Technology and Protest:Steamboy

Original Source and Story Line & Characterization by McKendree and Sara Strommer

Steampunk Theory and Technical Aspects by McKendree Strommer

Cultural & Historical Aspects and Themes by Sara Strommer

Film Clip: Launching the Steam Castle

Click picture for video

Steamboy OriginOriginal story by Katushiro

OtomoInfluenced heavily by steampunk

“era” and ideologiesAlso somewhat influenced by the

terror attacks on September 11, 2001, and by the Iraq war.

CharactersRay Steam The protagonist and central figure in the story. Ray is

just a boy, still in school. He is raised mostly by his mother and works at factories repairing machinery to help support their family. His father and grandfather were both grand inventors. Ray is innocent, smart, brave and capable. Ray is not a warrior or great man, but a boy still malleable and is forced to make some very difficult decisions.

CharactersEddie Steam Eddie is shown at the very beginning of the film to be

involved in a terrible steam accident, the cause of which was his father, Lloyd, pushing the technology too far. He is presumed dead by Ray and his family, but makes a return with the powerful O’Hara foundation, a weapons dealer. Eddie is fervently pushing science to the limit, doing all that can be done to progress regardless of the cost. He reshaped his body, has killed innocent civilians, and deals weapons to the highest bidder all in the name of the cause of science. But at the end, he saves Lloyd and Ray and Scarlett, disappearing once more.

CharactersLloyd SteamEddie’s father, Ray’s grandfather, and a

renowned steam scientist. At the beginning of the film he is shown to be pushing technology to its limits, but soon becomes humanities agent against the relentless pursuit of technology at all costs; and so against Eddie. Lloyd and Eddie become enemies and both try to influence Ray. In the end, Lloyd’s famous line “…the heart comes first,” rings true to Ray.

Characters

Scarlett O’Hara Scarlett is a rude, upperclass, spoiled, girl and heiress of

the O’Hara Foundation. Scarlett goes where she likes, does what she likes, and no one seems to have the courage or desire to say no to her, except Ray, of course. Scarlett is innocent in the dealings of the O’Hara Foundation (weapons) because she does not fully realize the pain they cause. She walks onto a battlefield, strolling, unafraid because she does not know the fear. When told that the O’Hara Foundation was waging war with Britain she said, “Make sure we win.” That coming from just a girl. Not until she comes face to face with the death and havoc cause by war does she understand the consequences of her foundation’s power. When that happens, though, she makes the choice to stand for the good of people and end the war.

StorylineFollows the story of Ray Steam who’s father

and grandfather, Eddie and Lloyd Steam, have been researching and building upon steam technology.

Ray’s progenitors discover the power of the “steam ball”, a source of incomprehensible, even perfect, power.

The existence of such a device is desired by many parties and even forces Lloyd and Eddie apart in their ideologies of how such power should be used.

Storyline Inevitably, Ray, a scientist and genius in his

own right, is caught up in the plots of his father, who seeks technological advancement above else, his grandfather who seeks to only use science to help people, and the corporations and countries who also desire the power.

Throughout the film Ray is abducted, manipulated, and influenced by many different people and parties. He even meets a girl, Scarlett, the daughter of the powerful O’Hara Foundation (one of Ray’s abductors).

StorylineRay, through his

adventures and the violence and power witnessed within, makes a moral decision to destroy the steam ball and the castle it built, saving a city and denying the scientific progresses made with the technology.

StorylineThe ending montage shows Ray

and Scarlett flying and presumably fighting in World War I with Eddie as a mind behind or involved in it.

Technical Aspects One other important addition is steampunk's general

attention to detail.  The animation is amazing in Steamboy and in no small part thanks to the extreme detail put into the work.  Steampunk carries that same idea into many of the art pieces shown at galleries.  It shows a connection between not just the ideas and plot of the film but down to its actual construction it is emulating the steampunk ideology.

Technical Aspects Steamboy utilized over 180,000 hand-drawn

animation cells enhanced with 3D imaging over what the DVD calls an “onion skins” type of animation. It is just what it sounds like: layers of animation over each other, some 3D some 2D, but all working together to produce the immensely detailed project that is Steamboy.

From RottenTomatoes.com to IMDB, the praise for the incredible attention to detail and the painstaking effort it must have taken to accomplish that in animation is foremost among the critics.

The film was in production for 10 years!

Steampunk TheorySteampunk is a nostalgic blending of a "future-

perfect" with victorian-era technological transparency.  It is a part of popular culture today and involves doing the currently impossible with theories or pieces of technology from an earlier age, making the world improved, or at least one interpretation of improved.

For example, one piece of steampunk art is a "clockwork fetus" in which there is a metal fetus in a capsule attached just above a clock counting down to birth. The idea that you plan for a future by looking to the past is ever-present in steampunk ideals and represented well in the piece.

Steampunk Theory

Steampunk TheoryAlso shown well in the piece is the

steampunk ideal that we can and should rebuild ourselves in order to plan for the future because "this will not go on forever".  "This" could refer to the human body, the world's constant consumerism, or any number of things that can be improved upon.

Steampunk in SteamboyEddie’s body improvementsThe “Steam Castle”The settingPlot and dialogue

Steampunk in SteamboySteampunk believes in complete

comprehension of morality, humanity, and technology

Lloyd is Humanity’s agentEddie is Technology’s agentRay gains complete

comprehension by learning of both and making the moral decision for himself.

More Steampunk Steampunk ideology holds that "failure to accept things as

things even if they increasingly become a part of us fosters and perpetuates cycles of domination and oppression“ –Forlini article

When morality and technology become too intertwined and "human control is undermined by the enmeshment of humans and things“ (Forlini) those cycles begin time and again.

Conflict between Lloyd and Eddie, Ray and Eddie, Ray and Lloyd, or even the creation of the steam soldiers and Scarlett’s reaction to it when she found out they were really people; all show the enmeshment of humans and things and consequences to that enmeshment.

Eddie lost his mind, became an evil genius, whatever, but either way he saw science- things -as more than just things but as a way of life, an answer to all questions, a future.  Ray and Scarlett and Lloyd retained their humanity and are perceived as the good guys.

Cultural & Historical Aspects:War

The first Great Exhibition that was held in London was a secret way to sell weapons to Britain’s enemies

Cultural & Historical Aspects: Industrialization

The industrialization of the west. Ray works in a factory, fixing steam machines and conveyor belts

The steam castle represents both luxuries and dangers afforded by technology

Cultural and Historical Aspects: Perspective

Perspectives between father and sonCountry and citizensWar and peaceScience and the soulAll perspectives are portrayed as having

difficulty bridging together and finding common ground

Cultural & Historical Aspects: Cross-Culturization

Steamboy’s setting is London and has all English characters driving the plot

Most anime centralize around a Japanese character –Steamboy does not have one

Steamboy was advertised globally, perhaps because of Akira’s success, and was appealing to both Eastern and Western audiences

Katsuhiro Otomo Interview: Themes

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Major Themes: Humanity versus Technology

The creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, wanted to capture human emotion through his story.

Lloyd Steam emphasized humanity as being the more important than technology

Major Themes: Fathers versus Sons

Lloyd and Eddie Steam have differing views as to the importance of science in society—an effect of the “communication gap that creates misunderstanding.”

Ray Steam is torn between the two ideologies, and must make a decision in the end.

Major Themes:Innocence versus Greed/Power

Ray and Scarlett both represent innocence in different ways—Ray trusts the adults in his life, and doesn’t understand their need for power. Scarlett is bossy and rude, but in a childlike way.

All of the adult main characters are trying to get their hands on the steamball and use it for their own purposes, even if that means starting a world war.

Works Cited “Otomo’s Steamboy.” Big Red Hair. n.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb

2013. Price, Shinobu. “Cartoons from Another Planet: Japanese

Animation as Cross-Cultural Communication.” Journal of American & Comparative Cultures 24:1-2 (2001): 153-169. Web. 31 Jan 2013.

Lu, Amy Shirong. “The Many Faces of Internationalization in Japanese Anime.” Animation (2008): 169. Web. 31 Jan 2013.

Forlini, Stefania. “Technology and Morality: The Stuff of Steampunk.” Neo-Victorian Studies 3:1 (2010): 72-98. Web. 26 Jan 2013.

“Steamboy (2005).” Box Office Mojo, IMDb.com, Inc. n.d. Web. 27 Feb 2013.

“Katsuhiro Otomo’s STEAMBOY – US PREMIERE – with Q&A by director Otomo.” Anime News Network, Anime News Network. n.d. Web. 27 Feb 2013.

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