In 1982 the manga, Akira (previously) , began its run. It would ultimately spawn a film that would lead the way for the growth of the anime medium outside of Japan. An attempted Americanized remake (previouslyer) was in production before being ultimately canceled. The manga’s creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, in the meantime, had taken a 20 year break from long-form manga. It was recently announced that this break was coming to an end and that Otomo would be working on a new long-form shonen series.
posted by sendai sleep master on Mar 29, 2012 - 30 comments

For any who lament not being able to visit the Toonseum's Art Of Akira exhibit (previously), there is a good-sized Flickr set of cells and backgrounds available to explore.
posted by hippybear on Jul 1, 2010 - 14 comments

Carl Macek, who created Robotech, brought Akira to America and was a co-founder of Spumco, passed away this Saturday.
posted by Artw on Apr 19, 2010 - 53 comments

Announcing: The Art of Akira Exhibit Its stunningly fluid and detailed animation often required as many as nine separate cel layers. The 125 minute feature was comprised of over 160,000 cels and almost as many backgrounds, each one completely hand–drawn and hand-painted. Purists recognize Akira as the last completely hand-created animated feature.

Joe the Peacock, in collaboration with Toonseum, presents a project to 'expose as many people as possible to the brilliance' of Akira.

Akira previously: 1 2 3
posted by shakespeherian on Feb 4, 2010 - 76 comments

Steamboy is a steam punk anime adventure by Katsuhiro Otomo (of Akira fame). Here's the synopsis. Here's the trailer. Looks hella-impressive. Kinda makes my pants shrink. Anybody else know more info on this?
posted by freakystyley on Apr 24, 2004 - 15 comments

Tetsuo! Kaneda! Akira on DVD!
posted by ritualdevice on Jan 29, 2001 - 6 comments