Manga Review: Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo)

Even if you've seen the film adaptation, Otomo's original creation is a sprawling monster of a story unlike any other.  Available in six huge volumes, the manga tells the epic and incredible story about unbridled psychic warfare in the midst of civil strife.  It's a pulpy, punkish world of biker gangs, secret military projects, mutants, and more.  Something is bound to blow up every ten pages or so...

This might be one of the most breakneck mangas I've read; from start to finish, the story is loaded with chases, fights, battles, and all-out destruction.  Bullets and rockets fly pretty frequently, as all the different characters and factions clash in a complex and twisting series of struggles.  When the psychic powers become unleashed, an awe-inspiring amount of vehicles, buildings, and city blocks are decimated and left in ruin.  Even after everything gets nuked, the battle continues relentlessly.  There is practically no drag in this series, and each new page presents a big and bold visual story that inspires awe and excitement.  It is also a violent story with a huge body count, which gives the story a lot of edge and weight behind all the different conflicts that erupt.

The story feels a little wonky at first; it seems like characters ran into each other very randomly and in the most unlikely ways.  Around the halfway point, when the whole story diverges into the more post-apocalyptic setting, I felt the story became more balanced and focused.  There are numerous characters in this saga - some get more attention than others - but many of them are likable, or at least easy to understand.  However, these characters sure do scream at each other a lot, and there are times when they seem unreasonably mean and nasty.  Through it all, the story illustrates strong themes concerning the abuse of power, war, corruption, and social isolation.  Above all, the story is post-modern punk at its finest, given that the core of the story is about the youth of NeoTokyo rebelling, and even evolving, against the older generation.

This manga is illustrated with superb artwork.  Nearly every page is ordained in highly-detailed settings and striking action scenes.  Characters tend to look a little odd, with their huge wide cheeks and faces, but they are actually pretty well-drawn.  There is a lot of ingenious design behind all the different settings, vehicles, creatures, and effects throughout the story.  Writing is not bad either.

Even though I found the first half of the saga a bit convoluted, the last three or four volumes are phenomenal, and the whole series is a thrilling read.  The movie hardly even compares to the sheer scope and detail of the manga.  It is easily recommended to any manga or sci-fi fan.

5/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Story:  Good | Manga:  Perfect)