Gorka Uztarroz is a freelance illustrator from Paris and also a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu black belt. He could be just another artist paying tribute to Akira; but behind his work lies an interesting personal story that he shares with us today, an experience that connected him to our beloved anime forever.
His first impact back in the 90s at just 11 years old, when his neighbor’s father brought him to a recent movie premiere, an animated film called “Akira”. But who would have known back then that this wasn’t just any ordinary cartoon movie? After all, despite some rather violent animes being aired daily on the French TV channels at the time like Saint Seiya, Hokuto no Ken… in the public’s mind everything drawn and animated was automatically for kids.
As the blood from the dogs being gunned down splattered all across the cars jammed in traffic, his eyes and ears were locked on the screen. And once the psychedelic apocalyptic uncomprehensible ending passed, he just felt dizzy. What had just happened??
As they got out of the theater stumbling, high on adrenaline, the father was mumbling to himself something in the vein of “Goddammit this shit was ultra-violent !” while looking both angry at the anime, and maybe at himself.
From that day on, he forged an absolute love for this masterpiece, and consider it one of the greatest pieces of art of the past century.
That boy grew up, became the current artist, and, as expected, dedicated part of his work to paying tribute to the film that marked his childhood… and, in a way, his profession. First, he told about this “childhood incident” in his own self-released comic Le French Ninja – A True Story.
In 2009 Gorka started training BJJ, and that love for Akira naturally crept up into some of his BJJ designs, such as an Akira BJJ Gi.
Some years later, he reworked another classic Akira image for a BJJ Competition in Paris. And lately, he has designed some Akira inspired BJJ Belts and produced as a fun project in a limited series, even with the option to embroider your name/surname at the back of the belt.
A whole love story for Akira forged by accident since childhood… like so many fans (myself included) who discovered the saga when we were still kids.
