Anonymous Coward writes, A bit late, but Dark Horse have started a re-release (I think it’s been released before anyway) of the Akira comic book translated into english. Find ’em at Amazon. They’re releasing all 6 parts at about one a month or so (I think).
Also have a look at this for a bit of info about an upcoming cinema and DVD release of Akira the film. If you want to help out the Bureau, you can also click the “Amazon.com” link to your left. Enter “Akira” in the search box, and you’ll hit the same page as that URL, except we’ll get a cut. :)
RE: Akira Re-release
I do believe this IS a re-release, as if not Dark Horse, then someone has released the Akira manga before, at least in graphic novel form. I am almost 100% sure I’ve seen it before.
Volume 1…
I just received my copy (I ordered it at the same time that I posted the stuff above, not realising that I hadn’t logged in, and that I’m now an AC).
It’s very nice ;). Although it didn’t take long to read, and it is pricey (£23 here in the UK), it is worth it. All the artwork is black and white, apart from a few colour pages at the beginning.
Next volume comes out in May – I’m off to pre-order mine now.
movie
don’t know if you’ve heard this yet…
i read in a magazine (animerica/tokyopop…?)
quite some time ago that akira will be back in
theatres sometime next year.
unfortunately, they’re suppossedly re-doing the
dubbing (whatever happened to subtitles, damn it)
with popular actors and possibly adding footage.
also, the re-released akira books are either condensed
or there will be dozens of them.they look a lot
thicker than the originals, but i’ve yet to open one
up yet.
i believe ther were somewhere around *drumroll please*
forty-two original books that went way beyond the movie.
i bought the fortieth one for a quarter in ’96.
…if i recall correctly
there is also a chance that the new books are based on
the movie and not the original books.
it is the fear of this possiblilty which has as yet
kept me from actually looking through them.
oop-didn’t read all of the first post
if there are only six, these new books have been
seriously chopped. the original books were
about 1/2 an inch wide. if there are six, they’d
have to be, on average, somewhere along the lines
of 3 1/2 inches wide each, which seems unlikely.
okay, i’m going to go away now….no, really.
We are *SO* ahead of you…
Tails, dear, I listed that story rather a while back. :-)
Clipped versions?
The books don’t seem to be clipped – the first one is an inch and a little bit thick – and they’re definately not a serialization of the film.
I hope they’re not, I may to go on a killing rampage if they are…
dave is mean
billy- if the first one’s an inch and they’re not clipped, the next five will be four inches wide, each. this seems unlikely.
keep in mind (as far as not seeming clipped) that the original movie was well over four hours long and is not available dubbed or subtitled and is not available in the u.s. and that still didn’t cover all of the original story (so even if more than half of the story’s gone, a lot of what’s left will still seem like new material, with only the movie as a basis of comparison)
the original series went way beyond akira’s return and much further into a much deeper story than most people out of japan have heard. i was lost as hell with only book #40, and i know the movie like the back of my hand, and even now that i’ve seen the whole thing, i still am not sure what was going on in the book, although that could be partially attributed to the fact that the movie was in japanese, which i have yet to master.
The working theory.
Since most people are only familar with the movie as seen previously in the U.S., they’ll almost certainly limit the book re-releases to that material, plus just enough to make most of the otaku wannabes think that they’ve now seen it all. The likelihood of all 40+ issues being reprinted is just about nil.
And hey, I’m not mean. You’re the one who keeps trying to kidnap the penguin.
clippedness…
Yup i agree now. I had a look back at my copies of manga mania magazine (english manga mag from a while ago) and totted up the number of pages from just the little bit of story i;ve got over a bunch of issues. Oh yeah, it must be cut ;)
Is there any way of finding the long film version, even if it is in japanese. I was told it was a dead end rumour a few years ago, and didn;t look into it.