50 Otomo: GENGA!

An explanation is due. What happened to post 49? It was lost in the folds of time between Dimension X and here. This was during my visit there this past April Fools Day. (see post XX) It may resurface in another space-time. It may not. This is post 50.

Otomo: GENGA!

All Words & Photos By Wielgorecki
Video By gengaten otomo (LINK)

A year ago, I was in Tokyo. I was lucky enough to have my visit coincide with GENGA, a gallery show at Arts Chiyoda (LINK) featuring the artwork of Otomo Katsuhiro. For those nerds who don't know, shame. Otomo is the creator of the immortal manga, Akira. His artistic tenacity and illustrative precision are only matched by his wild, violent imagination. For GENGA, Otomo donated his entire portfolio. All admissions and merchandise profits were donated to help rebuild Miyagi, which was devastated in 2011's tsunami disaster and is Otomo's home prefecture. 

Akira was laid out page by page, in glass cases. It was easy to follow this familiar story, from case to case, room to room. It took a while, but I scanned every page into my brain. Most of them I'd never seen. Most notably, the pages that showed Tetsuo's harem of chicks. The most amazing part was to look at all the pages and imagine them sitting on Otomo's work space lit by a flickering TV, amidst swirling cigarette smoke, models in various stages, and possibly many strange photo refs, back in the 80s as he created them. These were the same pages. The chaos was beautiful. I kept trying to analyze the drawings, hoping they would reveal some trick to his process. Of course there was no secret trick. The secret to Otomo's mastery is hard work.  

Not only did GENGA exhibit every single, hand drawn page from Akira, there were lots of original layouts and storyboards from Steamboy and Robot Carnival, too. There was also all the original art from his collected book of illustrations, Kaba (Hippo).   

Photography was obviously prohibited around the art, but at the end of it all was this room…

Actual working bike. (LINK)

Watch your telekinetic temper, Tetsuo.

GENGA's Wall of Tribute

It seems it is a specialty of the Japanese to create feats of technology and engineering to bring people's wildest dreams into artistic and scientific reality. Fuck a bucket list. I don't need the Taj Mahal. I don't need the Pyramids. I don't need Everest. Soul Scream! Awesome Dream Power! So very better, Baby...Otomo: GENGA!!

Love you, Nippon. 

-2013 Wielgorecki