New Fixations: Katsuhiro Otomo's Early Harmagedon Settei

(A few of Katsuhiro Otomo's earliest hand sketched then xeroxed settei for the main cast of Harmagedon (1983), many of which are excluded in this early draft from mid 1982. Source)

Harmagedon holds a special place in my heart now after turning to it during a particularly difficult time in my life; I first watched it sometime around late 2021, though on the onset, it was more of an exploratory journey to see what Madhouse was up to at the time. I'd heard a lot about it in conjunction with The Dagger of Kamui (more Kadokawa visual goodness), so following the same train of thought wasn't too difficult. I'd watched Rintaro's hand elsewhere with the theatrical releases of Captain Harlock's 1978 film (if you could call it that) alongside Galaxy Express 999 and Toward the Terra. However, another difficult time cropped up, and in the cold of my space, I bundled up and watched Harmagedon passively. Naturally, a new hyperfixation has cropped up, and I find myself right back in the hands of Otomo's beautifully, resoundingly executed artwork. If I buy every book I can find of a series or film for my shelf, that says all you need to know.

I've long been an Otomo fan on the basis of childhood enjoyment of manga - Akira was the first serious manga I read from front to back over and over again in my local comic book shop. Crouched on a dingy carpeted floor, I poured over Akira after seeing it mentioned in the Animatrix as an important point of departure for the crew behind it - Akira's 80s screenings in colleges around America struck a chord, and til this date, its beyond iconic even by my standards - an easy top 5. Otomo's other works, such as Steam Boy and his various short films, while known in my own lexicon of visual energy, weren't and still aren't as recounted upon. I don't pull from this visually for my own illustration purposes nor do I really seem that drawn to them as a staple. However, Harmagedon's depiction of espers, psionics and cyborgs of all things hit a very strong, much needed nerve once again, and I'm simply still so overwhelmed digging into the rather unexplained, mysterious lore behind it. 

Harmagedon, although a very poorly executed film that leaves much to be desired, is beyond being a visual feast. The aptly unique Madhouse style is undeniable, and in a very tongue and cheek way, the money funneled into its advertising in its earliest inceptions was beyond anything I'd ever seen. The only promotional level of advertising that I felt could ever be an equivalent would have been akin to the Gundam compilation films, though outside of the realm of Sunrise and Studio II, Madhouse's visual language within Harmagedon is very much tied to Otomo's characters. 

The aspect of psionics and additional thematic elements within the film do, in fact, crop up in Akira later on, both in its manga and film adaptation. As I find, most great auteurs don't tend to let an idea die in its original inceptions, and it could be said the same for Otomo as well. Jo in particular mirrors the scared bravado of Tetsuo at times while also embodying Kaneda, depending on the scene, representing an average yet atypical Japanese teenager. Niceties aside, the uniqueness of his design lies in the fact that he is a realistic adaptation of Shotaro Ishinomori's original character(s) in general, spinning and creating something that was, quite frankly, unsettlingly refreshing. 

(Otomo scribbles away a wayward face for the humanoid visual of Genma on his earliest sketches.)

(The isopod-like form of Vega's starship mirrors dragon-like elements and additional pre-historic fish.)