IKATSUHIROOTDMOI

Chapter

^BY KATSUHIRO OTOMO

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with fantasy and science-

AKIRA

themes, many with

fiction

&
OTOMO

slice-of-tife

drama;

contemporary

had a

all

visual spirit

and rhythm that reflected

Dtomo's feelings

new

for

wave cinema and modern \an

With the publication

Domu in

1970, Japan's comic

Inmagazine

industry

was

two
One was

drvided roughly into

types d[ publications.
lor luvenile readers,

upon a

between two

conflict

modern day high

apartment complex, an old
a

in

children jp to middle teens.

rise

man and young

an adjil

230

which centers

The other was

lor

of

Otomo enjoyed

9B3,

page comic
dwellers

from

his greatest success. This

each

girl,

audience consisting mainly ol

possessing deadly psychic

young salaried workers.

Kodansha, Ltd., one of the

and went on

powers became a

country's largest publishers,

lelt that

there

was an

this prize

awarded

;tu dents,

the

in film,

lashion,

forms of the arts

all

music,

Voung Magazine, a 300

was designed

lage biweekly,

audience. But

imagination of a

new

difficult.

rli St

reader-

For

two
it

m teres t of

consider doing an even larger

scale science -fiction story.

liked the new

direction it was taking, Young
Magazine was where Otomo

work, which,

would be

this

when

a six

Reader reaction

Since the publication of his

work

in

major

complete,

volume graphic

novel.

Katsuhiro

Otomo.
first

Fireball- dealing

computer theme, led Otomo to

chose to present

Young Magazine

-writer

be completed

ecause he

struggled. During this time,

attracted the

series.

to

The story was Akira. And

finding exactly the right

ship proved

still

with a human versus mega-

and entertainment.

material to capture the

years

for

Domu and
work

reactions to an earlier

new trends

developing

tor this potential

Grand Pnx

had only been

to novels]

The success of

a readership

.ensitivB to

best seller

win Japan

to

science-fiction

story of the year (previously

mter-

mediate group being missed:

high school and college

1973 adapting
Mateo

the short novel

to

the

first

25 page segment of the series

to appear m Voung Magazine
was overwhelming. The

Falcone by Prosper

material broke with tradition

MerimeeOtomo'srepu ta-

and touched a nerve. Circulation began to rise. The new

rn
1

had steadily grown, based

number

of unique

(20 to 3D pages

in

aed

length rather

than the hundreds, sometimes

thousands, that an ongoing

audience had been found

Today there are about half

dozen

titles like

Some

of these dealt

Young

Magazine. Young Magazine

and two others have
circulation of over

mics)

one

millior

Traditionally in Japan, a

comics series
irstallmerts

first

appears

little bit

larger but

similar in size to an

closer

and

width of one of ojr comic

title

film

Japanese lettering
was used. The formal and
style grew out of Otomo's own

also been very

the production of

ofAkirBsincethis
time that

tiis

appeared

in

the

IS

first

work has
the United States

translation

time

the cover

English; no

in

the English language version

in

and author's

name appeared on

director,

and

Akira that has been playing

Olomo has

books] and contained 360

pages. The

of

involved

dimension to the magazine

size (about the height

for clients

on an animated

the United States this year.

toe,

was n a format

edition

a designer of

scenarist, designer,
illustrator

Akira broke with tredition.

The first Japanese book
in

is

Honda, and acted as

still

American

paperback book. Here

addition to his

TV commercials

such as Suntory, Canon, and

a format thai

in

Otomo.

comics work

then

is

Usually this waiild he about

is

that's not really the

When

has been

pjblislied, the series

cnllecled into a book ediiion

240 pages and

And

ir

weekly or

in

biweekly magaiine.
sufficient material

and also the

first

has appeared com-

It

own

pletely in color His

IVIASH ROOIVI Co.,

studio,

Ltd., prepares the adjusted

we

artwork from which

concept ot making the book

reproduce (Japanese comrcs

ediiion similar in feeling to

are onginally done to read

American comics Book

from right to

designer Akira Saito worked

closely with

Olomo

achieve

to

this goal. Initial fears

from

wisdom

over the

began

pour

to

of the design

up

to

nearly 300,000 copies. The

first

book edition

became

of

Duffy and furnishing color

guides to Steve Oliff,

Ahifa

was

number one
in

September

of

1984. Three other volumes

have come out each year since

then. All have had the
sort of

phenomenal

The

fifth

and

will

volume

is

shortlysee

print runs

now

at

same

reception.

complete,
print.

With

about half a

in

on the proieci.
all

pfiases

the production of his work

is

certainly one of the factors in

making Akira the phenomenon that

readers.

it

was

for

Japanese

The other factors are

surely the artistry and excite-

ment

that

is

brought to the

telling of the story.

Now,

thanks to Katsuliiro

million copies each, the

who

his personal choice for

colorist

This concern lor

was

on the scnpt adaptation by Jo

bestseller.

That

their

and Tokyo with

work, Otomo sees

development, providing notes

beaSO.DOO

print run eventually shot

New York
whom we

the material at each stage of

What was

in.

and

effects are designed for

Through Kodansha's editors

and packaging of the book

faded as advance orders
originally slated to

left

dialogue balloons and sound

lettering that reads veriicallyl.

Kodansha's Sales Division

Otomo

completed saga of Akira

will

and Kodansh^ LM, American

have a

fialf

readers can at long last share

total of

two and a

million copies in print.

in

that

phenomenon

Ihe Third Worid War began

bomb

over Japan. Thirty-eigiii years

later,

the world

is

in

1992 with the explosion of a

committed to defying aiithority nearly runs down a

He

is

sweep Kareda

secret forces. At the center of this struggle

the recovering weid.

child

A child with powers beyond

the harbinger of deadly events that

Someone

is

or something

new type

at last recovering. Bui in Meo-Tol(yo. near

grtiund zero of the original desttuctioi, a strange encounter takes place,

wizened face of an old man,

with

Kanedayoung,

his motorcycle,

physical science.

The

restiess,

A child with the

child is

Number 26.

a straggle between powerful and

into

something feared and prized for the potential

known

only as

..

AKIRA.

lo

shake

Thb 5Cdh produced

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BY

KATSUHIRO

7
BOOK ONE

OTOMO

This

is

number
in

it-m

of

one thousand

five

hundred

the limited hardcover edition of

KATSUHIflO OTOMO'S AKIRA: BOOK ONE

^BYKATSUHIROOTOMO

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