Akira Creator Katsuhiro Otomo Opens New Animation Studio Oval Gear
The launch of Oval Gear ends seven years of silence on Otomo's feature animation plans and suggests the long-dormant Orbital Era project is finally moving forward.
Reporting from 1 sources: Cartoon Brew.
Katsuhiro Otomo, creator of Akira, launched a new Tokyo-based animation studio called Oval Gear. The studio is already producing its first feature film. The announcement is the first official word on Otomo's projects since the 2019 reveal of the sci-fi film Orbital Era, which may now be in production at Oval Gear.
Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of the landmark 1988 film Akira, has founded a new animation studio in Tokyo called Oval Gear. The studio went public this week with a website and job postings, and confirmed that a first feature is already in production. Otomo is listed as founder and will oversee creative direction.
The Oval Gear website features the main character from Orbital Era, a sci-fi feature first announced in 2019 in collaboration with Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), alongside a new version of Akira. Neither Otomo nor the studio has formally confirmed that Orbital Era is the title in production, but the imagery strongly suggests the project is alive after seven years of silence.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.