“Metropolis is the new milestone in anime. It has beauty, power, mystery, and above all... heart.” James Cameron’s praise is no exaggeration. Released in 2001, Metropolis is a collaboration spanning three generations of Japanese animation masters: based on Tezuka Osamu’s 1949 manga of the same name, directed by Rintaro of Galaxy Express 999, and written by Otomo Katsuhiro of Akira. In a vast metropolis where humans and robots are divided by class, a boy named Kenichi meets Tima, a robot girl who has lost her memory. As Tima is revealed to hold the key to the city’s fate, the towering Ziggurat hurtles toward catastrophic collapse. 5 years in the making and backed by one of the largest budgets in Japanese animation at the time, the film sets Tezuka’s signature rounded characters against breathtaking digitally rendered cityscapes, creating a striking dialogue between animation’s past and present. The sight of the city collapsing to the sound of Ray Charles’s ‘I Can′t Stop Loving You’ is unforgettable. True to Cameron’s praise, the film offers a visual experience that will stay with audiences forever.
Born in Tokyo in 1941. He began his career at Toei Animation before moving to Mushi Production, where he served as series director on Kimba the White Lion and helped establish the production system for early television animation. After leaving the company, he worked as a freelance director and co-founded the animation studio Madhouse. His major directorial works include Space Pirate Captain Harlock (1978), Galaxy Express 999 (1979), The Dagger of Kamui (1985), and Metropolis, based on Osamu Tezuka’s manga of the same name and written for the screen by Katsuhiro Otomo.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
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MetropolisBusan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31Special Program in Focus: Japanese Animation Special: Masterpieces of Madness, Exhilarating Prospects 12+1
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