"Thanks for pointing out the importance of Akira. Honestly it's the movie that caused a shift in not only what I thought was "cool" but also the ability for a 17 year old boy to still dig on cartoons. It was my gatway film for sure, but it didn't hit the US market on video until about 91-92. I watched everything I could get my hands on after I saw Akira, which at that time wasn't easy especially living in Dallas, TX. We had a few video stores that got some stuff, but it was limited for sure, and being that Dallas couldn't have been further away from Japan, the comic shops that did get them in charged an arm and a leg for them."
"I was able to get stuff like "Urotsukidôji" and "Vampire Hunter D" but it all came back to Akira for me. I think it was my love of movies like "Star Wars", "Flash Gordon" and "Buckaroo Banzai" that really caused me to lean towards all things Neo Tokyo. I remember the day I found the soundtrack in a local video game store, sure it was $30 which for a soundtrack I tought was unheard of, but I had to have it and still do. When you combine both the art and the music it really is a cultural masterpiece."
"The art blew me away, but it also showed me that bold colors and thick lines worked well. It was one of those subject matters that I never touched though, until it motivated me to do a poster in the style for a band I was in years ago. After that I decided to customize a guitar by morphing the poster art of Kaneda walking towards his PX-03 and some of my bands logos on a Fender Telecaster. Eventually when I got into customizing vinyl, I tried to avoid pop culture designs as much as I could, but when i got my first Foomi from Kid Robot, it just screamed Tetsuo. He's not perfect by anymeans he was part of my entry into this years Munny World contest where I took home the "James Brown" award, by knocking out 14 full customs in 30 days."
Shown here are customs of Tetsuo, and the Akiracaster, and the words of
Scott Kinnebrew (of
www.forcesofdorkness.com) who shares with us about him & the anime classic "Akira".
What is YOUR story?
