Katsuhiro Otomo once had a reputation as a genius anime auteur -- a younger, hipper version of Hayao Miyazaki. His 1988 SF hit "Akira" was unlike anything coming out of the Hollywood animation industry in its dark vision of an atomic-blasted Neo-Tokyo, with its multilayered story of lawless young bikers caught up in an evil government project. Released widely abroad, "Akira" jump-started the worldwide anime boom.
Instead of capitalizing on this success, Miyazaki-style, with a string of crowd-pleasing movies, Otomo has spent the past two decades on an erratic career journey, making the little-seen live-action comedy "World Apartment Horror" (1991) and directing a segment of the anime omnibus "Memories" (1995), while working in various capacities on other projects, including animation supervisor on Satoshi Kon's "Perfect Blue" (1998) and Hirotsugu Kawasaki's "Spriggan" (1998). His much-heralded return to feature animation directing, the retro-future fantasy "Steamboy" (2004) was a commercial and critical disappointment.
Now Otomo is back with his first live-action film in 15 years, "Mushishi (Bugmaster)," which premiered at the 2006 Venice Film Festival. Based on a manga by Yuki Urushibara, "Mushishi" is also Otomo's first full-length venture into period drama.