Kanye West Calls Japanese Film ‘Akira’ His Greatest Creative Inspiration
Kanye West is tweeting again, this time about famed Japanese artist and filmmaker Katsuhiro Otomo. Yeezy today (Aug. 27) shouted out Otomo's seminal 1998 work Akira, calling the movie his "biggest creative inspiration."
"Katsuhiro Otomo the creator of Akira," he wrote in a tweet that included a photo of Otomo holding a pair of Yeezy Boost 700 Wave Runners. "This movie is my biggest creative inspiration."
"Every stage show I’ve ever worked Every video not just Stronger every product even when I was in the hospital I would think… oh shit this is like Akira," he continued. "This is not only the greatest animation achievement in history the subject matter is so relevant to the current state of the world."
Fans will recall that the Hype Williams-directed video for "Stronger," from West's 2007 album Graduation, includes shot-for-shot recreations of scenes from Otomo's film about a telekinetic motorcyclist in dystopian Neo-Tokyo.
The video dropped amid West's first full-fledged dive into Japanese visual traditions. Takashi Murakami famously helped design the cover art for Graduation and its singles, as well as the subsequent Glow In The Dark Tour's now-mythic merchandise featuring the Dropout Bear wearing stutter shades.
Yeezy would go on to collaborate again with Murakami on the artwork for this year's Kids See Ghosts project with Kid Cudi. Alas, he is yet to work directly with Otomo, although today's tweeted photo will be sure to spark speculation about future projects.
Revisit Kanye West's "Stronger" video and read his tweets about Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira below.
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