Although much of the character designs and basic settings
were borrowed from the comic, the film does still manage
to bring several thematic influences into itself, most
notably in the plot which was somewhat different (partly
due to time and budget) from the comic. An example of
this would be the typeface (AKIRA) of the film and the
soundtrack which bear striking resemblance to Godfrey
Reggio's 1983 documentary film Koyaanisqatsi. The manga
originally began publication in 1982 in Japan's Young
Magazine and finally concluded in July 1990. The collected
manga totalled over 2000 pages and was released in 6 volumes
by Kodansha. In 1988, it was published for the first time
in the USA by Epic Comics, a division of Marvel Comics.
This colorized English version ended its run in 1995.
An English version of the 6 volume collection was released
in the USA in 2000 by Dark Horse Comics.
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