AKIRA, cut no. 182, solegraph

A street in downtown Neo Tokyo with pubs and shops. This production background was used to depict the first-person perspective of a wounded man staggering down the street. He has been hit by a bullet and is suffering from loss of blood, thus his vision is blurred as he tries to comprehend the environment. The camera moves quickly across the large tableau. A blur effect was created by using multiple exposures during the photographic process.

This piece is outstanding from all the background artwork created for AKIRA. Usually city dwellers, cars, litter and all other things which could be animated would not been rendered on the final backdrop of the scene. Moving items would be drawn on cels, mostly by the animation department and not be part of the art director's domain. However, because of the special camera effect, Toshiharu Mizutani was offered the chance to depict the complete scene on one tableau. 

While the motifs for our poster prints are cropped for an immaculate appearance without framing and passe-partout our high-grade line comes with all the patina that the artwork gathered during its use in the production process. In the case of this production background of AKIRA’s cut no. 182 this means that the top border is missing a substantial part. The missing area held the normal registration pegs which had to be replaced to allow for the unusual camera work.

Besides the sheer beauty of the piece it’s these little anecdotes that we enjoy most. By purchasing a solegraph high-grade print you don’t just collect an artwork but a part of anime history. 

Each print of our high-grade editions is as close to the original artwork as possible. The colours are brilliant, the size is just the size of the original, the texture of the paper matches the one used by the artists. The perfection of this reproduction is approved by the signature of the artist himself.