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
1
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
Merimee—Otomo'srepu ta-
and touched a nerve. Circulation began to rise. The new
rn 1
a
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
a
Young
Magazine. Young Magazine and two others have circulation of over
mics)
a
one
millior
Traditionally in Japan, a
comics series irstallmerts
first
appears
a
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
m
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
m
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
a
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
3
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
m
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
Kaneda—young,
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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bv|!
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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