12/05/2026
Katsuhiro Otomo opens his own animation studio: Oval Gear
The week starts with some important news: Akira's father, Katsuhiro Otomo, opens his own animation studio.
Oval Gear is the name of the Tokyo-based animation studio that the author, mangaka and director Katsuhiro Otomo inaugurated after his films Akira (1988) and SteamBoy (2004), and some collaborations.
The studio was founded for two purposes: to pass on to the new generation the filmmaking methods and authorial sensibility Katsuhiro Ōtomo has cultivated over decades, and to produce new animated works for global release, this is the first statement.
There are no indications on the works the studios are working on but it is very likely that the first one is Orbital Era, announced at Anime Expo in 2019 [news] in collaboration with Sunrise, a rumor confirmed by the first image released with the news (at the top of the article), next to the image of the work released over six years ago:
New studios are currently hiring animators and production staff.
With Otomo's average development time, news is expected within the next few years.
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