In 1860s Britain, a boy inventor finds himself caught in the middle of a deadly conflict over a revolutionary advance in steam power.
Direction
Otomo's obsessive attention to steam physics and mechanical minutiae.
Production
Ten years of production for 180,000 hand-drawn cels of Victorian machinery.
Visual Effects
Seamless blend of 2D animation with early-CGI steam and explosions.
Director
Katsuhiro Otomo
Keiko Aizawa
Ray's Mother (voice)
Aiko Hibi
Thomas (voice)
Manami Konishi
Scarlett O'Hara St. Jones (voice)
Anne Suzuki
James Ray Steam (voice)
Sanae Kobayashi
Emma (voice)
Masane Tsukayama
Dr. Edward 'Eddy' Steam (voice)
Susumu Terajima
Alfred Smith (voice)
Kiyoshi Kodama
Robert Stephenson (voice)
Tetsu Inada
Jason (voice)
Ikki Sawamura
David (voice)
Osamu Saka
The Admiral (voice)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Otomo spent a decade on this after Akira, personally correcting 80,000 of the 180,000 cels. Studios literally went bankrupt waiting.
The 1866 Manchester setting deliberately mirrors Japan's Meiji-era industrial anxiety—Otomo's commentary on his own country's modernization guilt.
JP
