Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Steamboy Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 3, 2019

Quick: name an anime by Katsuhiro Otomo focusing on a young male with special abilities living in a world where technology has run amok. This is admittedly arguably a trick question of sorts, since Otomo’s legendary Akira takes place in what was at the time of the film’s release the “future” of 2019 (eegads!), with a story that in some ways plays (as I mentioned in our Akira Blu-ray review) kind of like the flip side to the Star Child in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. Over a decade and a half after Otomo reshaped anime in his own image (in a manner of speaking) with Akira, Otomo introduced the world to Steamboy, though in this case the setting was in (a fictionalized version of) the 19th century, and the “technology” on display was the charmingly quaint concept of steam power. For whatever reason Steamboy didn’t set global audiences’ hearts on fire the same way that Akira did, but for this reviewer at least it’s always been a hugely enjoyable film if taken on its own distinctive merits. Steamboy took over a decade of production time to complete, and some may feel (as I do) that it is at least the equal of, and arguably superior to, Akira in the visual allure department, albeit in a largely different style that kind of ironically is more "modern" looking than Akira's "old school" hand painted cel appearance.

Murphy’s Law seems to be running rampant in the two vignettes that open Steamboy. Relationships aren’t really clearly detailed, but the first sequence shows an elderly man and a younger man who appears to be his son arguing over a shutdown of a huge steam system which is threatening to explode, an argument that ultimately takes too long so that there is indeed a huge eruption, supposedly resulting in at least one death. The story then segues to another calamity in the making involving out of control machinery being powered by heated water, though at least in this case we are more properly introduced to a kid who helps resolve the issue, a little boy named Ray (voiced by Anne Suzuki in the original Japanese version, and Anna Paquin in the English dub also included on this Blu-ray release). Perhaps unsurprisingly, it ultimately becomes evident that Ray is the scion of Edward (voiced by Alfred Molina in the English language version), the son of the elderly man seen in the first scene, and therefore the old man, Lloyd Steam (voiced by Patrick Stewart in the English language version), is Ray's grandfather.

Otomo is probably unapologetically revisiting some of the subtext that informs Akira, including the potential threats of technology, something that may strike some as rather prescient, given some concerns about AI and robots that are even making their way into our current Presidential election style. That said, there may be more of a soap operatic aspect to Steamboy, since the dysfunctions detailed between Edward and Lloyd in the opening scene turn out to lead to outright melodrama, melodrama that involves the hoary trope of a megalomaniac on a quest for “world domination”.

A sidebar series of adventures involves a rival organization, one which ultimately introduces Ray to his supposed love interest (despite their young ages), an uppity girl named Scarlett O’Hara St. Jones. There may in fact be too many villains in this piece, something that can tend to fray momentum since Otomo likes to ping pong back and forth between various elements. Still, this is often an audaciously beautiful film that is full of kind of wondrous visions that combine Otomo’s “futurism” (as evidenced in Akira) with a really charming if downright whimsical account of 19th century Europe.

Steamboy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Steamboy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.79:1. This was an object lesson in not relying solely on my memory about how things look, for I was originally struck by how brown and kind of hazy a lot of this transfer looked, but after doing a major archaeological excavation and finding my old Sony DVD of this title, both palette and clarity looked pretty much the same on that release as well. That said, overall densities and basic textures struck me as a bit "thicker" or deeper looking on this Blu-ray version, though to my eyes contrast could have been improved here and struck me as at least a bit better looking on the old DVD. The blend of CGI and traditional animation works quite well here, bolstered by a nicely organic appearance throughout this presentation. When the palette warms in several outdoor scenes, things can pop quite winningly, including elements like Scarlett's appropriately bright red dress, or even the sunny blue skies that provide a backdrop for several scenes. The "masking" aspects of several stream strewn scenes is arguably increased here, though I found the resolution of the steam to look surprisingly real even with the increased resolution of the Blu-ray. While not as pronounced as the "windowboxing" seen in Umbrella's release of Tokyo Godfathers, if you look closely at the screenshots accompanying this review, you can see thin black borders.

Note: While "officially" a Region B release, this played fine in all of my Region A players and on my PC drive.

Steamboy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Steamboy features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes in both Japanese and English which are for all intents and purposes interchangeable save for the obvious differences in the voice work. I actually enjoy the voice characterizations in both languages, something that tends not to always be the case with me, and so my suggestion is that fans sample both to see what they think. There's fun surround activity in both tracks, including hissing steam clearly panning all over the place, and lots of other energetic effects dotting discrete channels throughout the presentation. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly in both languages, with no problems of any kind to report.

Note: My sons often joke that their "geezer" Dad tends to "struggle with technology", though Blu-ray discs are not typically among my challenges. That said, I simply could not figure out any way to navigate the Play menu on this disc, which brings up a Submenu showing the two language choices and whether to include Subtitles. The English track is listed below the Japanese track (which is the default selection) on this Submenu, and so I intuitively hit the "down" button on my remote to try to access it, but that actually closed the Submenu. I tried any number of other buttons but couldn't get the selection to budge from the pre-selected Japanese audio track, let alone get "down" to the Subtitles choice (which is listed beneath the English language option). All of the audio and subtitle choices are available via the dedicated remote buttons for Audio and Subtitles once the film has begun.

Steamboy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Katsuhiro Otomo (1080i; 5:24) offers some background production information. In Japanese with English voiceover.


• Multiscreen Landscape Study (1080i; 19:14) was originally shown as a three screen presentation at a Steamboy exhibition. Spoken elements in Japanese with English subtitles.


• Re-Voicing Steamboy (1080i; 18:48) features interview with some of the English language voice cast, including Anna Paquin, Alfred Molina and Patrick Stewart.


• Voyage of Steamboy (1080i; 34:29) is an interesting making of featurette that also gets into some of the "culture" Otomi promoted for this production. In Japanese with English subtitles.


• The Adventure Continues (1080i; 3:22) is what would be called a "Clean Closing Credits" supplement on a television series anime, i.e., it's the closing sequence without any credit text overlay.


• Production Gallery (1080i; 5:52)


• Animation Onion Skins (1080i; 4:39) shows the rendering process through several stages of some sequences.

Steamboy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I've always been kind of surprised that Steamboy didn't register more strongly with audiences when it was released. It does have some overly hyped up elements which may detract from its underlying tale of "family issues" and the dangers of technology, but it has a rather sweet core, one that's actually quite different from the arguably more acerbic Akira. Umbrella's release offers solid technical merits and retains the supplements from the (US) DVD. Recommended.