Steamboy

I'm not a religious manga zealot (Jules doesn't read this, I don't think, but hi anyway), but I like the genre, and have probably seen my fair share. About a month ago I read an article (can't find the link now, sorry) that this would potentially be a big year for manga, with 3 of the biggest directors having new films; Hayao Miyazaki (too many to list), Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, and Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira). Akira didn't flick my switch overly, but I like my movies in series, and Steamboy was first here.

I said I like the genre, but it sure ain't for originality of story ideas. Introduce hero, introduce villain, well meaning but constructing large structure not in human-kind's best interest, climax with hero destroying big structure. OK, not all of them, but it happens over and over again. Mononoke, Akira (kind of), Metropolis, Steamboy. Oh, there you go, I gave it away.

Anyway, if you're going to see this, you don't care about the plot. You just want sweet animation, and you'll get it. Actually, the Koreanime flick that I saw a couple of weeks ago was probably prettier, but this is still good candy.