synopsis and predicted he would finish it in six months. However, just like what happened with Domu, new ideas and problems immediately came up and expanded the story gradually as he wrote. Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga series Tetsujin 28-go (1956–1966) had particular influence on Akira, as Otomo wanted to pay homage to the children's manga. He explained, "the grand plot for Akira is about an ultimate weapon developed during wartime and found during a more peaceful era. So the accidents and story develop around that ultimate weapon. If you know, Tetsujin 28-go then this is the same overall plot." With Akira, Otomo also wanted to depict the later Showa period, including preparations for the Olympics, the rapid economic growth, and the student protests of the 1960s. "I wanted to recreate the assorted elements that built this era and craft an exciting story that would seem believable enough in reality." Otomo said that while there had been post-apocalyptic works before, he could not think of one that depicted an apocalypse in the middle of the story and wanted to do that with Akira. Mark Schilling reported that Otomo has also cited influence from the 1977 live-action film Star Wars on his series. Development With Akira, Otomo wanted to "dig deeper into [his] issues" with speed and flow, telling a story with as few words as possible, "edit it to gain that sense of speed and make people read it faster, and at the same time make them stop cold at the important scenes." When it started, he was drawing 20 pages a chapter, for a total of 40 pages a month. Otomo began the process for each chapter by fully completing the first page as practice. In order to save time, he did not bother with character-pose sketches or the like; he drew directly onto the page he was submitting to the editors. After he drew each page, his assistant inked the lines of the buildings and the rest of the backgrounds with a Rotring pen and a ruler. Otomo would complete the rough draft two days before his deadline. He would spend half a day drawing the characters, then finish the buildings by adding dust, crevices and cracks to windows. Otomo estimated that they would finish the final rough draft at 5 a.m. on Sunday, ink the characters by 7 p.m., and then submit the completed chapter at 8 a.m. Monday