Shuichi Kusamori METROPOLIS: PRODUCTION BACKGROUND

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Based on the manga by legendary Osamu Tezuka, written by Katsuhiro Otomo and directed by Rintaro, Metropolis (engl. title: Robotic Angel) combines traditional, paper-based animation with a digital workflow, employing this duality to express ongoing conflicts between humanity and technological progress. In the futuristic city of Metropolis, humans and robots coexist, but live in well-defined spaces.

The poster presents the establishing shot for Zone -1, the first underground level.

Shuichi Kusamori, the art director, conceived of the higher city – the realm of humans – as a largely rectangular and polygonal world, which could therefore be easily produced with 3D software. The preliminary sketches and layouts for this region were devised by Takashi Watabe, and were drawn with pencil on paper and subsequently worked out digitally. The lower part of the city is the realm of robots, a counter-world to the surface, and is softer and more organic in both its ambience and the quality of its surfaces. Kusamori took charge of these designs himself, executing the final production backgrounds in considerable detail. During this production, Kusamori developed the digital skills that he would later employ to great acclaim on Innocence (personal interview, June 2019).

Artist: Shuichi Kusamori

Print type: 7-color lithograph (offset) print

Paper: Magno Volume 200 g/m²

Format: 50 × 70 cm