Katsuhiro Otomo

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, and film director born on April 14, 1954, in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture. He moved to Tokyo after graduating high school in 1973 and published his first work that same year, a manga adaptation of Prosper Merimee's Mateo Falcone.

Otomo rose to prominence as a leading figure of manga's New Wave movement in the 1970s. He is best known as the creator of Akira, which was serialized from 1982 to 1990 across over 2,000 pages. He wrote and directed the 1988 animated film adaptation, which became one of the most influential anime films worldwide and helped popularize Japanese animation in Western markets.

Otomo was inducted into the Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2012, only the fourth manga artist to receive the honor. He was decorated as a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2005, promoted to Officier in 2014, and received Japan's Purple Medal of Honor in 2013.