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●ILLUSTRATION● AKIRA poster for soundtrack release



Katsuhiro Otomo drew this illustration for the promotional poster for the release of AKIRA's soundtrack.

The illustration is collected in the books:
●AKIRA CLUB [page 28]
●POSTERS OTOMO KATSUHIRO × GRAPHIC DESIGN [page 27]
Ad by AA&NN Ltd.

●CD● Symphonic Suite AKIRA



Victor Enterteinment has released the Soundtrack of Katsuhiro Otomo's last animation movie: AKIRA. Composed by Shoji Yamashiro (山城 祥二) and perormed by Geinoh Yamashirogumi (芸能山城組).

CD DETAILS
Label: Victor Entertainment (ビクターエンタテインメント)
Release date: 1988-VII-27
Duration: 69 min
Retail price: ￥3,200 
Catalogue number: VDR-1532 

AVAILABILITY
Amazon JP: http://amzn.to/1hVknX2
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1IEGhh9
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/1DAa9Ii
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1ynyWza
Amazon DE: http://amzn.to/1CLKiII
Amazon FR: http://amzn.to/1CGuCGe
Amazon IT: https://amzn.to/2XI85Ly
Amazon ES: https://amzn.to/32jHyaV

TRACK LIST
01. KANEDA (3:10)
02. BATTLE AGAINST CROWN (3:36)
03. WINDS OVER THE NEO-TOKYO (2:48)
04. TETSUO (10:18)
05. DOLLS' POLYPHONY (2:55)
06. SHOHMYOH (10:11)
07. MUTATION (4:49)
08. EXODUS FROM THE UNDERGROUND FORTRESS (3:18)
09. ILLUSION (13:56)
10. REQUIEM (14:26)


1994 JAPANESE re-release
CD DETAILS
Label: Victor Entertainment (ビクターエンタテインメント)
Release date: 1994-X-21
Duration: 69 min
Retail price: ￥2,300
Catalogue number: VICL-23092

 AVAILABILITY
Amazon JP: http://amzn.to/KjCoDf
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1a1F95F
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/JuMqko
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1cmztTp
Amazon DE: http://amzn.to/1k8FPfL
Amazon FR: http://amzn.to/19BIome
Amazon IT: http://amzn.to/1lAIAlm
Amazon ES: http://amzn.to/19BIsSU


2001 US EDITION ● AKIRA Original Soundtrack
CD DETAILS
Label: ANIMEtrax
Release date: 2001-VII-23
Duration: 69 min
Retail price: $15
Catalogue number: AT9305

 AVAILABILITY
Amazon JP: http://amzn.to/1iuwSM9
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1gnT6MF
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/1eqR3FG
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1yixT3o
Amazon DE: http://amzn.to/1lAHczj
Amazon FR: http://amzn.to/JKc6ci
Amazon IT: http://amzn.to/1CGux5F
Amazon ES: http://amzn.to/1ynyOjr


2004 US EDITION ● AKIRA Symphonic Suite
CD DETAILS
Label: Geneon Pioneer
Release date: 2004-VIII-17
Duration: 69 min
Retail price: $15
Catalogue number: 5240-2

 AVAILABILITY
Amazon JP: http://amzn.to/1O50jj9
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1eWfO0W
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/1lAI9rx
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1lAHwy5
Amazon DE: http://amzn.to/1k8FmKH
Amazon FR: http://amzn.to/19BI9rl
Amazon IT:  https://amzn.to/2NQ0VW8
Amazon ES: http://amzn.to/1k8F3iW


UK EDITION ● AKIRA ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK
CD DETAILS
Label: Demon Record
Release date: 1994-III-10
Duration: 69 min
Retail price: -
Catalogue number: DSCD6

 AVAILABILITY
Amazon JP: http://amzn.to/1gnRGSe
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/JKbbIN
Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/1eWe9bD
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1lAFM7S
Amazon DE: http://amzn.to/1cYVk60
Amazon FR: http://amzn.to/1cmxqyP
Amazon IT: http://amzn.to/1cYVJ8M
Amazon ES: http://amzn.to/1cmxrma

Ad by AA&NN Ltd.

●LP● Symphonic Suite AKIRA



Invitation has released the Soundtrack of Katsuhiro Otomo's last animation movie: AKIRA. Composed by Shoji Yamashiro (山城 祥二) and perormed by Geinoh Yamashirogumi (芸能山城組).

LP DETAILS
Label: Invitation 
Release date: 1988-VII-27
Format: Vinyl | LP | stereo | 33 1/3
Duration:-
Reatil price:-
Catalogue number: VIH-28339

TRACK LIST
A1 - Kaneda 
A2 - Tetsuo 
A3 - Ohjifuchi 
B1 - Exodus From The Underground Fortress 
B2 - Requiem

CD EDITION
●Symphonic Suite AKIRA

Ad by AA&NN Ltd.

●VHS● AKIRA PRODUCTION REPORT Ōtomo katsuhiro no sekai to eiga 'AKIRA' (大友克洋の世界と映画「アキラ」)


Documentary about the making of AKIRA the last animation project by Katsuhiro Otomo.

VHS DETAILS
Publisher: Asmik (アスミック)
Release date: 1988-VII-25
Audio: Japanese
Run time: 50 min
Retail price: ¥10,000
Catalogue number: A10H-0366

COLLECTED IN
●AKIRA DVD SPECIAL EDITION

●LASER DISC● AKIRA PRODUCTION REPORT Ōtomo katsuhiro no sekai to eiga 'AKIRA' (大友克洋の世界と映画「アキラ」)



Documentary about the making of AKIRA the last animation project by Katsuhiro Otomo.

LD DETAILS
Publisher: Laser Disc Corp.
Release date: 1988-VII-25
Format: NTSC | CLV | 1.33:1
Audio: Japanese Stereo Digital & Analog
Subtitles: none
Duration: 50 min
Retail price: ¥4,800
Catalogue number: SF048-1465

AVAILABILITY
Amazon JP:-
Amazon US:-
Amazon CA:-
Amazon UK:-
Amazon DE:-
Amazon FR:-
Amazon IT:-
Amazon ES:-
COLLECTED IN
●AKIRA DVD SPECIAL EDITION
●AKIRA Blu-ray 30th Anniversary Edition

●BOOK● HOT-DOG PRESS SPECIAL EDITION AKIRA WORLD





This is a HOT-DOG PRESS / YOUNG MAGAZINE SPECIAL EDITION release about Katsuhiro Otomo's AKIRA animation film that focuses on everything related to the Making of the film.

MAGAZINE DETAILS
Publisher: Kodansha (講談社) HOT-DOG PRESS 
Release date: 1988-VII-24
Language: Japanese
Number of pages: 146
Size:-
Retail price: ¥550

●MAGAZINE● YOUNG MAGAZINE No.14


Katsuhiro otomo's first long feature animation film, AKIRA was recently released theatrically in Japan and this week's Young Magazine (ヤングマガジン) No.14, where the seminal manga has been serializing all this years has an special inside look to the film.

●ANIMATION FILM● AKIRA (アキラ)



Today it was released in Japanese theaters AKIRA the first full feature leght animation movie directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. AKIRA is based on the homonym manga by Otomo that is beeing published in Kodansha's Young Magazine since December 1982.


MAIN FILM CREDITS
Directed by
Katsuhiro Otomo (大友 克洋)

Script:
Izô Hashimoto (橋本 以蔵)
Katsuhiro Otomo (大友 克洋)

Music:
Geinoh Yamashirogumi

Original Music:
Shoji Yamashiro

Original Manga:
Katsuhiro Otomo (大友 克洋)

Character Design:
Takashi Nakamura (なかむら たかし)

Art Director: 
Toshiharu Mizutani (水谷 利春)

Art:
Hiroshi Ohno (大野 広司)
Kazuo Ebisawa (海老沢 一男)
Yuji Ikehata (池畑 祐治)

Animation Director:
Hiroaki Sato (佐藤 博暉)
Takashi Nakamura (なかむら たかし)
Yoshio Takeuchi (竹内 啓雄)

Director of Photography: 
Katsuji Misawa (三沢 勝治)

Assistant Chief Animator: 
Koji Morimoto (森本 晃司)

●VHS● AKIRA VIDEO CLIP PLUS TICKET



AKIRA VIDEO CLIP PLUS TICKET is a kit that includes a 6 minutes VHS and a ticket for the film AKIRA that was released in the Japanese theaters on July 16, 1988.

VHS DETAILS
Publisher: Kodansha and Laser Disc Co.Ltd. (講談社 & LD はレーザーディスク株式会社)
Release date: 1988-VII-16
Language: Japanese
Running time: 6 min
Retail price: ¥1200 + ¥800 (ticket + VHS)
Catalogue number: -

●BOOK● AKIRA E-KONTE 1 (アキラ 絵コンテ集 1)






This first volume of AKIRA storyboards covers the continuity of the animation film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. The film was divided in four parts during the production, A-B-C-D. Here the relation between cuts and parts contained in this book.

●A Part: Cut1 ～ Cut953 -- 296 pages
●B Part 1: Cut954 ～ Cut1382 -- 140 pages


BOOK DETAILS
Publisher: Kodansha (講談社)
Release date: 1988-VII-16
Language: Japanese
Number of pages: 448
Size: 26 x 18.6 x 3.4 cm (B5)
ISBN-10: 4063008118
ISBN-13: 978-4063008111


AVAILABILITY


OTHER EDITIONS
●Both volumes were merged in one single smaller sized book that came in the box of AKIRA DVD Special Edition released by BANDAI in 2001.

●LASER DISC● AKIRA VIDEO CLIP PLUS TICKET


AKIRA VIDEO CLIP PLUS TICKET is a kit that includes a 6 minutes Laser Disc and a ticket for the film AKIRA that was released in the Japanese theaters on July 16, 1988.

LD DETAILS
Publisher: Kodansha and Laser Disc Co.Ltd. (講談社 &レーザーディスク株式会社)
Release date: 1988-VII-16:
Format: NTSC | CAV | 1.33:1
Running time: 6 min
Retail price: ¥1200+ ¥800 ticket & LD

Catalogue number: AKIRA-2000

●PAMPHLET● AKIRA movie pamphlet (アキラ 映画パンフレット)



Theater program of the animation film AKIRA directed by Katsuhiro Otomo

PAMPHLET DETAILS
Publisher: Toho
Release date: 1988-VII-16
Language: Japanese
Number of pages: 24
Size: A4
Retail price: ¥400

AVAILABILITY
Amazon JP: http://amzn.to/1zuzaQ1
Amazon US:-
Amazon CA:-
Amazon UK:-
Amazon DE:-
Amazon FR:-
Amazon IT:-
Amazon ES:-

INTERVIEW
The Birth of AKIRA

At first, I intended to draw a light science-fiction story.
 
For a while, there was a period when I was drawing nothing but strange manga. I was always thinking about ways notto turn things into conventional drama, or about having the characters create the story entirely through improvisation. Those were the kinds of approaches I kept using. Once you look at reality, the ordinary way of constructing drama stops being interesting. I had been drawing stories about reality, but I got tired of that too. So I thought it was about time to return to ordinary manga and draw something that was more manga-like—a real manga story. And, of course, the kind of pictures I wanted to draw changed over time. At first I wanted to draw strange-looking human faces, but then I started wanting to draw things with a greater sense of scale. At the time, there were things like Star Wars. That kind of scale, and the feeling of things going “whoosh!”—that feels good, you know? In AKIRA, I think that comes out in the destruction of things. There’s something great about images of things being destroyed.

The first time I drew that kind of science fiction was “FIRE BALL” in Action Deluxe. It was a story about psychics fighting a computer, and I named the computer Atom—after Osamu Tezuka’s Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy). Then, in Dōmu, the psychic girl was named Etsuko, after Etsuko Sarutobi from Shotaro Ishinomori’s “Okashina Okashina Okashina Ano Ko”. So when I was about to do AKIRA, I thought, “There’s only Tetsujin 28-go left…” In a way, it was about paying respect to those who came before me—or maybe it was a parody. But simply calling him “Tetsujin” would have been too obvious.

The name Tetsujin itself gives you the image of something frightening. When it appears, everyone is terrified simply because it is there… In other words, it’s something huge. But if you have something huge, and you keep escalating it, you can only keep making it bigger and bigger. So I thought that, rather than that, a small child might actually be better for telling a story with a sense of scale. So I gave him the name of a small child. I like children and old people, too.

About the Film

I want the film to have a cluttered, complicated feeling all the way through. Rather than showing one particular scene with a big “bang,” I want to put details into even the smallest places. I want all those accumulated details to form something like a mosaic, so that when you've finished watching it and step back a little, you can see the whole shape.

That’s why I created the city of Neo-Tokyo. I hope that, taken as a whole, it will become the work called AKIRA. In that sense, although the title is the name of a person, it’s not really a matter of having one particular protagonist. Everyone is a protagonist, and everyone has their own drama. They intertwine with one another while creating the story.

That is the kind of structure I want. As for the ending, it is basically the ending I had intended to do in the original manga. From quite early on—from the very beginning, actually—I had the idea that it would end with Kaneda and Tetsuo reminiscing about the past.

Of course, in the manga, the protagonists move around on their own, so I don't know what’s going to happen. Once something has gotten moving that far, it’s actually quite difficult even for the author to stop it. You have to prepare for it quite a long time in advance.

What I found difficult about the film was the transitions. I could visualize the major events at the screenplay stage, but I struggled quite a bit with the less glamorous parts—how to carry everything through to the ending, and how to connect everything organically.

And then there was the flow and the pacing. You have to do everything within a limited running time of about two hours. That means there can’t be any unnecessary cuts. With manga, things are a little rougher, so it’s okay if you take a slight detour. But with a film, if you go off course, it becomes an incredibly long, drawn-out thing.

When I was drawing the storyboards, I worked on them with animation in mind—thinking about what I could probably make move myself, and what kinds of techniques could be used to handle particular things. Even so, it may have been pretty demanding. In particular, there are a lot of rather understated performances, such as someone simply walking toward you from a distance, so I imagine those will be difficult. On television, you can just cut off the legs and things like that, but in this film there are quite a few places where you have to portray human movement properly—someone’s feet actually touching the ground, someone turning around, and so on.

Really, I think the seemingly insignificant parts are going to be the difficult ones. The scene toward the end where Tetsuo transforms is a dynamic sequence that could only really be done through animation. But I think making that look realistic depends on how realistically you draw everything around it. If you have manga-like characters appearing from the beginning and then have them do something spectacular at the end, there’s no sense of reality. No matter what you do in animation, it simply won't be frightening—it becomes something ordinary, something you take for granted.

If you want to properly portray things like psychic powers and other spectacular moments, you have to start with ordinary acting and give as much realism as possible to even the most uneventful parts. That is the only way to create a sense of reality in the destruction of things. We also talked about the art and the colors in terms of how to create that sense of realism.

I think that's true of all films. Because actors are performing something that is made up— if you're told right at the beginning, “Those are actors,” or “This is a made-up story,” then it's over. You have to create a kind of reality appropriate to the story, don't you?

●PAMPHLET● SO WHAT movie pamphlet (SO WHAT 映画パンフレット)



The theatrical program of the live action movie directed by Naoto Yamakawa (山川直人) SO WHAT, based on an original 28 pages story written by Katsuhiro Otomo, published as a manga in Manga Action Zoukan (漫画アクション増刊 ) in 1978-VI-10. Includes a talk with the director and the cast, notes on the screenplay etc.

PAMPHET DETAILS
Published by: Heart Work (ハートワーク)
Release date: 1988-VII-16
Language: Japanese
Size: B5
Retail price:

AVAILABILITY
Aamzon JP: http://amzn.to/1lGtJLc
Amazon US:
Amazon CA:
Amazon UK:
Amazon DE:
Amazon FR:
Amazon IT:
Amazon ES:

●BULLETIN● KATSUHIRO OTOMO CLUB Bulletin DŌMU 7 (大友克洋 クラブ 会報 「童夢 7」)



Katsuhiro Otomo fan club bulletin containing interviews articles and more. Celebrating Katsuhiro Otomo fan club 5th anniversary.

Presented by the Katsuhiro Otomo Club
Editor: Hiyoruki Kitano
Coordinator: Yasunori Aizawa
Staffs: Motoki Kobayashi, Atsushi tanaka, Tom Jindaiji
Special thanks to: Mr Katsuhiro Otomo & Mrs. Yoko Otomo

BULLETIN DETAILS
Publisher: Katsuhiro Otomo fan Club
Release date: 1988-VII-16
Number of pages: 70
Size: B5
Language: Japanese

●MAGAZINE● Weekly YOUNG MAGAZINE Pirate Edition No. 7



This week's Young Magazine Pirate Edition (ヤングマガジン海賊版) features and inside look at Katsuhiro Otomo's upcoming animation film AKIRA



●BOOK● Poster & Graphic AKIRA (ポスター&グラフィック アキラ)


Kodansha has published this huge size (73x50cm) compilation of AKIRA related stuff that comes rolled as a tube in a box. The publication contains plenty of AKIRA related materials such as Interviews and movie posters. Here a list of the contents:

■アニメ映画AKIRAの劇場ポスター全４枚を原寸大でPack ｉｎ．
■見る前に読むか！？映画シナリオ，パーフェクト掲載！
■スペシャルフォト／Kaneda's Bike原寸大レプリカ
■アニメ35ミリフィルム約22秒分を原寸大でダイレクト焼きこみ
■アニメAKIRA名ショット，大コラージュ
■特別参加！！やまもと寛斎＆芸能山城組
■吉田カツ，望月峯太郎Ｂ２判イラストレーション
■超迫力！Ｂ全判サイズ，2019年スペシャルカレンダー
■プレゼント付き！超大型AKIRA-MAZE＆鉄雄ジグソーパズル

ITEM DETAILS:
Publisher: Kodansha (講談社)
Release date: 1988-VII-8
Language: Japanese
Number of pages: 32
Size: 2B
Retail price: ¥3,800

●BOOK● AKIRA MECHANIX 2019 (アキラ メカニクス 2019)





This book covers the mechanical side of elements in Katsuhiro Otomo's AKIRA movie. The book focuses on:

- Photographs and vignettes used for promotion & merchandise
- Character pages and technical model sheets of vehicles and weapons.
- Illustrations & paintings by other Japanese artists inspired by AKIRA.
- Info on Kaneda's Bike- mechanics, inspiration, plans, & working models 
- A closer look at the creation of the Neo tokyo environment an staff's feedback regarding their roles in the film. 

BOOK DETAILS
Publisher: BANDAI (バンダイ) 
Release Date: 1988-VII
Language: Japanese
Number of pages: 127
Retail price: ¥1,500
ISBN-10: 4891893486
ISBN-13: 978-4891893484 

AVAILABILITY
Amazon JP: http://amzn.to/11N3qVn 
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1ae4z0h 
Amazon CA:-
Amazon UK:-
Amazon DE:-
Amazon FR:-
Amazon IT:-
Amazon ES:-
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