I heard Otomo has written an alternative ending for the western market. What did he change?
Here’s how this rumour originated: Otomo had to interrupt his work on the manga because he wanted to do the anime first. So he wrote a quick and dirty ending for the Japanese manga readers. Of course, nobody including Otomo himself liked it. After the film was finished, he dropped this ending and continued the manga. After the film reached American cinenas, Marvel had just begun to release the American Akira edition. The serialized version of Akira in Young Magazine came to an end in July 1990. The earlier issues have already been reprinted in those thick volumes. The last volume has been suspended, however, because Otomo wanted to do some rewriting. He did little changes and additions here and there but he mainly wrote that epilogue which you all can read now. Apparently he took his time about it; The last sixth volume was finally released in March 1993. Now the American version: It’s delay had begun after the release of issue #33 (very) roughly at the same time the last Japanese volu
