When thinking of Japanese illustration, surely the last movie anyone would think of would be Robocop. Sure the dystopian setting, the integration of technology into everyday life, and the use of androids in law enforcement are thematically similar to Ghost in the Shell. However, the series wouldn’t be available to the West until the mid-90s. Instead, the true inspiration for Robocop comes from a more unexpected place and finally managed to be revealed thanks to Netflix’s docu-series, The Movies That Made Us.
While the season three episode goes over plenty of issues that plagued the productions of many a soon-to-be cult classic of the 80s, such as tensions between cast and crew and monetary issues, one of the biggest issues had to do with the movie’s costuming, especially the costume of the titular Robocop. Pre-production on the suit went through several major changes, including rejecting costume designs from Chris Walen (The Fly), and the complete scrapping and rebooting of Rob Bottin’s (The Thing) initial design work.
Eventually, concept artist Miles Teves came to his final design inspiration, and produced this art book to assist:
Hajime Sorayama is a prolific artist known far and wide for his illustrations of erotic robot art, constantly blurring the lines between flesh and metal, evocative sensuality, and transcendent art. His art and expertise have been commissioned countless times over the years, leading to brand collaborations with everyone from Nike to Disney to Penthouse. The volume of Sexy Robot used by Teves was one of Sorayama’s first art book releases in 1983 and would become the first of many in the Sexy Robot illustration series. Sorayama continues to create, even at the age of 75, having no less than three separate solo exhibitions in 2021 alone.
Teves took his design to Rob Bottin and the rest, as they say, was history.
With the design completed, the production of the film was finally on. While that wasn’t the end of the production or the suit’s problems, the work that it took to get there produced one of the most memorable cult classics of all time.
Source: The Movies That Made Us, Hajime Sorayama Official Website
