Animation director, manga artist, and writer Katsuhiro Otomo made some announcements at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles, including the one that he will direct a new TV anime series based on the original Akira manga, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The anime studio Bandai Namco’s Sunrise will produce the series.
Otomo is also writing and directing his third anime feature Orbital Era, which is set “in the near future on space colony under construction,” according to the show’s website. Orbital Era will be, “an action-adventure story of some boys in this peculiar environment and society who keep living their lives while they’re being tossed about by fate.’The reality found in mankind’s future’ will be depicted through their perspective.” Including Steamboy in 2004, this will be Otomo’s third feature, which took him 10 years to complete.
A 4k and HDR remastering of the 1988 feature Akira will be released in Japan in 2020. The post-apocalyptic story of delinquent bikers set in 2019 is considered as a classic of the genre and has been a great influence on creators. The show will be directed by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok).
Otomo also announced that Kodansha will publish the collection Otomo: The Complete Works, which will be curated by Otomo himself. The collection aims to “trace the trajectory of his ideas and creations as far back as the birth of his creative career. It will include every one of his works and statements in chronological order since his debut as a manga artist in 1971.”
The collection will be published globally. The release dates for the Akira series and the anime feature Orbital Era are still unknown.
Sunrise posted on Facebook that “fans will be kept up to date about this new anime adaptation project as details become available.”
At the Anime Expo, Otomo also released the first teaser for Orbital Era.