Katsuhiro Otomo

Mangaka-turned director Katsuhiro Otomo has been working in the field of manga since the 1970s. His first "short stories" were published in 1973, while he was still in college; three of his more famous short pieces were adapted into the film Memories in 1995. Between 1980 and 1982, he published Domu: A Child's Dream: A Child's Dream, which contained themes and imagery he would expand on in his six-volume magnum opus, Akira.

After taking charge of a film adaptation of AKIRA, Otomo made the jump from comic artist to film director; to date, he has six feature-length animations and one live-action movie (World Apartment Horror, 1991) to his credit.

His dark, obsessively detailed Cyberpunk style has influenced dozens of artists, both in and outside of Japan. The film adaptation of AKIRA was a breakthrough success in the west and ushered forward an interest in anime in mainstream Western cinema, as well as a "second wave" of popularity among anime fans.

Notable manga:
 * Highway Star (collected shorter pieces), 1979
 * Fireball (never completed), 1978-1979
 * Domu: A Child's Dream, 1980-1982
 * Akira, 1984-1990
 * The Legend of Mother Sarah (scripted but didn't draw), 1996
 * A yet unnamed Shonen manga set in Japan's Meiji period, which is set to be his first full-length series since AKIRA.

Notable films:
 * Harmagedon (character design), 1982
 * Meikyuu Monogatari (a.k.a. Neotokyo): "Construction Cancellation Order" a/k/a "Order To Halt Construction", 1987
 * Robot Carnival: segments "Coming Soon" and "See You Again", 1987
 * AKIRA, 1988
 * Roujin-Z, 1991
 * Katsuhiro Otomo's Memories (based on his stories, wrote and directed segment "Cannon Fodder"), 1995
 * Spriggan, 1998
 * Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis (screenplay), 2001
 * Steamboy, 2004

Clearly was involved with:
 * Freedom Project, 2006