Ask John: Will Steamboy Ever Get a Sequel?
Question:
Do you know if there are any plans to make a sequel to Steamboy (2004)? It was a great movie with lots of potential for more story-building and character development. I found an old news article, also from that same year, with some talk about a sequel, but nothing else has surfaced since then.
Answer:
Director Katsuhiro Otomo’s 2004 film Steamboy did seem to suggest a sequel. Otomo even stated publicly that he’d mulled over the idea of a “Steamgirl” spin-off. However, no word on a new production has been announced since. Certainly, the possibility of a Steamboy sequel is still present, but the liklihood of an actual production seems remote.
Steamboy was a monumental production. With its 26 million dollar budget, the movie remains the most expensive anime film ever produced. However, the film’s theatrical release earned only 10 million worldwide, eight of that coming from Japan alone. A TV series or OVA sequel, remake, or spin-off might be more cost-effective and practical, but part of the problem facing Steamboy is the fact that the entire steampunk genre has never been especially popular among Japanese viewers. While anime including Last Exile, Secret of Blue Water, D. Gray-man, Great Detective Holmes, and Laputa share some aesthetic similarity to steampunk, Steamboy, the Steam Detectives television series, and the “Tale of Two Robots” segment of Robot Carnival may be the only anime productions that literally revolve around steam powered technology in a historical setting. Bandai and production studio Sunrise fitfully supported creator/director Katsuhiro Otomo’s development of the Steamboy anime largely out of good will and anticipation that Otomo would be able to recreate the success of his earlier directorial debut, Akira, not because the producers or studio were confident in the potential of its steampunk setting, In fact, production on the film was actually shut down for three years, from 1995 until 1998, due to the film’s unsettlingly large production cost and producer dissatisfaction that the film wasn’t another futuristic, sci-fi adventure story in the vein of Akira.
Ultimately, Steamboy should be perceived as the biggest experiment in the history of anime. Few other anime feature steam technology. Steamboy is the only steampunk anime ever made, and it was not successful. While the film is an impressive cinematic accomplishment and an astounding example of the potential of anime as a commercial creative art, creator Katsuhiro Otomo himself doesn’t seem eagerly inclined to return to the Steamboy world, nor do viewers.
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Perhaps I should re watch it, but as far I remember steamboy was a pointless, boring movie, filled with cliché characters ¬__¬
I liked the film a lot (and will certainly thank Sony for chancing a U.S. theatrical release), but will admit after years of reflection that it was probably 25 to 30 minutes too long.
The film fascinates me because of it’s unflinching reliability on steam tech. It probably felt like oversaturation to casual genre enthusiasts, but I think that kind of devotion is worth noting.
I’d argue that while Steamboy definitely had the biggest steampunk-influence in an anime, you couldn’t really call it the only one. A number of the Ghibli films utilize steampunk elements, plus a fair number of the Full Metal Alchemist contraptions are more steampunk than realistic.
Steampunk works best as a backdrop and it’s been used well many times. Steamboy just beat you over the head with the setting and as a result you didn’t care about the characters or the story.
This is exactly why he called it “the only one”. There have been a lot of anime with Steampunk influence, but all of them used it here and there. Sakura Wars centered around a world supposedly built on all steampunk tech, but also included samurai and magical elements. Full Metal Alchemist used steampunk as a crutch to supplement its 1940’s setting. In a world that looks a lot like the U.S. 1940 hit the 1800’s middle east in a car accident, and then firmly establishes that “technology” as we know it did not exist. Now you have to explain cars, industrial equipment, auto-mail, etc. without the 1940’s era tech. Answer, avoid showing that stuff as much as possible and steampunk style when you do.
I think steampunk will always be a niche market sub-segment of sci-fi anime, but I think it has potential. There are people outside of anime and its culture that steampunk mod their computers, there is steampunk jewelry, and it has appeared as background material for several dozen popular sci-fi shows.