Published in 1988 by Bandai, this is the Bible of Akira books. It's full title is AKIRA
MECHANIX 2019: Cyber Art & Mechanism From Moving Picture "Akira" and (as the
title suggests) it's about the artwork that went into making the anime.

Divided into 20 chapters, segments include:
- Photographs and vignettes used for promotion/merchandise;
- Character pages and technical model sheets of vehicles/weapons in the film;
- Illustrations/paintings by other Japanese creatives, inspired by AKIRA;
- Info on Kaneda's Bike- mechanics, inspiration, plans, working models etc;
- Creating the Neo tokyo environment;
- Staff feedback regarding their roles in the film and their inspiration for creating Neo-
  Tokyo.

I've been on the lookout for this book for a long time and managed to grab a copy in
late 2004. It usually sells for big bucks because it's rare and sought after so why is this
book so special? It's the only place you'll find such detailed info on the construction of
the bikes and vehicles- although the info isn't too detailed, it doesn't go into precise
dimensions but has slick side/plan views of many vehicles/weapons. To my
knowledge it's also the only publication to show most publicity pictures such as the
Kaneda/Kay/Bike photographic mock ups and merchandise. There are different pics
in the AKIRA CLUB, GRAPH and ARCHIVES books which makes this one worth
investigating. Very little material was repeated in the follow-up books which is great.

The main draw of this book is for the information on Kaneda's Bike. There are several
pages of text describing how the bike was created from exisiting designs with 'work
in progress' photos of the real-life power bike being made. Of course the text is in
Japanese which isn't much use to us westerners unless you can get it translated!

Enjoy these pictures but please don't take them for your own website


Printed: 1988, Bandai, Japan
Size: 8.2 X 11.5 inches. 128 pages.   ¥1500

Sample Pages, click to enlarge
[pages in numerical order left -->right, don't forget they are displayed right-->left in the book!]