Steampunk in Anime
Got me thinking a bit just, about whether or not Fullmetal Alchemist is actually a steampunk-anime or not. For sure there are elements in it that points to it - like the Alaric Brother's individual armors, the militarian aspect of uniforms and period (the above image is from ~fantasysangel via dA) but as a full-fledged steampunk-anime? Hardly as evocative as, say; Katsuhiro Otomo's 'Steamboy', or even Hayao Miyazaki's 'Howl's Moving Castle' - whose concept of retro-futurism is instead bursting with colors versus the dulled-palette of Western counterparts (but then again, they are "cartoons"?). Metropolis is one such example of a fully-colored-steampunk-aesthetic lighting the path:
[Above: Metropolis / Below: Steamboy]
But of course the titles mentioned above are obvious pop culture references, with pockets of steampunk-infused imagery in a gamut of animes. Nevertheless the concept of Steampunk + Anime is a delicious concept, even if not presented via media - check out these images off deviantART with a decidedly Japanese Anime-twist (Note: All images are clickable to view original artworks on their respective dA-pages)