MANGA: Akira Chapter 03 · 2013. 8. 1. · Theyearis2030.Theworld isrebuildingfromWorld War III.InNeo-Tokyo plansarebeingmadetoholdIhe nextOlvmpicsinthe"oldcity— re,thirty-eightyearsbefore

iKATSUHIBOOTOMOi

BY KATSUHIRO OTOMO

^Chapter 3

NUMBER 41!

The year is 2030. The world

is rebuilding from World

War III. In Neo-Tokyo

plans are being made to hold Ihe

next Olvmpics in the "old city—

re, thirty-eight years before

ihe first of the bombs fell

Kaneda and his friends—

teenaged delinqjents from the

3l vocational school—have

made an unauthorized motor-

cvclemn into the old city io

check lit the old site and found

far more than they expected. In

la said to be totally

deserted they encounter a

strange wzen-faced child,

known on y as Number 2G. Hef; te rfed of something and is

possessed of extraordinary

te ekinelr abilities. During the

encou te the paranormal boy

gavely njjresTetsuo, oneof

: ose friends. Then, he

vanishes

Kanedas gang find them-

se ves in seriojs trouble with the

authortes following the inci-

dent and they learn, to their

5urp f^e thai the "police" they

encountered after the accident

were not ormal officers at all,

but pa t of some secret concern.

Moreover Tetsuo, who they

el pved had been taken to a

hosptal has disappeared.

The next night, at Harukiya,

a tough local dive, Kaneda

brazen y attempts to pick up

Kay a Strange girl who catches

his fancy Kay, however; is not

interested In fact, she and her

companion, Ryu, are part of an

underground resistance organiza-

tion dedicated to teaming what

IS happening in the old city and

putting a stop to it.

During the mayhem that en-

sues, both the delinquents and

counter NLinber 26, and again

he uses his powers, to caia

straphic effect. Both groups are

scattered, but firsi Ryu and thpr

Kaneda re-encourter Number26. Ryu attempts to reassure the

paranormal hoy. but Kaneda is

anxious io punish him for irjuniq

Tetsuo.

As they argue, the mysterious

soldiers pursuing Number 26reach the scene, amied arid

ready.

During the resolting firelight,

Kaneda is separated from Ryu

and Number 26, whom the

soldiers are detemiined to recap-

ture aliue. Kay saves Kaneda^

life, but Ryu and Number 26are cornered, and Number 26

becomes increasingly ill, e;^ibit-

ing all the symptoms of dmgwithdrawal. Kaneda returns the

favor he owes the resistance

fighters by stealing a \!u&. and

heading back into the heart of

the melee to save Ryu and

Number 26Thai IS when the mysterious

Colonel in charge of the entire

covert operation puts in an ap-

pearance bunging forward his

secretweapon—Number27,acrippled paranomial child named

Masaru

Masaru astonishes the r&-

sistance fighters by addressing

Number 26 as Takashi Kay

and Ryu had previously assumed

that Number 26 was the Ccl-

onel's ultimate weapon—theas-yet unseen paranonnal giarl

code-named Akira.

Kaneda provokes a crisis by

pretending to be on the verge of

killing Takashi, and Takashi

responds to the stress this

causes by telekinetic upheavals

that virtoally destroy the entire

area. During the courbe of he

cataclysm, Kaneda saqan

separated from the resistance

fighters, bjt he manages to in-

tercept and hide a pill meant foi

Takashi, who is recaptured by

tlie Colonel's men.

The next day, Tetsuo reap-

pears in school, seemingly little

the worse for his experiences.

However, during the course of

his treatment, it has come to the

attention of the Colonel and his

followers that Tetsuo has great

psychic potential and would be a

valuable asset to them.

Kaneda talks his girlfriend—

who warl(s in the school infirm-

ary and keeps his entire band of

delinquents supplied with drugs

—into analyzing the drug in-

tended for Takashi, and she

tells him that it is similar in

substance to what he and his

friends take, but unbelieveably

concentrated and powerful.

ot n Kaneda,

Tetsuo and e r gang head out

for a mmble with their chief

rivals—the vicious Clown gang.

Kaneda's Government Hanikiya Resistance

Girl Friend Soldier Bartender Agent

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AKIRATHE ANIMATED MOVIE

Kaneda, Tetsuo, and the rest of

Akira's large cast have sprung into life and

incredible motion. Katsuhiro Otomo has

brought his post World War 111 epic from the

comics to full animation in a feature film

produced through the partnership of Kodansha

Ltd.; Mainichi Brnadcasting System, Inc.;

Bandai Co,, Ltd.; Hakuhoda Incorporated; Toho Co.,

Ltd.; Laserdisc Corporation; Sumitomo

Corporation; and Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., Lid.

I n the United States, when a comic

book or comic strip is turned Into a film,

the original creator's involvement will

usualiy be iimited to a consulting role. At

times not even that The final result

which appears in theaters or on videotape

often bears small resemblance to the

creation it was based upon. Mo one can say

that of the film version dAkim.

which had its premiere in Tokyo on July 16th,

Kat^atsuhiro Otomo has successfully

managed the triple feat of handling the story,

the screenplay |in cooperation with Izo

Hashimolol, and the direction of the movie.

In additon, Otomo also did the film's

storyboards, taking six months off from his

work on the comics feature in order to

complete this important phase of production

which sets into place the story's visual

and narrative flow.

All pliulOi (S 10BQ MASH-nOOM Co., Lid. / AKIFlrt Cominiute

#an a saga designed for 1800 pages

of comics fit into two hours of onscreen

time? Olomo has boldly reconstructed

the comic's storyline (not yet completedl,

keeping the same theme, but striving for

greater simplicity to allow for full cinematic

effect and to avoid the feeling of merely

doing a 'digest version' of the comic book.

Visually, Otomo admires the fluid quality

of the best Disney animation and has generated

over 160,000 animation cells (a half hour

of TV animation utilizes about 4000 cells) to

achieve the results he wanted. An epic

approach for an epic in animation.

AbDue: Ihe aiiimaled Takashi, Mumber 26,

Below: llie Labaratary Building lises In Ihe center

of Ihe Neo-Takya cityscape.

I breads. Slowly iiterlwinjrg. Coming togethHc Twisting lighler The

constniclion site for ihe mming Olympic games in posl \Mirld vHar III Meo-Tol<yo is rocked by an

explosion, Ihe work of anti-governrrient rebels. Ir a secret government project controlled by the mai

l<nown only as Ihe Colorel a wizen-faced child-woman awakens from a dream. Her dream is of

someone called AKIRA. She dreams he will soon arisB. On the streets, the yojng delinqjeni,

Kaneda, abject of gavemment pursuit and rebal scrutiny, finds his autiiotity over Ihe motorcycle

gang he leads suddenly challenged. The challenger is his friend, Tetsuo, who, following a

mysiBrious highway accident, seems to he changing. Growing distant. Growing strange. Threads.

Twisting, Tighter, Tighter until , , , something must break,

Thb 5Cdh produced bv|!

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§MANGA-SKETCHBOOK@DALNET SCANNED AND EDITED BYFINNPEST