It's been a while since Katsuhiro Otomo drew a manga. He's best known for his eight-year work Akira, along with the anime film adaptation he also directed, but he hasn't worked on a new manga since 2006's Park.

Japanese magazine Geijutsu Shincho caught up with Otomo in an interview that ran more than 60 pages. Besides discussing his upcoming anime short with Sunrise, Hi-no-youjin, that premieres this June at Annecy, Otomo talked manga. The interview featured a new science-fiction short called DJ Teck's Morning Attack, an eight-page, full-color manga.

More importantly, Otomo revealed that he was working on a new manga set in the Meiji era. This manga will be his first long-form manga since Akira and his first shonen manga ever. Otomo didn't go into any details, so we'll have to wait for future announcements, but let's just hope that this manga is produced more quickly than Akira was. Then again, if the man needs time to craft another masterpiece, I think we'll understand.

[Via Crunchyroll]