Some pictures from the Akira 35th Anniversary box set, Otomo Katsuhiro’s groundbreaking manga. Two notable highlights from this new set includes the the original Japanese right to left reading format, as well as the original Japanese hand drawn sound effects.
The sturdy cube cardboard box that houses the 6 volumes + Akira Club art book is stylishly designed, printed in bold black, white and red colors.
2 top flaps flip open to reveal the housed contents in side. The flaps come with hidden magnetic locks so they snap nicely back into place when you close the box.
The print quality of the comic itself is pretty good ( at least as good as the Japanese tankobon volumes as far as I can remember ), and the pages are printed on matte quality paper that is fairly light weight.
The inclusion of the excellent Akira Club art book ( in hard cover too ! ) is a welcome addition, although I already have at least 2 soft cover copies of the book lying around somewhere…
Also included is the “Good For Health / Bad For Education” patch. Nice.
In summary, this is a worthy box set to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the manga, and a fantastic upgrade for Otomo Katsuhiro’s magnum opus, and I would highly recommend it to any fan of the manga or anime. I only wish Kodansha Japan had released a Japanese edition of this, because I still prefer to read the comic in its original language.
Update July 1st 2020 – A French language version of the boxset published by Glénat Manga will be available from 25th November. Purchase it here.
“”Akira 35th Anniversary Box Set” manga details :
– Dimensions – 11.5 x 9.1 x 11.2 inches
– Hardcover, 2530 pages.
– Full color, in English language
Buy From Amazon CA | Amazon JP | Amazon UK | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Amazon DE | Amazon ES
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January 16th, 2018 at 9:09 am
Timeless masterpiece!
January 17th, 2018 at 4:56 am
Otomo himself is a great artist in contemporary sense, while I got all the manga series + its artbook. I just wish he was known for more variety of works, rather than being caught up w/ Akira project itself.
January 17th, 2018 at 5:45 pm
Well there are certainly a group of hardcore fans all around the world that are aware of and appreciate ALL of his work!
He’s done so many illustrations and projects over the years, but he really hasn’t done THAT much manga. I really wish Kodansha or someone else would just translate and publish ALL of it.
I can only assume Otomo himself either doesn’t want it out there or just plain can’t be bothered with revisiting older work. His name alone is certainly big enough to get some significant international business.
January 18th, 2018 at 4:19 pm
Given that this boxset was released only by Kodansha USA ( Kodansha Japan didn’t release a Japanese language edition ), it’s likely that Otomo himself wasn’t personally involved, or Kodansha USA would probably have used that as an extra selling point.
Otomo is likely taking it easy these days, working only on projects he’s very interested in. I would definitely love to see him take on a new manga, even if it’s only a small project.