game has the player in the role of Kaneda, with the storyline starting with Kaneda and his motorcycle gang in police custody. In 1994, a British-made action game was released for the Amiga CD32 and it's considered one of the console's worst games. In 2002, Bandai released a pinball simulation titled Akira Psycho Ball for the PlayStation 2. On June 9, 1995, Kodansha released Akira Club, a compilation of various materials related to the production of the series. These include test designs of the paperback volume covers, title pages as they appeared in Young Magazine, images of various related merchandise and commentary by Otomo. Dark Horse collaborated with Kodansha to release an English-translated version of the book in 2007. Since 2002, Warner Bros. had acquired rights to create an American live action film of Akira. Since the initial announcement, a number of directors, producers and writers have been reported to be attached to the film, starting with Stephen Norrington (writer/director) and Jon Peters (producer). By 2017, it was announced Taika Waititi would officially serve as the director of the live-action adaptation, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Michael Golamco. Warner Bros. planned to distribute the film on May 21, 2021, but after Waititi was officially confirmed to both direct and write Thor: Love and Thunder, the film was put on hold and taken off the release slot. On July 4, 2019, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced an anime television series to be made by Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks). Legacy Akira is considered a landmark work in the cyberpunk genre, credited with spawning the Japanese cyberpunk subgenre. It actually predates the seminal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer (1984), which was released two years after Akira began serialization in 1982 and was not translated into Japanese until 1985. Akira inspired a wave of Japanese cyberpunk-infused manga and anime works, including Ghost in the Shell, Battle Angel Alita, Cowboy Bebop, and Serial Experiments Lain. Tetsuo Hara cited Akira as an influence on the dystopian post-apocalyptic setting of his manga Fist of the North Star (1983 debut). Manga artist Tooru Fujisawa, creator of Great Teacher Onizuka, cited Akira as one of his greatest inspirations and said it changed the way he wrote. Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto has cited both the Akira manga and anime as major influences, particularly as the basis of his own manga career. Bartkira, a fan-made web comic parody of Akira created by