'Akira'.
Katsuhiro Otomo was born in the province of Miyagi, Japan. His great passion when he was young, was watching American movies. He often had to travel for hours to the nearest movie theater. He moved to Tokyo in 1973 and made his debut in comics the same year, with 'Jyu-sei' ('A Gun Report'), an adaptation of the Prosper Mérimée novella 'Mateo Falcone'. After this, he frequently published his work in magazine Action.
Comic art by Katsuhiro Otomo.
In 1979, Otomo's first longer publication appeared - a series called 'Fireball', which was a great success for its groundbreaking style, which changed traditional manga forever. This was the beginning of Otomo's interest in science fiction themes. In 1980, Otomo's 'Domu' became a best-seller and won Japan's Science Fiction Grand Prix Award. In 1982, Otomo came up with the comic series 'Akira', which was first published in magazine Young. It was an immediate success and grew into an epic tale. It has won numerous awards and is regarded by many as the finest work of graphic fiction ever created. It has been published in the West as well, where it met with just as much enthusiasm. In 1988 Otomo scripted 'Mother Earth' (1988), a story about a mother searching for her children in a post-nuclear world, drawn by Takumi Nagayasu.
Katsuhiro Otomo was named a Knight in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2005, and an Officier des Arts et des Lettes in 2014.
Katsuhiro Otomo was a strong influence on Kim Jung-Gi, Yu Kinutani, Li Chi-tak, Masamune Shirow, Menno Wittebrood and Zep.
'Akira'.