Customer Reviews

Akira Club

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Length:: 1:10 Mins

I didn't know that this book existed until very recently.

Akira Club is actually the English version of the Japanese edition Akira club: The memory of Akira lives on in our hearts that was published in 1995.

This English edition is translated and published by Dark Horse in 2007. It's a 256 page hardcover.

The book is all on the Akira manga. There's nothing on the animated movie except for some designs drawn for the laserdisc release.

It collects illustrations, preliminary sketches, all the title pages from the manga, promotional art and rejected art that were unpublished. It's pretty cool looking back at the works that were published in 1982. They were still using halftone dots to create grays. The art is great, and you can see that Otomo is amazing at drawing rubble and scenes of urban destruction.

If you have the manga editions, then you've seen all the title pages. This book includes a few unpublished ones. Majority are in black and white, some of them are coloured but not sure if they were coloured by Steve Oliff or Otomo. The commentary that goes with the title pages aren't related in any way, but just short musings of Otomo on what was happening to him that day, like his birthday or attending a friend's wedding.

What I enjoyed reading is the design commentary, talking about why sequences are arranged in a certain way, why some scenes don't work and have to be redrawn, what's difficult to draw. Most are just afterthoughts. There wasn't any information on his drawing techniques or production process though. And since the book doesn't include the animated movie, it doesn't talk about the differences between the manga and the movie.

This book is more for the Akira manga fans and those who like Otomo's art.

(There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

The product is the best, a good fan stuff like promised but the book could be involved in a better package.

This is for AKIRA lovers. It gives an inside account from the creator's perspective of how he developed the characters and story, and shows how a great work is made up of little pieces brought together. To hear how the author had to work within certain deadlines was amusing, as it is possible to see the final product as something inspired by a greater power. Sometimes it just had to be done under the gun at the last minute, and choices which seem inspired, were made without hesitation because of a deadline.

Buy this, love it, read it again, give it to your friends.

I live in Bogota Colombia and buy this book because it is simply a classic AKIRA anime and everything must be related to the book is exceptional grandioso.Este has a large sample of black and white art in addition to many pictures and material related to Icon AKIRA which became comienzo.Un great book from a fully recommended for those who know the work of Otomo.

If you own a Laserdisc player and have been following the story since the early 80s, then there probably isn't a ton of content in here that you haven't seen before. But for new fans, or for old fans who have forgotten what an incredibly talented illustrator Mr. Otomo is after being sickened by the travesty of "Steamboy," there's a lot of good stuff to look at, and it's quite handsomely bound for the price. I would have preferred it if they had included more "outtakes" than they did, but it's still a decent retrospective worth picking up.

Collections of Akina's title graphics and posters in high quality print forms. A collection item I considered for Akira's fans.

I think this books is the great works about Akira's Fan Club,because there are many style of art in this book.I like it and hope that any fan who read this book will like it too.