Steamboy
Overview
 
is a 2004 Japanese animated steampunk film, produced by Sunrise
Sunrise (company)
is a Japanese animation studio and production enterprise. It is a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. Its former name was Nippon Sunrise, and prior to that, Sunrise Studios...

, and directed and co-written by Katsuhiro Otomo
Katsuhiro Otomo
is a Japanese comic book creator, screenwriter and film director. He is best known as the creator of the manga Akira and its animated film adaptation. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the 2006 feature film adaptation of the manga Mushishi.-Biography:Katsuhiro Otomo was...

, his second major anime release, following Akira
Akira (film)
is a 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, and starring the voices of Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama and Taro Ishida. The screenplay is based on Otomo's manga Akira....

. The film was released in Japan on July 17, 2004. Steamboy is the most expensive full length Japanese animated movie made to date. Additionally, the film was in production for ten years and utilized more than 180,000 drawings and 440 CG cuts.
In 1863, where an alternate
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...

 nineteenth century Europe has made tremendous strides in steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...

-themed technologies, scientist Lloyd Steam and his son Edward have succeeded, after a lengthy expedition, in discovering a pure mineral water.
Quotations

Edward: Your grandfather and I were searching for a stable liquid with exceptional purity that was the key to achieving extreme pressure. Three years ago we found it in Iceland [ . . . ] In 1863 our effort broke through at last. We succeeded in containing the steam in a new way. That in extreme densities and extreme pressures.

Ray: Extreme densities and extreme pressures . . . Look that!

Scarlet: Must you gawk like that? This is nothing compared to Niagara falls.

Ray: That ball!

Edward: That's it, Ray. It's the first steamball we created. There are three of them now. We built them in Ireland and Alaska. Together they provide all the power of every machinery in this castle.

Ray: Steamball . . .

Edward: There have long been steam engines that is capable of high output. But all of them require enormous boilers and numerous cylinders and every one of them absorbs energy. And in every step the system loses its power that severely limited. But here lays above you, Ray, this system loses almost nothing from the source to function. And the function is almost without limiting.

Scarlet: All created with my family's money of course.

Edward: You know what this means, Ray? Can you imagine it? We mortals can take to the skies. The heavens themselves will be ours. Skies, depth of oceans, places mankind have [ . . . ] we can go there [ . . . ]

Scarlet: Take to the sky indeed. I already have two hot air balloons with my name on the sides, and my grandfather has a zepplin. [ . . . .]

 
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