This document provides an overview of the 2004 anime film Steamboy. It describes the original story and influences, characters including Ray Steam and Scarlett O'Hara, the plot following Ray's involvement in a conflict over a powerful steam technology, and major themes of humanity vs. technology and fathers vs. sons. Technical aspects like the animation details and cultural/historical influences incorporating industrialization and multiple perspectives are also summarized.

2. 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

3. Film Clip: Launching the
Steam Castle
Click picture for video

4. Steamboy Origin
 Original story by Katushiro Otomo
 Influenced heavily by steampunk ―era‖
and ideologies
 Also somewhat influenced by the
terror attacks on September
11, 2001, and by the Iraq war.

5. Characters
 Ray 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.

6. Characters
 Eddie 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.

7. Characters
 Lloyd Steam
 Eddie’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.

8. 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.

9. Storyline
 Follows 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.

10. 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).

11. Storyline
 Ray, 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.

12. Storyline
 The ending montage shows Ray and
Scarlett flying and presumably fighting
in World War I with Eddie as a mind
behind or involved in it.

13. 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.

14. 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!

15. Steampunk Theory
 Steampunk 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.

16. Steampunk Theory

17. Steampunk Theory
 Also 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.

18. Steampunk in Steamboy
 Eddie’s body improvements
 The ―Steam Castle‖
 The setting
 Plot and dialogue

19. Steampunk in Steamboy
 Steampunk believes in complete
comprehension of
morality, humanity, and technology
 Lloyd is Humanity’s agent
 Eddie is Technology’s agent
 Ray gains complete comprehension
by learning of both and making the
moral decision for himself.

20. 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.

21. Cultural & Historical Aspects:
War
 The first Great
Exhibition that was
held in London was
a secret way to sell
weapons to
Britain’s enemies

22. 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

23. Cultural and Historical Aspects:
Perspective
 Perspectives between father and son
 Country and citizens
 War and peace
 Science and the soul
 All perspectives are portrayed as having difficulty
bridging together and finding common ground

24. 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

25. Katsuhiro Otomo Interview:
Themes
Click picture for video

26. 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

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. Picture Sources
 Fatimon. ―Steamboy.‖ 2012. JPEG  Lucy Who.com. JPEG file.
file.  Bilder, Weitere. Mechanical Womb
 Chung, Carol T. 2005. JPEG file. with Clockwork Fetus. 2009.
 Visocki Wordpress. 2005. JPEG JPEG file.
file.  Anime—Latino Blogspot. 2008.
 Zerochan.net. 2005. JPEG file. JPEG file.
 Kepster.com. 2004. JPEG file.  Gaia Forum. 2007. JPEG file.
 Animemvc.com. 2004. JPEG file.  IGN FilmForce. 2005. JPEG file.
 Bynum, Aaron H. 2005. JPEG file.  Ea-wannabe.com. JPEG file.
 HeroGoHome.com. 2011. JPEG  Douglass Jr., Todd. 2005. JPEG
file. file.
 Cgnauta Blogspot. 2009. JPEG  Amazon.com. 2004. JPEG file.
file.  Mod the sims.info. 2005. JPEG
 Kao, Larry. 2005. JPEG file. file.
 Langston. Tom. 2011. JPEG file.  Animelovers411 Wordpress. 2010.
JPEG file.
 Imfdb.org. JPEG file.
 Fan-service.org. 2006. JPEG file.
 IMDb.com. 2004. JPEG file.
 Midnighteye.com. 2006. JPEG
file.