This Stunning Akira Cosplay Brings Kaneda To Life

It’s been a big couple days for the Akira franchise! With the live action Warner Brothers film from director Taika Waititi currently filming for a May 2021 release date and the original creator of the franchise, Katsuhiro Otomo, announcing that he’ll be continuing the franchise as an anime series, we couldn’t think of a better time to be a fan of this cyberpunk legend. One fan seemed to agree, creating their own cosplay of protagonist Kaneda and his amazing technologically advanced motorcycle.

Funimation shared this amazing cosplay from their official Twitter Account, from the cosplayer Effekted with the build of the motorcycle from Lumlionel:

Kaneda was quite the eccentric and idiosyncratic protagonist for Akira. Simply trying to get his best friend Tetsuo back, the biker was a fish out of water when it came to the machinations of an internal government conspiracy mixed with psychic children for good measure. As Tesuo unraveled thanks to his new psychic abilities, Kaneda attempted to stop him from destroying both himself and the city though wasn’t successful in either.

The beginning of Akira sees Kaneda and the rest of his biker gang showing off their rides by taking on a rival gang of bikers in the form of the “Clowns”. This opening scene does a fantastic job of not just showing off the capabilities of motorcycles in the future, but also at detailing the artwork of the franchise that made it such a legend that anime series would take notes from for decades to come.

While a live action Akira movie has long been a rumored project in Hollywood, it is only until recently that WB and Taika Waititi managed to get the ball rolling and will be filming the project beginning this summer. A casting call went out looking for actors to fit roles that sound similar to those of the protagonists of the anime/media franchise, so expect the live action movie to do justice to its counterpart.

What do you think of this amazing cosplay for Akira? How much would you be willing to pay for life like model of motorcycle that Kaneda rode? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime!

Originally created by Katsuhiro Otomo for Kodansha’s Young Magazine in 1982, Akira later inspired the equally as prolific 1988 animated film, which Otomo himself directed. The story is set in a dystopian world following the bleak close of World War III. A gang leader known as Kaneda finds himself embroiled in a massive government operation when his best friend begins exhibiting powerful telekinetic gifts. To save his friend, Kaneda must get to the bottom of Neo Tokyo’s espers, but the lead quickly learns he is way in over his head.