Inspired by an earlier Manga tribute to Fritz Lang’s master piece, AKIRA director Kastuhiro wrote a screenplay. The resulting film, which took 5 years to complete, mixes distinctive Tezuka-styled, cel animated characters with digitally created backgrounds to create a perfectly suited retro-futurism. Metropolis is a city populated by humans and robots living in strict segregation. A beautiful robot has been designed to rule over all, but doesn’t realise that she is a robot, let alone so powerful. ‘The new milestone in anime… It has beauty, power, mystery, and above all, heart.’ James Cameron, director of TITANIC