The newest of Akira books focusing on the pre-production artwork of the film.
Loosely divided into 6 sections, segments include:
- Storyboards;
- Character pages (model sheets, dougas/gengas, stills of EVERYONE in the film);
- Staff Interviews- Katsuhiro OTOMO (Creator/Director), Takashi NAKAMURA
(Animation Director), Koji MORIMOTO (Co-Animation Director), Toshiyuki INOUE
Hiroyuki OKIURA and Hiroyuki KITAKUBO (Key Animators);
- Genga/douga sequences of particular cuts from the movie to show the step-by-step
process of building a scene through to the final visual on screen;
- Backgrounds. Concept ideas to final watercolour/painted pieces;
- Technical Drawings of Mechanical items and Vehicles.

AKIRA Animation Archives is a book that anyone interested in the animation process
should purchase. For Akira fans it's particularly exciting as much of artwork hasn't
been printed before and the dougas/gengas are among the best you will see- Kaneda
screeching on his bike and Tetsuo shooting forth his mechanical arm! I'm still going
through it to see if any from my collection has been printed here ^__^
As a Japanese book, the text is naturally in Japanese which is disappointing if you
can't read it because the interviews and accompanying text look enthralling.

The quality of the printed images is superb, crisp and without line-fade, and the design
and layout is equally stunning. Even the thick cartridge paper that the book is made
from shouts 'quality'. At a mere ¥2800 (bought on import for US$30/GB£20) this book
is a keeper bound to rise in value once its finished it's first print run. Not as valuable
as 'Mechanix' (sold for US$800+ on auction in the US in 2002) but a collectable of the
future. This book is meant to be read and enjoyed and it certainly delivers.


Printed: 26th December 2002, Kodansha, Japan
Size: 8.2 X 11.8 inches. 194 pages.   ¥2800

Sample Pages, click to enlarge