AKIRA, cut no. 1, solegraph

For the opening of AKIRA the camera moves in on this aerial view of Tokyo and pans up from the bottom of the artwork. At about half way through the title »1988.7.16 TOKYO« is superimposed on the background which marks both the beginning of the  movie's plot and the date of the film's theatrical release in Japan.

The seemingly odd shape and perspective of the artwork are due to the animation camera’s movement. During the first half of the shot the camera pans over the background. At around the middle the camera “trucks back” slowly which means that the lens moves further away from the artwork and hence the field of view widens.

Although this is the first cut of the film, the background was drawn as the last piece of the production by art director Toshiharu Mizutani. Takashi Watabe, one of the most prolific concept and layout designers, prepared the layout. Usually the layout drawing would be transferred to the background paper but, because time was running out, Mizutani painted directly on the layout. Remaining details of the Watabe's  pencil drawing can still be seen towards the outer areas of the coloured background. It took the art director two and a half days and nights to finish this oversized piece.

With each print of our solegraph editions we try to approximate the original artwork as close as technically possible. For more information on the scanning and printing process have a look here.

Radiant White is a 100% cotton paper with a smooth, velvety surface texture which guarantees archival standards and brilliant colors. Its premium matt inkjet coating meets the highest standards regarding density, color gamut, color graduation and image sharpness. We selected this exclusive paper with our printing partner YPP because it not only yields fantastic results in terms of colour reproduction but also feels very close to the paper of the original artwork.

The perfection of your reproduction is approved by the signature of the artist himself.