Information updated on May 21st 2022; see further below for more information –

One of my most highly anticipated manga/art book releases of 2022 is Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo’s upcoming The Complete Works. First announced at the Anime Expo 2019, The Complete Works is a full collection of the famed Akira manga artist’s comic works since his debut piece A Gun Report, first published in 1973. An announcement poster featuring art work from A Gun Report was released earlier in January.

The collection was previously slated for a late 2021 release, but as with all things happening in the world right now, the pandemic must have caused delays in the production. Also, rather than a single, consolidated release with all the titles, it will be a staggered roll-out of a few titles every 2 months or so.

Just last week The Complete Works twitter account released news of the first two titles with a special illustration by Otomo, a delightful drawing of him gazing down on mangas and magazines that were inspiration/influences to his own work.

The first 2 on the pre-orders list ( 21st January 2022 ) are :

1) Domu – 2970 Yen ( about $26 USD ) – Amazon pre-order link
2) Akira Storyboards Volume 1 – 4400 Yen ( about $38 USD ) – Amazon pre-order link

No official cover art for either of the 2 titles have been released, but I’ll be sure to update this page when they are. Stay tuned for more information !

Also, for anyone who is keen to find out more about the manga and magazines that are featured in Otomo’s illustration above, a super fan has annotated all the titles as seen below . Knock yourself out ! –

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— ???? (@otomo_zenshu) November 15, 2021

UPDATE December 2nd –

The Otomo Complete Works official website has just released a line-up of the titles that will be released over the course of 2022. These titles are part of the “batch 1” release, and later batches will be released in 2023 and possibly beyond. Check out the titles ( with English translations further down ) –

1st release – 21st January 2022
Title 8 – Domu – 2970 Yen ( about $26 USD ) – Amazon purchase link / Read my review here.
Title 21 – Akira Storyboards Volume 1 – 4400 Yen ( about $38 USD ) – Amazon purchase link / Read my review here.

2nd release – 18th March 2022
Title 2 – Boogie Woogie Waltz – 3090 Yen ( about $28 USD ) – Amazon purchase link
Title 22 – Akira Storyboards Volume 2 – 4400 Yen ( about $38 USD ) – Amazon purchase link

3rd release – 20th May 2022
Title 3 – Highway Star – Amazon pre-order link
Title 4 – Goodbye Japan – Amazon pre-order link

4th release – 20th July 2022
Title 20 – Animation Akira – Blu-ray disc included ( possibly an updated edition of Akira Animation Archives ? )
Title 25 – Scripts (シナリオ – possibly screenplay or scripts from Otomo’s animated films )

5th release – 20th September 2022
Title 5 – Fireball
Title 35 – Mushishi Live-action film – Blu-ray disc included ( possibly an updated edition of the making of book ? )

6th release – 18th November 2022
Title 1 – A Gun Report

The “Title” number refers to the chronological order of the release; ie A Gun Report is Otomo’s debut work, so its number 1, and so on. It seems Kodansha is coupling each bi-monthly release with an early work from Otomo’s career ( circa mid 1970s/early 1980s ) and one that is closer to the late 90s/2000s.

The prices of the titles from the 2nd release set onwards have yet to be revealed, I’ll update this page with the information as and when the become available. Lastly, besides the factual information ( title names/release dates ), I’m translating the information from Japanese the best I can so view the available information here with a pinch of salt, as I might have interpreted something incorrectly. There is currently no word of any English edition release.

The last Katsuhiro Otomo publication ( Dec 2019 ) is the splendid Akira Art Of Wall art book, which I’ve reviewed here ( pictured below ). I absolutely recommend it.

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