983, when it won the
Nihon SF Taisho Award. It also won the 1984
Seiun Award for Best Comic. In a collaboration with writer Toshihiko Yahagi, Otomo illustrated
Kibun wa mō Sensō about a fictional war that erupts in the border between China and the Soviet Union. It was published in
Weekly Manga Action from 1980 to 1981 and collected into one volume in 1982. It won the 1982 Seiun Award for Best Comic. Also in 1981, Otomo drew
A Farewell to Weapons for the November 16 issue of
Kodansha's
Young Magazine. It was later included in the 1990 short story collection
Kanojo no Omoide... In 1982, Otomo began what would become his most acclaimed and famous work:
Akira. Kodansha had been asking him to write a series for their new
Young Magazine for some time, but he had been busy with other work. From the first meeting with the publisher,
Akira was to be only about ten chapters "or something like that," so Otomo said he was really not expecting it to be a success. Otomo created the one-shot
Hi no Yōjin about people who put out fires in Japan's
Edo period for the debut issue of
Comic Cue in January 1995. Otomo wrote the 2002 picture book
Hipira: The Little Vampire, which was illustrated by Shinji Kimura. Otomo created the full-color work
DJ Teck no Morning Attack for the April 2012 issue of
Geijutsu Shincho. Following the
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Otomo, a native of the Tōhoku region, designed a
relief that features a boy riding a robot goldfish in rough seas, while flanked by
Fūjin and
Raijin. Intended to capture the region's will to overcome the natural disaster, it has been located on the first floor of the terminal building at
Sendai Airport since March 2015. Otomo was initially reported in 2012 to be working on his first long-form manga since
Akira. Planning to draw the work that is set during Japan's
Meiji period without assistants, he was initially targeting a younger audience, but said the story had developed more towards an older one. Although planned to begin in fall 2012, Otomo revealed in November of that year that the series had been delayed. By 2018, Otomo said he was doing a full-length work, but the contents were still secrets. In 2022, Kodansha released Otomo's entire body of manga since 1971 as part of "The Complete Works Project," which featured six separate releases of two books each. It was noted that some of his manga were edited when initially compiled into book format, and this new project, personally overseen by Otomo, restored them to how they appeared in their original serialization.
Film At the age of 25, Otomo spent about 5 million yen to make a
16 mm live-action film about an hour long. He said that making this private film showed him roughly how to make and direct movies. Otomo has worked extensively with the studio
Sunrise. In 1998, he directed the
CG short
Gundam: Mission to the Rise to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their
Gundam franchise. The studio has animated and produced his 2004 feature film
Steamboy, 2006's
Freedom Project, and 2007's
SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers: The Next. The last, is based on Otomo's 1980 manga
SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorer and follows the son of its main characters. The 2001 animated film
Metropolis features a script written by Otomo that adapts Tezuka's manga of
the same name. Otomo directed the 2006 live-action film
Mushishi, based on
Yuki Urushibara's manga of
the same name. In 2013, Otomo took part in
Short Peace, an anthology consisting on 4 short films; he directed
Combustible, a tragic love story set in the Edo period based on his 1995 manga
Hi no Yōjin, and was even shortlisted for the 2013
Best Animated Short at the
85th Academy Awards. Otomo directed the music video for
Aya Nakano's 2016 song "Juku-Hatachi". He is a fan of the singer and previously drew the cover to her 2014 album
Warui Kuse. In 2019, he announced that he is writing and directing an animated film adaptation of his 2001 manga
Orbital Era with Sunrise and released a trailer that same year. ==Style==