Steamboy

An anime set in nineteenth-century England. Ray is a boy in Manchester who works with machines. One day a package arrives from his grandfather: inside is a spherical device that can produce steam at enormous pressure. A company is after it, and Ray's father works for them. His grandfather believes the invention should not be used. So the family is split: one believes in progress, the other fears where it leads. The argument at the centre is whom science serves. The company wants to present the device at an exhibition, and the buyers are mostly the military. The film's real strength is design. Steam engines, gears, pipes and enormous structures are drawn in detail; the action combines hand-drawn animation with computer support. Preparation took around ten years and it became one of the most expensive productions in Japanese animation. Katsuhiro Otomo directed; he had made Akira earlier. A visually rich production for anyone who likes animation and design built on steam technology. For a viewer looking for depth, the story stays simple and the characters are underdeveloped.