I ordered this book from Amazon about seven months ago. It has been out in Japan for years and years, taunting me from the eBay stores of priveleged otaku. It was in Japanese and that was always the deal-breaker. To have it in English made the nerdiest recesses of my psyche squeal with ecstacy. Akira has been one of my favorites since 5th grade.
Then Dark Horse, Amazon, or the Universe in general, decided to fuck with me. I received emails, saying the book wasn't going to ship in time for its scheduled release. Three more months went by and the new release date was pushed back. Three more months and I received an email saying it probably wouldn't be out until December. After that, it kind of fell off of my radar. Then, on Monday, after a particularly shitty day at work, I found it on my doorstep. Like some long lost girl; finally ready to love me.
I've read the graphic novel -all 2000+ pages of it- at least four times. As far as I'm concerned, AKIRA Club has nothing to do with the story. AKIRA Club provides context. With title pages from it's various iterations and translations, photographs of the merchandise, and translations of margin notes from Otomo-san, himself, AKIRA Club expertly shows how the AKIRA epic became a phenomenon in Japan and how it began to take shape in the US. Worth the wait and, more or less, worth the hefty $30 price tag.
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