Akira review

Galactic_Kitten14
Apr 14, 2021
I don't think I have ever written a review on something I quite liked as much as this, so this right now seems kind of unusual for me, but yeah, Akira the manga is excellent.

I had already watched the movie previously and loved it. It was an aesthetic masterpiece, however as far as story goes, it just felt too rushed and like it's skipping larger chunks of important information. Even if it ultimately raised interesting questions about society and technological development, it still felt like something was missing.

Now that I have finally gotten around reading the manga, I have to say, that even that problem is eliminated for me.

The story initially focuses around a group of juvenile delinquents, who happen to stumble upon a shriveled-up-vegetable-kid with psychic powers, while minding their own business, speeding with their motorcycles on the Neo Tokyo highway. One accident later all hell starts breaking loose.

The plot as it progresses is great. It starts by painting a society with loose morals; authorities are violent, kids get involved in all sorts of trouble (our real-life parents would be getting panic attacks for) and street gangs are running rampant. Throw in some politics, secret organizations and psychic powers, mix 'em up with interesting sci-fi ideas and post-world war II anxieties of the Japanese and you have yourself a tasty mixture to serve as the basis of a story unlike anything back in 1982 - as well as today.

The characters in Akira are good enough. I have found criticism of them not being developed too much and that's fair enough, but honestly I don't think Akira needed that. Yes, you might not like Kaneda, who is technically a morally more ambigious shounen main character, happy-go-lucky and way too brave for what he is doing, as well as an a**hole to boot, Kei is also kinda bland and while the colonel may grow likable for being a man of principle, who does his best to get sh*t done and Chiyoko is a bazooka wielding and tank driving war-machine, the closest thing to a relatable character will probably be Tetsuo, a crazy f**k, who develops godlike powers and holds Neo Tokyo in his palm with his rule of terror - the source of his relatability being the various psychological implications we get, an obvious oedipal complex, as well as his appearent ambitions. But none of that really matters, too much to me, cause - as I've already pointed out - the world building brilliantly makes up for it with portraying a general psychological mentality of the surroundings of Neo Tokyo, that makes the world come to life, even if I wouldn't want to go for a beer with any of the characters.

Aesthetically, it's also great. Sure Tetsuo looks like he is on one of those "who can make his face smallest?"-challenges and one or two characters look too much alike, but then again, all of them always seem really dynamic and never too stiff, the machinery presented has excellent designs and the backgrounds always look detailed and pleasing to the eye, which you grow to appreciate especially when Otomo starts sh*tting out pages upon pages of devastation and explosions.

So all things considered, I think it's only fair, I give this the best rating.
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Akira
Akira
Autor Otomo, Katsuhiro
Artista