Written by Katsuhiro Otomo
Art & Cover by Katsuhiro Otomo
AD 2019: The year the world caught up to AKIRA. Two years before this milestone, author Katsuhiro Otomo worked with artist Kosuke Kawamura to enrobe a Tokyo city block in a collage of gripping moments from the manga that revolutionized an art form. Then, over the next two years, he did it twice more.
The result: three electifying compilations of Otomo’s art, meandering across the city. And now you can take them home. From 2017-2019, the throngs passing through Tokyo’s emblematic Shibuya neighborhood were lucky enough to witness a massive art project.
The PARCO department store was closed for renovation, and Katsuhiro Otomo and collage artist Kosuke Kawamura seized on the opportunity to stretch Otomo’s landmark manga AKIRA across the barriers separating the construction site from the bustling nightlife of Shibuya, Tokyo. When the project was completed, it was 2019: the very year the story of AKIRA began. To commemorate this milestone, a silver foil-coated collector’s box presents an exquisite reproduction of Otomo and Kawamura’s work, with the specifications overseen and approved by Otomo-sensei personally.
Nearly 75 feet (22.7 meters) of illustrations, speech balloons, and text selected from AKIRA’s six volumes stretch across three accordion-bound volumes. A fourth volume includes an exclusive interview with Otomo and Kawamura, as well as photographs of the original exhibition by award-winning photographer TAKAMURADAISUKE. Rounding out the box is a dramatic, 16.5×23.4-inch poster.
In this form, Kawamura’s recontextualization of Otomo’s manga is reminiscent of traditional Japanese emaki (picture scrolls), the narrative scrolls that some scholars see as manga’s most ancient ancestors. Don’t miss this change to own a singular artifact in the history of anime and manga. Contains
* Scroll 1: Oct. 25, 2017-May 15, 2018. 29.3 feet (8.94 meters).
* Scroll 2: May 16, 2018-Feb. 27, 2019. 22.6 feet (6.88 meters).
* Scroll 3: Feb. 28, 2019-Aug. 8, 2019. 22.6 feet (6.88 meters).
* 430 x 607 mm poster
* 52-page hardcover catalog book including new interviews with Katsuhiro Otomo and Kosuke Kawamura and photographs by TAKAMURADAISUKE
* Rigid, silver cold foil-wrapped box
