On April 4, 2025, the globally influential animated epic Akira, gets a soundtrack remix fully produced by Katsuhiro Otomo, the anime’s original creator. Akira Remix features tracks by Makoto Kubota (Les Rallizes Dénudés, Makoto Kubota and Sunset Gang), Yasuharu Konishi (Pizzicato Five), and Kuniaki Haishima (Kowloon’s Gate). The April 4th release marks the first time this set has been released on vinyl, with cutting by Japan’s top cutting engineer, Tohru Kotetsu. As with the 2024 CD release, Otomo himself supervised the artwork for this project.

Katsuhiro Otomo’s epic anime Akira premiered in 1988 with a soundtrack by Geinoh Yamashirogumi, led by music director Shoji Yamashiro. The film’s soundtrack was released in 2016 with Hypersonic High-Resolution audio, and in 2017, the analog version, titled “Akira Symphonic Suite (Kokyo Kumikyoku AKIRA),” based on this audio master, was released by Milan Records in America. Then in 2020, the “Akira 4K Remaster Set” was released on Blu-ray, featuring a 5.1-channel audio remix overseen by Yamashiro, with the remastered DCP also being screened in theaters.

Two years later, Otomo himself planned and produced the anthology “Otomo The Complete Works,” which included the “Katsuhiro Otomo Complete Collection Akira Cel Exhibition” held in August and October 2023 at Mixalive Tokyo in Ikebukuro and Osaka’s Parco Gallery. During the exhibition, remixed tracks from Akira’s soundtrack were played exclusively, and in August 2024, those remixed tracks were released on CD as “Akira Remix.”

For the remix version, Otomo personally selected three the musicians – Makoto Kubota, Yasuharu Konishi and Kuniaki Haishima – who each handled the remixing.