Good news for those of us unable to transform at will into a towering assemblage of melting flesh and exposed organs: An easier form of Akira cosplay is now available. Thanks to anime company Funimation, the comic and movie’s iconic red motorcycle jacket up for sale.
Thumbing its nose at the idea that the jacket is best worn by hardscrabble street toughs just trying to survive the cruel world of post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo, anyone who wants to buy the item will need to have a spare $450 kicking around. The person should also be able to beat the omnipresent bots to the punch when it goes on sale as a limited run of 300 jackets.
Funimation’s product page says the leather jacket “[stays] true to the manga’s original design” by ditching the comic’s Capsule gang pill emblem (which is a real shame) and “leaning into the movie’s style.” That last part, we assume, refers to the look of the 1988 animated film and not the perpetually-in-development live-action remake that’s currently in Taika Waititi’s hands, for whenever he has time to get around shooting it. Regardless of which version of the source material inspired it, photos and videos of models wearing the jacket do make it look pretty good. As far as dressing like an anime character while walking down the street goes, it’s a bit less conspicuous than wearing cat ears or carrying around a giant sword.
The jacket is up for sale on July 13th. Those who miss a chance at buying one can probably just satisfy themselves by spending a fortune on animation cels. Either that, or by driving their customized sci-fi motorcycle around and getting into tire-iron fights with rival clown-bikers.
[via Boing Boing]
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