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●ANNOUNCEMENT● OTOMO THE COMPLETE WORKS 2nd period

 

The poster announcing OTOMO THE COMPLETE WORKS second period was revealed today in Otomo Zenshu X account and the OTOMO-COMPLETE Official website accompanied by some announcements.

The first is that the publication date  of the seventh batch of the first period consisting in the book   "Animation AKIRA Layouts & Key Frames 3" has been moved from June 2024 to November 2024 due to complications in the production process.

The second announcement is that the start of publication of the second period will start on August 30, before the end of the first period and will consist in these two books with a price tag of ¥3,500 (tax included) each:

★Vol.6:  G..... (short manga works from the late 70's and early 80's that follow Vol.5)
Available in Amazon JP: http://amzn.to/3VRvc6u

★Vol.12: AKIRA 1 (The manga as serialized in Young Magazine)
Available in Amazon JP:  http://amzn.to/45T5OSG

AKIRA was originally published in 120 parts of about 20 pages from 1982 to 1990  in Kodansha's Young Magazine. During that same period it was also collected in six books in which the chapters were lost and the story could be read as a continuum. The chapter title pages were later collected in the art book AKIRA CLUB published in 1995. Otomo also made many substantial changes, corrections and redraws for the final version collected in the books, this versions have been used for every international version ever since. Finally, AKIRA will be available in the same fashion in which it was published when serialized in Young Magazine for the first time, but this time with pristine print quality.

The poster also revealed the rest of the books that will complete the second period:

★Vol.20: Animation AKIRA
★Vol.7: APPLE PARADISE (short manga works from the early 80's that follow Vol.6 )
★Vol.13: AKIRA 2 (The manga as serialized in Young Magazine)
★Vol.31: STEAMBOY Storyboards 1
★Vol.14: AKIRA 3 (The manga as serialized in Young Magazine)
★Vol.32: STEAMBOY Storyboards 2
★Vol.28: MEMORIES
★Vol.33: STEAMBOY Layouts & Key Frames 1

TWEETS by OTOMO (June 26, 2024)

■A poster announcing the start of pre-orders for the second series of the complete collection has been made. Pre-orders will probably start next month. This image is my own pre-order. Please don't criticize me.

■These are some of the things I was influenced by when I was a high school freshman in 1970, until I was around 20 years old. Even though I only drew pictures, the rights issues were a real pain... 

■(On the meaning of ELSINORE that it's written in the back of his shirt) This is a Honda off-road bike. This is the series that became a hot topic because it was the first time Steven McQueen appeared in a commercial. I wanted this T-shirt so I went to a motorcycle shop in Ueno to buy one. 

■(Regarding the poster of BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA) It is amazing! I remember being deeply influenced by this film that I saw in Sendai when I was a high school student.

■(Regarding the third image starting from the bottom left) This is THE RITE OF SPRING conducted by Leonard Bernstein. This is the record version.

■(On the mention made to THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT  in the afterword of the complete collection) Michael. Cacoyannis was great in ZORBA.  And the music by Mikis Theodorakis, who did the music for Z  is also great. 

■ (On filmmaker Yoshishige Yoshida  (吉田喜重)) I didn't really understand Yoshishige Yoshida's EROS+ MASSACRE (エロス+虐殺), but I found the TV Man Union's (テレビマンユニオン) THE EMPEROR'S CENTURY (天皇の世紀) interesting.

●ANNOUNCEMENT● AKIRA REMIX CD


Katsuhiro Otomo has announced in X that the AKIRA Cel Art Exhibition Music CD will be released this summer. AKIRA REMIX produced entirely by Otomo himself features the remixes by Makoto Kubota (久保田麻琴), Yasuharu Konishi (小西康陽), and Kuniaki Hiijima (蓜島邦明) of the iconic soundtrack created by Shoji Yamashiro (山城 祥二) and the Geinoh Yamashirogumi (芸能山城組) group for the animated film AKIRA that celebrated it's 35th anniversary last year.

As part of OTOMO THE COMPLETE WORKS that it's beeing published by Kodansha, the AKIRA CEL ART EXHIBITION was held at Ikebukuro Mixalive Tokyo and Osaka Parco Gallery in August and October 2023, and AKIRA REMIX was created to be played at the background of these two events. 

The double CD  featuring an original new illustration by Otomo as a cover will be available on August 21 with the catalog number VICL-65922~23 and a retail price of ¥4,400 (tax incl.) 

Available for pre-order in Amazon Japan: https://amzn.to/3XTtEf8


TWEETS by OTOMO (June 25, 2024)

■I was finally able to announce the release of the CD. The event was in August last year... It took a whole year to make a CD contract. I can't believe Kodansha pays high salaries to people that don't know if they're working or not. How can I work with a company that does this kind of work?

■(regarding the release of the last batch of the first period of OTOMO THE COMPLETE WORKS) Please wait a little longer for that. I am sorry to have kept you waiting.

■(On the same subject) Tomorrow…

■(Regarding the creation of T-shirts based on the CD cover design) It's okay. I can't go into too much detail though. Please wait.