■AKIRA(アキラ) 

□概要(wiki)

近未来の荒廃した世界を描いた本格SF作品であり、緻密でリアルな描写や演出などが話題となり、漫画・映画共に大ヒットしたSF漫画の金字塔。題名のAKIRAは大友自身がファンであり影響を受けた映画監督黒澤明に由来する。題字の毛筆による書は漫画家の平田弘史によるものである。

単行本は週刊誌と同じ大判サイズに小口への色付けを施すなど、凝った装丁になっている。日本国外ではアメリカンコミックのスタッフが着色した外国語版が流通しており、これを日本語に逆翻訳したものが『国際版AKIRA』及び『総天然色AKIRA』として日本で発売された。

アニメ映画の制作費には当時の日本のアニメとしては破格の10億円をかけている。制作手法としてアフレコではなくプレスコを採用している。通常リミテッドアニメーションでの人物の口の動きは3種類であるが、この作品では母音の数と同じ5種類で描かれている。音楽は芸能山城組が担当した。この映画は日本のみならず海外でも大人気となっており、日本アニメの再評価や輸出の増加に貢献した。スティーブン・スピルバーグは「わたしが作りたかったのは、こういう作品だったんだ」と評した^[要出典]。ビデオ化に際しても多くのカットに手を加えたり、音楽関係に手を加えており、今なお進化し続けている作品である。

2009年夏の公開予定で実写映画の製作が計画され、製作はレオナルド・ディカプリオ、監督はローリー・ロビンソン、ワーナーブラザーズの配給の予定であったが^[1]、こちらは2009年6月に製作中止が発表されている^[2]。

On July 16, 1988, Tokyo is destroyed by an apparent nuclear explosion that leads to the start of World War III. Thirty-one years later, in 2019, Neo-Tokyo, a new megalopolis built on an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, is gripped by political strife, anti-government terrorism, and gang violence. Shotaro Kaneda leads his motorcycle gang, the Capsules, which find themselves in a gang war with another group called the Clowns. As Kaneda and his best friend, Tetsuo, battle a pair of Clowns on a highway, the latter almost runs into a child with wizened features and is injured when his bike suddenly explodes. Tetsuo and the child, Takashi, are taken away by armed soldiers. Kaneda and his gang are taken in for questioning, where Kaneda unsuccessfully flirts with a young woman named Kei, a member of the terrorist Resistance. Kaneda, Kei, and the remaining Capsules are later released.

Colonel Shikishima and Doctor Onishi, two members of a secret government project, discover that Tetsuo possesses mental frequencies similar to Akira, a little boy with essentially god-like mental abilities who destroyed Tokyo decades before. Because Kiyoko, another one of the aged children called the Espers, has had visions of a similar destruction of Neo-Tokyo, the Colonel orders the Doctor to kill Tetsuo should he go out of control. Tetsuo escapes, meeting up with his girlfriend, Kaori, and stealing Kaneda's motorcycle. As they attempt to leave the city, they are attacked by Clowns, whom Kaneda and the gang defeat upon their arrival. As Kaneda helps the couple recover, Tetsuo begins to suffer a painful, hallucinatory headache. On the Doctor's orders, a government van arrives and takes Tetsuo away. That night, Kaneda sees Kei at the scene of a terrorist attack, helps her avoid arrest, and accompanies her to the Resistance headquarters. Kaneda offers to help after the terrorists unintentionally reveal their plan to infiltrate a high-security hospital to rescue Tetsuo.

That night, the Espers - Takashi, Kiyoko and Masaru - attempt to kill Tetsuo before he grows accustomed to his new powers. However, this only makes Tetsuo more powerful. He goes on a violent rampage through the hospital to the Espers' hospital room, where he learns that Akira is now in cryogenic storage below Neo-Tokyo's new Olympic Stadium. The Colonel, Kei, and Kaneda, arrive too late at the Espers' room, learning that Tetsuo is heading for the Stadium to meet Akira in the hopes he can give Tetsuo more information about his powers. Kei and Kaneda are detained, but Kiyoko - speaking through Kei as a medium - explains that Tetsuo must be stopped and helps them escape. Meanwhile, Tetsuo encounters Yamagata, Kaneda's right-hand man (who asks him "are you Tetsuo or someone else?"), and kills him. He travels to the Stadium, brutally dispatching soldiers who attack him. Arriving at the Stadium, Tetsuo battles and defeats Kei, who is voluntarily being used by the Espers.

Tetsuo finally unearths Akira's cryogenic chamber, only to discover Akira's organs, stored inside glass jars. The Colonel - who by now has taken over Neo-Tokyo and declared martial law - tells Tetsuo that Akira's remains had been meticulously analyzed after Tokyo's destruction and that he's been dead the entire time. Kaneda, having learned of Yamagata's death from Kai, uses Tetsuo's moment of confusion to fire on him with a laser rifle, but Tetsuo is able to block almost all the attacks bar the initial one which manages to cut his arm badly. While Tetsuo is distracted by Kaneda, the Colonel tries to shoot Tetsuo using an orbital laser weapon but manages only to sever his right arm. Tetsuo takes off into orbit and destroys the weapon, then spends the night recovering at the Stadium, psychically forging himself a new arm from inorganic material while studying Akira's organs. His girlfriend Kaori arrives and tries to calm him down as his powers create immense physical pain.

The Colonel pleads with Tetsuo to return to the lab, but Tetsuo attacks the Colonel. When the Colonel fires back, with Kaneda (protected by the Espers) joining the fray, Tetsuo is unable to keep control any longer, and his body begins to transform into a gigantic mass that crushes and kills Kaori. The Espers, watching from afar, realize the only way to stop Tetsuo is to call forth Akira, his life force contained in the body parts in the glass jars. Akira's manifestation causes another explosion, and the Espers teleport the Colonel to safety. In spite of Kiyoko and Masaru's insistence that trying to save Kaneda alone would be futile, Takashi jumps into the ever-expanding psychic field. Kiyoko and Masaru agree to join Takashi, aware they likely will not be able to return, and help save Kaneda. Kaneda experiences Tetsuo's and the Espers' memories, including how much Tetsuo trusted Kaneda as a friend and how the children obtained their powers. The Espers remove Kaneda from the field and tell him that Akira will be taking Tetsuo "away" and to find somewhere safe to ride out the explosion. The explosion engulfs nearly the whole of Neo-Tokyo, and when it shrinks and, finally, vanishes, leaves a void that is quickly filled by the nearby ocean. Kaneda wakes up to find that Kei and Kai are safe, and they drive away from the ruined stadium and the dead city. The credits begin with a Big Bang and Tetsuo saying three last words, "I am Tetsuo".