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Akira's Katsuhiro Otomo to Attend Platform Animation Festival in Los Angeles
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The organizers of the Platform International Animation Festival announced on Tuesday that they will host manga creator and director Katsuhiro Ōtomo at the October 26-28 event in Los Angeles.
The event will also present Otomo with its first Lifetime Achievement Award on October 27. The festival will screen Otomo's "Combustible" ("Hi-no-youjin") short film (pictured below left) and will host a conversation with Otomo and animation historian Jerry Beck.
Otomo is best known for creating the stories of Akira, Steamboy, and Memories, and he directed or co-directed the anime for all of these. Otomo also directed the 2006 live-action film adaptation of Yuki Urushibara's Mushishi supernatural manga. Otomo also created the Hipira: The Little Vampire manga, which received a 12-episode television anime adaptation in 2009. Otomo has created the Domu, The Legend of Mother Sarah, Sayonara Nippon, and SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers manga, among others, and has worked on the Freedom, Spriggan, and Metropolis anime.
Otomo recently published a new illustration book, titled Kaba 2, and he worked on this year's Short Peace omnibus project assembling "top creators at the leading edge of Japanese animation, exploring possible future avenues of expression." There are four shorts in the anthology, including Otomo's historical story "Hi-no-youjin."
This will be Otomo's first public appearance in the United States since 1990. Otomo was slated to attend Comic Con International in San Diego in July, but he canceled his appearance.
The Platform International Animation festival will be held at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT). Tickets for the Otomo evening program are US$20 for general admission and US$16 for members.
