While Otomo worked on other projects including directing a segment of 'Memories' (1995) and scripting the animated film adaptation of 'Tezuka Osamu's Metropolis' (2001), there was one project that the director was working on for a decade, and that was 'Steamboy', which was on and off in production from 1994.

The production was extremely time consuming but the film was a massive hit around the world becoming one of the most influential works of all time. Adapting his apocalyptic near future set comic for the screen, it was unlike any other Japanese animated film seen up to that point, with the amount of detail seen in character designs, mechanical designs down to the inner workings, plus having voice actors record dialogue before final animation - a technique even now rarely used in Japan. Filmmaker and animator Katsuhiro Otomo previously made a revolutionary work with his feature length debut 'Akira' in 1987. It certainly could be a counterpart to the disappointing 1999 live action film 'Wild Wild West' with its ideas and setting, but the animated 'Steamboy' does take things further.

Taking place in the late 1800s during the industrial revolution, the world depicted in 'Steamboy' is partially an alternate reality of sorts, both focusing on the realities of the period from the designs of architecture and fashion, but slightly increasing the scope of the technological revolution. As men from the foundation come after the package, it is up to Ray to keep the ball secure and deliver it to the rightful person. But one day a package arrives that is sent by the grandfather - a mysterious black ball with a note specifying that it should not go into the wrong hands, especially the people of the O'Hara Foundation, and be delivered to Robert Stevenson (played by Kiyoshi Kodama in Japanese/ Oliver Cotton in English). While the father and grandfather are working in America experimenting in the power of encapsulated steam, Ray lives with his mother (played by Keiko Aizawa in Japanese/ Kim Thomson in English) while working at a local factory making ends meet. Ray Steam (played by Anne Suzuki in Japanese/ Anna Pacquin in English) is a young boy in Manchester who longs to become an inventor through science running in the footsteps of his father Eddi (played by Masane Tsukayama in Japanese/ Alfred Molina in English) and grandfather Lloyd (played by Katsuo Nakamura in Japanese/ Patrick Stewart in English).

Steamboy anime dubbed