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, 16.5x23.4-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.
ContainsScroll 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 poster52-page hardcover catalog book including new interviews with Katsuhiro Otomo and Kosuke Kawamura and photographs by TAKAMURADAISUKERigid, silver cold foil-wrapped box
Katsuhiro Otomo is best known as the creator of the three-thousand page epic AKIRA, among other influential manga. He also directed the groundbreaking animated feature film of the same name, as well as the acclaimed animated film, Steamboy. Most recently, he directed the live-action film Mushishi.
The work of designer and illustrator Kosuke Kawamura is a fixture in Tokyo's galleries and street fashion scene. He has created pieces for trendy brands including
Diet Butcher Slim Skin, REVOLVER, and nana-nana. He is most well known for his intricate collages, and his mural project based on
Katsuhiro Otomo's AKIRA was exhibited in Shibuya and, later, Milan and Los Angeles.
