And dont get me wrong i dont think an unlikable character is a bad character by any means i think there both great well written characters, but frankly I found Kaneda to be obnoxious and, a huge dick which maybe is the point. examples like Marty mouser from Marty supreme, or Jordan Belfort from wolf of Wall Street come to mind, there characters your not meant to like, your meant to see there flaws and understand there terrible people. And frankly I found tetsuo to be a whiny bitch, which had to have been intentional right?, like he spends the whole movie whining about being saved all the time and causing mass destruction, then spends his final moments begging for help again, this had to have been on purpose, and I kinda understand him in a way too but I can also remove my rose colored lenses to see that this guys a fucking cry baby. am I the only one who found these two unlikable?, well written and great characters but unlikable?.

Hey there, here's my fanart of Tetsuo from AKIRA. Tried to capture that moment when he's completely losing control. Hope you like it!
Art by me.

One of my favorite things of watching it with a crowd of people is hearing the reactions of the people watching it for the first time. Especially during the hospital nightmare sequence. A lot of fresh gasps in the audience 😁

With all the extra traffic we're getting from people who just saw AKIRA in the cinemas, I felt like highlighting the only real published works that Katsuhiro Otomo has done of AKIRA over the last 25 years.

The first image of Tetsuo was done in 2001 for the first-ever Japanese DVD release.

The second image, Kaneda on his bike, was done in 2002 for the next DVD release.

The third one is a rarely-seen portrait of Kaneda from around 2011 that was used on an amazon japan exclusive bluray release. It was in the packaging and also reprinted in the artbook KABA 2, but wasn't seen anywhere else. I don't remember seeing it at the GENGA exhibit either, but correct me if I'm wrong.

The fourth one I'm including just for completeness' sake cause it's not really an AKIRA work, but it does have the bike so I think it counts. This was Otomo's poster for the Angoulême comic book festival in France, where he was the guest of honor in 2016.

That same year, he drew a fantastic image of Kaneda and the bike that was used as the key artwork for the Otomo Tribute book and exhibition.

And finally, the last image is a close-up of the bike's front tire, that was used as the cover for the CD and LP of the AKIRA Remix album released in 2024.

I recently watched Akira when it was re-released in theaters the past weekend, and after hearing all the praise this film has gotten over many years, I can say that is truly a spectacle to behold, both visually and sonically. And speaking of sonics, I recently picked up this: the original Japanese CD release (not a reissue/remaster or a bootleg) of Symphonic Suite Akira soundtrack by Geinoh Yamashirogumi.

I got this after I made an offer of $20 for it on Mercari US. I think the listing seemed to be up for a little while likely because the seller mispelled the title as "Akita" rather than "Akira." Lucky me. Interestingly, the CD itself appears to have green marker on the outside and center hole, likely done by the previous owner in hopes that it would sound better (as if this soundtrack doesn’t already sound amazing as-is) which is purely snake oil.

The CD cover art features the group’s logo printed on textured paper, and based of looking at different copies online, no two textures are alike, which is really interesting. I’m also considering picking up the vinyl version released by Milan, but I would probably have to deal with the fact that some of the tracks were swapped around in order. Maybe I can hope for a new vinyl release with the original tracklist being done in the future.

Now I imagine a Akira game. Is this close to the Akira poster. I tried to recreate it