The epic, timeless hit that inspired the legendary anime film and made the word "manga" part of the global vocabulary returns in a new hardcover edition. The AKIRA Hardcover Collection features the original right-to-left manga reading format and Katsuhiro Otomo's original, hand-drawn sound effects in a beautiful, large-sized collectible edition. Neo-Tokyo has risen from the ashes of a Tokyo obliterated by a monstrous psychokinetic power known only as Akira, a being who yet lives, secretly imprisoned in frozen stasis. Those who stand guard know that Akira's awakening is a terrifying inevitability. Tetsuo, an angry young man with immense—and rapidly growing—psychic abilities, may be their only hope to control Akira when he wakes. But Tetsuo is becoming increasingly unstable and harbors a growing obsession to confront Akira face to face. A clandestine group including his former best friend sets out to destroy Tetsuo before he can release Akira—or before Tetsuo himself becomes so powerful that no force on Earth can stop him. The AKIRA Hardcover Collection features the updated translation and lettering of the 35th Anniversary Edition box set, now collectible one book at a time. As in the box set, this six-volume version of the masterwork of Katsuhiro Otomo ( Memories , Steamboy , Domu: A Child's Dream ) features the creator's Japanese-language, hand-drawn sound effects and the original, right-to-left manga reading format in a 7"x10" casewrap hardcover.