ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MUSICMAN

Currently running and on until the end of August 2023, the AKIRA Cel Exhibition is held in conjunction with Kodansha’s release of the AKIRA Layouts & Key Frames art books from the Otomo Complete Works, showcasing animation cels, poster illustrations and more from Katsuhiro Otomo’s magnum opus AKIRA. The venue is in Ikebukuro, Tokyo ( MIXALIVE Tokyo ).

Interesting, the idea for this animation cel exhibition came about when Otomo was rummaging his house for AKIRA layout drawings to be used in the Layouts & Key Frames art book, as he mentioned in this tweet below –

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— ???? (@otomo_zenshu) May 9, 2023

Otomo mentioned that while looking for layout drawings in his house he also discovered many animation cels, and they are all in great condition, so he thought that fans would want to see them. However, he also said that because these cels are from his own private collection, they are not a complete set representing the entire movie.

(below) A sketch message board at the exhibition. The figure with a cap in the center is drawn by Otomo himself, and the character next to it is by Sushio ( KILL LA KILL ), who is a very big fan of Otomo.

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— ???? (@otomo_zenshu) August 10, 2023

(above) The original cels for the giant teddy bear puppet conjured up by Kiyoko, Takashi and Masaru to size up Tetsuo’s powers. The high quality reproduction cels are featured in Vol 1 of the Layouts & Keyframes book.

(below) A life-sized re-creation of the puppet at the cel exhibition. This would have been amazing to see in person.

(above) Looks like there is a section showcasing all the published titles from the Otomo Complete Works.

It is a bummer that I’ve had to miss 2 great Otomo exhibitions, this one and the AKIRA Art Of Wall back in 2019. Such is life !

The silver lining for those for us who can’t make it to the exhibition will be the Layout & Keyframe art books, which include many beautiful cel reproductions as well.

I also recommend taking a look at the whole list of Otomo Complete Works books that have already been published. I intend to review all of them as they come.

Official page for the AKIRA Cel Art Exhibition


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