Remastered anime was scheduled to debut at TAAF on Saturday

TOHO CINEMAS is listing that the 4K remaster of the Akira anime film will open in 36 Japanese IMAX theaters on April 3. The film was originally scheduled to debut at Tokyo Anime Award Festival (TAAF) 2020 event on Saturday.

The 4K remaster will ship in Japan on April 24. The 4K remaster will also receive a release in the United States.

Otomo's original science-fiction action manga is set in Neo-Tokyo , a city rebuilt after being destroyed in a mysterious explosion. The manga ran in Kodansha 's Weekly Young Magazine from 1982 to 1990. Otomo directed his own animated film adaptation that premiered on July 16, 1988 — the same day that the story has the fictional Tokyo being destroyed.

Manga creator and anime director Katsuhiro Otomo announced at Anime Expo panel last July that a new anime project of his Akira manga is in the works. Sunrise president and CEO Makoto Asanuma said at the same panel that the staff wants to incorporate the entirety of the manga's story.

Warner Bros. announced a live-action film adaptation of the manga in 2008, with Taika Waititi ( Thor: Ragnarok , Boy , Hunt for the Wilderpeople ) directing the film. Entertainment news website Deadline reported in December that Warner Bros. moved its planned film off its release schedule in December. Entertainment news website Variety reported in July that Warner Bros. has delayed the film indefinitely. The film was previously slated to begin production in fall 2019, and its release was scheduled for May 21, 2021.

The organizers of TAAF 2020 announced earlier this month that they are cancelling all programs at the event in an effort to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. TAAF 2020 was scheduled to take place from March 13-16 in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.

Sources: Toho Cinemas, Cinema Today (入倉功一)