The Kaiyodo Gashapon Capturing AKIRA’s Tetsuo Shima

Tetsuo Shima Gashapon Figure from Kaiyodo's AKIRA Part 3 Encounter Series

AKIRA, Tetsuo Shima, and a Story That Still Resonates

This is a painted gashapon capsule figure of Tetsuo Shima, produced by Kaiyodo as part of their “Part 3 Encounter” series — one installment in what appears to have been a multi-part AKIRA gashapon line. The figure is mounted on a cracked-concrete diorama base and includes semi-transparent orange energy effect parts, metallic accessories, and clear vial-like components, a level of sculptural detail that sits at the high end of what capsule toys from this era typically offered.

AKIRA began as a manga by Katsuhiro Otomo, serialized in Weekly Young Magazine from 1982 to 1990 and later collected into six volumes. The 1988 anime film adaptation — directed by Otomo himself and produced by Toei — stands as a landmark of Japanese animation: a production budget well beyond the norm for its time, animation shot at 24 frames per second, and an unusual workflow in which voice actors recorded their performances before the animation was drawn, allowing character mouth movements to be precisely matched to spoken dialogue. The film reached audiences in Europe and North America well before most Japanese animation and is widely credited as one of the works that opened the genre to a Western audience.

Tetsuo Shima is the story’s most volatile figure — Shotaro Kaneda’s childhood friend and fellow biker, pulled into a government psychic experiment and left with abilities far beyond his capacity to control. His arc traces catastrophic self-destruction, and his physical appearance changes dramatically across the narrative. This figure’s tattered brown coat with red lining, yellow undershirt, downcast posture, and energy-effect accessories appear to reference a specific scene from the manga or film, though which moment exactly the sculptor had in mind has not been confirmed in any available source.

Kaiyodo, the Gashapon Format, and a Decade of Rising Standards

Kaiyodo, founded in 1964 and based in Moriguchi, Osaka, is one of Japan’s most respected figure manufacturers. During the late 1990s and early 2000s — the period when this figure is believed to have been produced, though no exact release date has been confirmed — the company was at the forefront of raising what a capsule toy could look like. Their licensed gashapon lines from this era demonstrated that mass-produced vending-machine miniatures could meet a standard that collectors would take seriously, and their work from this period is still regarded as some of the finest the format produced.

Gashapon are sold through coin-operated capsule vending machines that have been a fixture of Japanese retail since the 1960s. A coin goes in, the handle turns, and a capsule drops out containing a fully painted miniature. Part of their appeal to collectors lies in the randomized selection — completing a full series meant returning to the machine multiple times — and part lies in the detail these figures offered at their original price points. Whether “Part 3” in the series name refers to the third volume of Otomo’s manga or simply the third installment of the Kaiyodo gashapon line has not been definitively established.

Tetsuo’s Appeal and the International AKIRA Collector Scene

AKIRA has maintained a presence in international pop culture for decades. Its “Neo Tokyo 2019” setting drew renewed attention around the time of the Tokyo Olympics, and the franchise remains a touchstone for cyberpunk and dystopian science fiction fans worldwide. Among collectors who focus specifically on AKIRA merchandise, Tetsuo tends to attract particular attention: his dramatic physical transformations throughout the story give sculptors rich material to work with, and figures that incorporate energy effects and scene-setting bases offer display qualities that go well beyond a standard standing pose.

Kaiyodo’s gashapon lines are produced for the Japanese domestic market and carry no official international distribution, which places them in a category that overseas collectors can only access through direct import. For fans of the franchise, of Kaiyodo’s output from this period, or of Japanese capsule toys as a collecting genre in their own right, figures from this series occupy a specific and not easily replicated niche.