Is progress for the sake of progress enough? Or should we make sure science serves the betterment of humanity? Steamboy has a clear answer in mind that feels right at home with other anti-war, pro-nature anime films like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and The Wind Rises. This dilemma at the center of the film is all about the role science and technology should have in society, which perfectly fits the steampunk genre's setting of the Industrial Revolution, yet is seldom explored in the genre. Steamboy remains one of the most expensive anime movies ever made. Steamboy is filled with blockbuster-style action, but it’s also thought-provoking in a way you only get in Japanese anime. The result is a film that feels accessible for audiences who may not be familiar with anime beyond the works of Studio Ghibli. The villains are clearly defined, the hero doesn't have any big flaws, the end goal is spelled out from the get-go, and the philosophical conundrum at the core of the film is simple enough to grasp, yet complex in its repercussions. Steamboy is more akin to the kind of blockbuster we get in the West, rather than most anime films that make it stateside. (There's also the fact that this is an original script rather than an adaptation of a 2000-page-long manga.) This steampunk adventure is far more straightforward than the gargantuan tale of Tetsuo and Kaneda. There's a sense of accessibility to Steamboy that Akira lacks at times. The steamball is the target of a sinister corporation that wants to use its power to make money and sell war machines - in the name of advancing science, of course. The film follows 19th-century boy inventor Ray Steam, who is entrusted with his grandfather's greatest invention, a 'steamball' capable of generating great power.

Steamboy anime revieswes