Plot
The governance of a futuristic city is secretly handled by a supercomputer called ATOM,and publicly by a ruthless female director whom ATOM refers to as "Mama". A group of freedom fighters attempt to expose and sabotage the system.
One of the freedom fighters has an elder brother,with whom he has lost contact,who works for the director's riot police. This elder brother possesses moderate psychic abilities such as the power to briefly levitate a pen. The director learns of this and recruits the nascent psychic for an 'experiment' which entails connecting his brain and nervous system to ATOM,stripping away much of his body in the process. Throughout this the subject is seen to inhabit a blissful womblike existence from his perspective.
The freedom fighter brother attempts to infiltrate the government base but is shot by security. Sensing this,the psychic brother wakes from anesthetic and uses his powers to superheat his surroundings and levitate the remnants of his physical body from the workbench,effectively becoming the center of a vengeful destructive sun:the 'Fireball' of the story's title.
Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of Akira, in terms of both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation. He was decorated a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2005, promoted to Officier of the order in 2014, became the fourth manga artist ever inducted into the American Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2012, and was awarded the Purple Medal of Honor from the Japanese government in 2013. Otomo later received the Winsor McCay Award at the 41st Annie Awards in 2014 and the 2015 Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême, the first manga artist to receive the award. Otomo is married to Yoko Otomo. Together they have one child, a son named Shohei Otomo, who is also an artist.
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Akira is a Japanese cyberpunk post-apocalyptic manga series written and illustrated by Katsuhiro Otomo. It was serialized biweekly in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Young Magazine from December 20, 1982, to June 25, 1990, with its 120 chapters collected into six tankōbon volumes. It was initially published in the United States by Marvel Comics under its Epic imprint, becoming one of the first manga works to be translated in its entirety into English. It is currently published by Kodansha Comics in North America. Considered a watershed title for the medium, the manga is also famous for spawning the seminal 1988 cyberpunk anime film adaptation of the same name and the greater franchise.
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Katsuya Terada, is a Japanese illustrator and cartoonist from the town of Tamano, Okayama. His alias is the portmanteau Rakugakingu. Terada's prolific visual arts practice uniquely straddles the lines between manga, fine art, and digital design. His work ranges widely from highly-detailed comics and novel illustrations to expressive, futuristic character designs for video games and anime. Terada posts actively on Facebook as Katsuya "t e r r a" Terada, as well as on his web blog terra's book.
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Akira is a Japanese cyberpunk media franchise based on Katsuhiro Otomo's seminal manga, Akira, published from 1982 to 1990. It was adapted into a 1988 anime film and two video games. A live-action feature film has also been in development since 2000, and a new anime television series by Otomo was also announced in 2019.
