Immediately, the story opens around a young man named Ray receiving a package from his grandfather. Then, villainous men show up to get this package and thus begins the adventure of constant running away. This package contains a “steam ball” which can perfectly store steam power under immense pressures. In this time, steam has become something like nuclear technology of today, and the science behind it runs everything. This created an incredible steampunk environment and atmosphere for the story. The escape scene Ray must go through just to keep this new invention away from the bad guys is both hilarious and edge-of-your-seat action. It goes from Ray escaping on an invention like a messed-up vibrating unicycle to an epic train scene being chased by this steam powered death tank. It all fits nicely at the start. Inevitably Ray gets caught and taken to where his father is. News flash, his father is bad and wants to use the steam ball to power a machine of mass destruction.
Steamboy has amazing artwork setting an amazing tone of how mankind relies solely off of machine technology. Unfortunately, because everything is in this Victorian-Era and steam oriented, this leads to the colour pallet of a grey sky in Germany during Fall. It means that the entire film is very dreary and bland. The voice acting across all languages from English to Japanese and even German, are outstanding at least. However, the characters are pretty one-dimensional for the most part. It’s not a flaw worth docking points, but the main female character in Scarlett is an odd one. She is the rich daughter of the O’Hara Foundation which wants to utilize the steam ball and sell the death machine to the highest bidder. Her character is the worst. Simply put, she is spoiled, selfish, and very naïve to the point where the viewer hopes something would shut her mouth. All the members of Ray’s family have their place, but really this anime film is about the adventure.
The film does not have much for depth other than a steampunk love story. It is one retro-futuristic invention after another with crazy action sequences taking up the majority of the movie. At one point, a third of the way through, we get steam powered armour suits murdering soldiers and these super robot soldiers roll their way through the defences. Moments like that make for either a fun action adventure, or a repetitive battle of pointless explosions depending on who is watching it. Anime fans will likely see the first.
In the end, Steamboy and its incredible production value does not bring the most in depth story or characters. However, the fun steam action and over-the-top villainous attitudes do not disappoint. Steamboy is a fun anime movie for those action junkies out there.
