AKIRA


"Akira (anime)" redirects here. For the franchise, see Akira (franchise). For the original 1982 manga, see Akira (manga).
Akira

Theatrical release poster

Japanese name
Kanji アキラ
Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo
Screenplay by
Katsuhiro Otomo
Izo Hashimoto
Based on Akira
by Katsuhiro Otomo
Produced by
Ryōhei Suzuki
Shunzō Katō
Starring
Mitsuo Iwata
Nozomu Sasaki
Mami Koyama
Taro Ishida
Tesshō Genda
Mizuho Suzuki
Tatsuhiko Nakamura
Fukue Itō
Kazuhiro Shindō
Cinematography Katsuji Misawa
Edited by Takeshi Seyama
Music by Shōji Yamashiro

Production
company
Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., Ltd.
Distributed by Toho

Release date
July 16, 1988

Running time 124 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Budget ¥700 million / $5.7 million[1][2]
Box office $49 million[3]


Akira (Japanese: アキラ) is a 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk action film[4] directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, produced by Ryōhei Suzuki and Shunzō Katō, and written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, based on Otomo's 1982 manga of the same name. Set in a dystopian 2019, it tells the story of Shōtarō Kaneda, the leader of a biker gang whose childhood friend, Tetsuo Shima, acquires incredible telekinetic abilities after a motorcycle accident, eventually threatening an entire military complex amid chaos and rebellion in the sprawling futuristic metropolis of Neo-Tokyo.

While most of the character designs and settings were adapted from the manga, the plot differs considerably and does not include much of the last half of the manga, which continued publication for two years after the film's release. The soundtrack, which draws heavily from traditional Indonesian gamelan as well as Japanese noh music, was composed by Shōji Yamashiro and performed by Geinoh Yamashirogumi.