At time of release Akira was possibly regarded as the greatest manga yet written (and certainly clearer to understand than Evangelion). With the modern focus on dialogue as an engine of plot and character, Akira was a strange reading experience, with its static characters, repeated quarter-volume fight scenes against armies of gunmen, and unashamed focus on spectacle over exploring the intricacies of its own plot. The movie of Akira probably distils the vital themes and character dynamics much more sharply, with some more brilliant exchanges and creative images than anything in the source; the manga has nothing quite like that giant milk-bleeding teddy bear. What it does have, however, almost nothing else does.

The art of Akira is great; the atmospheric sense of place is without peer. The feeling of ruin and desperation lies over every rag and pile of rubble. Every bizarre, wasted psychic is undeniably a child of nuclear apocalypse. The action rattles along at a frantic pace (Dark Horse's release of the series without chapter divisions was genius), with ominous forces of politics, science or the supernatural a constant presence. Those quarter-volume cinematic running battles? You won't find better. Some shonen manga constantly introduce new character dramas and plot devices like fairground gewgaws. Nothing in Akira feels contrived; everything is the natural movement of a master's artwork, action and atmospheric roller-coaster, on as grand a scale as the titanic powers of Akira himself.

The characters of Akira are not principally developed or expounded by drama or dialogue; with their world in constant collapse, there is scarcely time for such things. Their characters are expounded through action. Every line and act of Tetsuo, Kandeda and the Colonel expresses their character with utter consistency and charisma. And every character is real. Hopeless revolutionaries like Ryuusaku pervade history. Rebels, rivals and friends, Kaneda and Tetsuo live on in every city of Earth. And men exactly like the Colonel, my favourite character, actually hijacked Japan into WWII. Manga such as Naruto or Aldnoah Zero end up describing nothing but the playground squabble of two boys. Akira's themes of power, social collapse and rebellion (teenage, militant, military and supernatural) are real, and they are big; hence a manga filled with good old-fashioned gun battles has been impossible to ignore in any period. Personal struggles, such as Kaneda and Tetsuo's conflict, are overshadowed by cataclysmic events, and gain vitally in sympathy because of it.

Before covering a few flaws I must mention Chiyoko, the machine-gun wielding wonder-woman who will be new to movie watchers, and that her character could be considered a test-run for the heroine of 'Legend of Mother Sarah'. That is a great manga; if you can track down some copies legally, do so. For all the roaring bluster of Akira's cast, however, their characters and fates perhaps lack the detail or originality that would move them from archetypes to beloved household names. As mentioned, the manga also often gets too caught up in grand disasters and continuous action to explore its characters and plot in more original or explicitly thoughtful ways. As also mentioned, the movie absolutely solves this latter problem. And the manga remains a brilliant spectacle of power, rebellion, and social collapse.