Akira is arguably one of the most influential manga ever created. It turned Otomo into one of the gods of manga, even though he never again penned of a similar scale. It is his opus, as it rightly should be. The landmark film adaption, one of the most important anime ever released and one of the films responsible for the popularity of anime in America, is an achievement, to say the least. What one does not typically realize, though, is that, while the 2 hour adaption does remain true to the original for the most part, it covers less than 2 volumes of the manga before more or less fast forwarding to the end. It is actually laughable to think that Hollywood thought they could turn this masterpiece into a live-action, star studded film trilogy set in Manhattan.

The book’s art is gorgeous. Otomo has a very distinct style that not only makes his work very recognizable but also contains incredible amounts of detail. I never questioned the emotion on the character’s faces, and I recall particularly a moment in a fight between Kaneda and an overpowered Tetsuo in which their fear was almost tangible. The wide shots of Neo-Tokyo and the Great Tokyo Empire are incredible. Each and every panel is full of things that make the world of Akira so real that I felt as though I could have boarded a plane and taken pictures of the place.

Katsuhiro Otomo has directed two feature animated films, as well as a number of shorts. Akira and Steamboy both contain the impeccable eye for composition that Otomo displays in Akira. The book plays out like a movie, the panel layout directing the eye smoothly through the story in a way that is more cinematic than a large amount of actual cinema. There are no true breaks in the story, with the exception of natural lulls and scene changes. As I was reading, I often wondered how the manga was split up when it was published originally or reprinted by Marvel in the late 80s.

The story itself is intriguing. The writing is clever and well done, all of the dialogue serving to not only further the story but to give us more of a sense of each character’s personality. It does, at times, get a bit confusing. There is a lot happening all at once, and some of the similarities between character names can cause some difficulty in the beginning. But the tale of psychic teenagers and children and the immanent destruction of the world around us or society as we know it is played out quite well. Often the scale of things seems ridiculous when one takes a step back, but it is so well written that it completely works within the book.

Akira is one of the most important manga ever written. It is a piece that no one should miss. If you are fortunate enough to pick up all 6 volumes at once (an act I would highly recommend), I can almost guarantee you will finish the entire thing in a day. The book is, however, deeply steeped in Japanese culture and post-WW2 ideology. This can take away from it somewhat if you are unfamiliar/unwilling to try to understand. That being said, if you have not read this book, you are doing a great disservice to yourself.

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