Steamboy (2004)

Steam. You might think the good old days when it was used to propel trains and boats are over and that it’s a technology of the past, but you’d be mistaken as it’s still used in nuclear powerplants to get the generators going. To me it’s amazing to think that such an old idea is still in use today. Steamboy is an anime in which steam is seen as the future and can be used for progress.

The Steam family (a very original name isn’t it) consists of three generations of inventors. They know the power of steam and are highly regarded in Victorian England as the ones who will bring progress. They manage to have a big technological breakthrough, which can change a lot of things in the world. It’s a powerful invention and as we’ve seen many times before with great power comes great responsibility and the father and grandfather don’t agree on its use. The ‘Steamboy’ in the family is the one who is caught in the middle and has to find out what exactly is going on and prevent the wrong things happening.
It’s a movie which I’ve read took almost 10 years to make and was directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, who also was responsible for Akira.

Unfortunately I had a very hard time caring much for the characters. Not much time is spent on characterisation, making some characters very hard to stomach. A girl is introduced in this movie who seems to be very spoiled by her father, but to me she felt out of place as she only complained and only seemed to be there to have some connection with Steamboy. The plot also was very thin and not interesting enough. Towards the end there is a very long battle sequence where a lot of things were happening, but it never felt like something real.
The animation itself and the realisation of the world was done in a great way, it’s just a shame that the story and the characters are not on the same level. Instead of steam this movie is just some hot water.

Score: 5