Katsuhiro Otomo, the legendary manga artist, writer, and animation director, held court at the 2019 Anime Expo to make a number of announcements regarding his future projects. The short version: Orbital Era is a new feature film; new versions of many of Otomo’s classic works are being released; and a new iteration of his best-known creation, Akira, is being released.
Although details are scarce, Sunrise is set to collaborate with Otomo to bring Akira back to life as a TV series continuation. The studio also stated that the project would not be a sequel. Akira was serialized as a manga from 1982 to 1990, and after Otomo directed an animated film adaptation in 1988, it became an international sensation.
The classic film was going to receive a remaster in April 2020, to be released in both Japan and the U.S., with a 4K and HDR conversion, but was delayed due to COVID-19 and was finally released on January 18, 2022.
When will the Akira anime series be released?
As of now, we don’t have a concrete release date for the anime adaptation of the well-loved film and manga. But, considering how the release of the film remaster was delayed almost two years, we should expect the same with the anime series.
There have been no new updates on the production of the anime series since it was announced during the Anime Expo in 2019, but if we assume that the anime series was supposed to be released a year after the film remaster, our best guess would be the release date to be sometime next year. However, that is merely speculation on our part; we won’t know for sure until there is an announcement from Sunrise or Otomo.
What is the plot of Akira?
If you’ve never watched the legendary film, Akira takes place in Japan in the year 1988. An explosion set off by a young boy with psychic abilities rips through Tokyo, igniting the fuse that sets off World War III. He is caught and brought into custody to avoid any additional destruction, never to be heard from again.
It’s now the year 2019, and a rebuilt version of the city, dubbed Neo-Tokyo, stands in its place—an area riddled with gang violence and terrorism directed against the current government. Shoutarou Kaneda is the leader of “the Capsules,” a ragtag gang noted for riding huge, custom motorcycles and feuding with their rivals “the Clowns.”
Shoutarou’s best friend Tetsuo Shima, during one of their battles, gets involved in an accident with an esper who had escaped from a government institution and was wandering the streets of Tokyo. Tetsuo begins to develop his own mystery abilities as a result of this encounter, and the government attempts to quarantine this latest psychic in a desperate attempt to prevent him from releasing the destructive power that could bring the city to its knees once more.
Unlike the film that condensed the manga so that it could fit enough material into the run time, the anime will apparently incorporate the events of the entire manga, which was published from 1982 to 1990. Otomo initially felt his film adaptation was a failure because of its major time and budget constraints. But, the widely beloved film helped introduce Japanese animation to Western audiences.