When Katsuhiro Otomo was announced as a guest of honor for this year’s Anime Expo I thought ‘Oh that’s a really cool get.’ and regretted not being able to make the biggest anime con in North America. What I didn’t suspect was just what he’d be announcing at the con. Not only are we finally getting a new animated film by the AKIRA creator after 15 years, but it turns out we’ll also be seeing his masterpiece come back to life once more. Actually twice more, if we count the seemingly finally actually happening Hollywood adaption of the movie by Thor Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi. At Anime Expo, Katsuhiro Otomo and Sunrise CEO Makoto Asanuma announced AKIRA would be getting reanimated, and this time it’d cover the entire manga.
AKIRA new anime project started!#Akira #KatsuhiroOtomo #animeexpo #ax2019 pic.twitter.com/cQHNczsaOS
— OTAQUEST (@otaquest) July 5, 2019
A short teaser was shown at the convention but at this time there’s no footage available online. As of now, we’re not sure the new AKIRA will be another anime movie, tv series, or possibly released on some streaming service. It’s probably still a while until we’ll see anything definitive from the project. What we do know is that, again, it’ll cover the whole of Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga run which ended two years after the AKIRA movie came out.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance and influence of AKIRA. It arguably still has the best-looking animation that’s ever been put onto paper. The film broke all sorts of boundaries when it came out and continues to blow the minds of everyone who sees it today. Actually, along with the AKIRA anime remake news, Otomo confirmed his original AKIRA movie would be getting a new 4K restoration that’ll be released worldwide. If you’ve somehow never seen the movie, grab that disc when it comes out. It’ll be the best thing in your collection.