Anime Review: Steamboy

Set in Great Britain in the year 1863, Steamboy is a story about Ray Steam, a young boy who inherits his family’s engineering passion and genius. His adventures begin one day when he receives a mysterious package from his grandfather. He later uncovers secrets of an invention based on steam technology far ahead of its time.

Steamboy is yet another splendid animation extravaganza by Production IG, the team behind Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and Blood: The Last Vampire. Leading this project are the people behind Akira, the animation classic that was pivotal in bringing anime to the mainstream in the West.

True to its heritage, this anime has magnificent animation and great use of CG, one of the best of last year (second only to one of their other great work; Ghost in the Shell: Innocence). Great Britain, especially London is drawn in great detail, featuring marvellous renditions of the Big Ben, London Bridge, Thames River, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye (only joking about the Eye, it’s 1863!).
The animation is second to none, where the on-screen characters at times act almost like real actors do. The eyes are animated so well that in one scene you could literally see the eyes reflecting shifts in a character’s mindset and resolve. Character’s movements are done fluidly and realistically with believable sense of weight and space. Gears and levers are prominently shown, working to bring the mechanical monstrosities to life.

True to the movie’s name, tremendous effort has been put by the animators to bring character to steam. Never ever have I seen mere vapourised water animated to such anal detail in a movie. It is truly spectacular to behold.

Underlying the beautiful drawings and the cutting-edge special effects, there is also an anti-war theme putting forward that advances in technology is spearheaded by the greed for military dominance. An invention that could benefit mankind could as easily be turned in wars to kill and conquer.

As opposed to the fantasy grandeur of Miyazaki, this film is striking in its groundedness to realism yet still manages to tickle our imaginations with wonders of scientific progress.

Verdict: 5/5 – Featuring magnificent machinery running on steam technology, hyper-realistic animation, superior attention to detail, an anti-war theme, beautiful renderings of Great Britain circa 1800s and an entertaining story, fully recommended.