Akira - manga

Akira is a cyberpunk action manga from the legendary Katsuhiro Otomo with some art help by Satoshi Kon.  Published between 1982 and 1990 in Young magazine, the series was compiled into 6 tankoubon.

    By now everyone should be pretty familiar with the plot of the movie version of Akira.  The manga is a bit different from the movie but much of the basics are the same so I won't get too much into repeating what’s in the movie.

    Neo-Tokyo, decades after World War 3 changes Japan and the rest of the world.  Kaneda's motorcycle gang is one of many packs of vagrant youths who prowl the streets of the city.  After crashing into Takashi on an abandoned freeway Tetsuo is tagged by the secret military organization that continues to conduct the tests responsible for the creation of Akira's power and destruction.  They detect latent psychic powers in him and conduct experiments on him, trying to recreate and control the powers in Akira.  Kaneda end's up getting mixed in with the resistance group run by Ryu and his 'sister' Kei, who keep trying to kidnap Akira from the project.  His involvement with them puts him in Colonel Skikishima cross-hairs.  Forgotten members of the project ban together under the guidance of the venerable Lady Miyoko in order to try and stop a repeat of the destruction of Tokyo.  When Tetsuo's power begin to manifest he escapes from the military and tries to control his pain with street drugs, eventually taking over the rival gang, The Clowns.  A war starts between Kaneda and Tetsuo at the same time Ryo and Kei's group starts to have success against the military.  Backed into a corner, the Colonel starts a coup and takes control of the city, but is too late and powerless to stop Tetsuo from reviving the cryogenic frozen Akira.  In a last ditch effort the Colonel fires the SOL orbital laser but is unsuccessful at killing either Akira or Tetsuo.  In the confusion, Kei and the remaining members of the resistance kidnap Akira and try to hide him from the army.  A war breaks out between the military and the politician backing the resistance.  Kaneda, Kei and the others are caught up in a running gun battle throughout the city as they try to find a safe place to hide.  Their safety is compromised as their benefactor betrays them to use Akira for his own designs.  In a final showdown between the military, the resistance and the benefactor, Takashi is killed in front of Akira, causing him to blow the city up again.

    The story skips ahead a bit in time; we find the ruin of Neo-Tokyo and the packs of survivors trying their best to live.  The world has abandoned the city and its inhabitants.  In the vacuum of law and order two factions have sprung up.  On one side there is Lady Miyoko and her devout followers, offering safety and help to anyone who requests it.  On the other side is the Great Tokyo Empire, with Lord Akira at the head and Tetsuo acting as the mouth piece.  Kei and another member of the resistance are hiding the other two members of the project the military had, Kiyoko and Mitsuru.  However, without the powerful medication they lived on their survival is tenuous.  Tetsuo is feeding the people who flock to him medicine to see if he can create more powers.  As his strength continues to grow his head and body experience tremendous pain and approaches Lady Miyoko in secret who informs him that he must stop taking all the medicine in order to attain true powers.  When he stops his body begins to expand and absorb things around him to create a larger vessel for his growing strength.  Meanwhile the US is poised to strike at Akira while also harboring fugitive scientists to study the psychic phenomenons.  Kei decides the children need the help of Lade Miyoko and attempt to bring them to her but are harassed by factions of the Great Tokyo Empire.  They end up getting help from the Colonel who has been hiding and trying to restore control of the SOL.  Under Tetsuo's lieutenant’s command an armed faction attempts to attack and destroy Lady Miyoko's power.  Kei and the Colonel help Lady Miyoko to ward of the attack and when SOL is fired again Kaneda appears from where he had been trapped following Akira’s second psychic explosion.  Kaneda with the help of an old gang member join forces with Joker from the Clowns and plan an assault to kill Tetsuo.  Lady Miyoko and the 2 children use Kei to do the same thing while the US forces are also launching a covert mission to accomplish the exact same goal.  Tetsuo, loosing grip with his power, is manifesting as a giant grotesque baby.  The final showdown pits everyone against Tetsuo to try and prevent the birth of another Akira.  While at the same time Akira himself is being drawn to his death by Lady Miyoko and the children.

    In the 90's I was only able to read the first 2 tankoubon and the 6th one.  The 6th one was in Japanese and my language skills were pretty lacking at that point so much of the story had remained a mystery to me.  That being said, the movie has been one of my favorites since the first time I watched it in the early 90's and converted me to an anime fan, like everyone else in the 2nd generation of American otaku.  I was blown away by the depth of the story presented in the manga that the anime never even scratched the surface of.  I knew there was stuff that was left out, like the rampant drug use, but I was completely unaware of anything like the events that took place in the 4th, 5th and 6th tankoubon.  It is a shame really that the movie was so limited in the story it told.  It would be absolutely fantastic to see this series brought back to the screen in a series of OAV's that would really tell the entire story.  Forget a movie remake, that doesn't allow enough of the story.  Let’s see a 12 part OAV set!!  That being said, this is undoubtedly one of the finest manga ever crafted.  The story and characters are well detailed and highly thought out.  The artwork is fantastic, especially compared to much of what’s out today in the overcrowded market of marginal artists.  Otomo and Kon are masters of their art form and they show it in almost every panel of this 2000 page epic.  While many manga-ka rely on photographs to base their drawings on (if not outright tracing over), much of the source material for this series came from the artist's heads.  The details they put into the backgrounds and mechanical designs are absolutely fantastic.

    The themes explored in this series lean heavily on social commentary; exploitation, social unrest, abandonment, animal nature, etc.  The series was created during the economic bubble where Japan felt it was on the top of the world and many people became exceedingly wealthy.  The shadow of the war and the student unrest of the 60's were pushed into the mists of time while Tokyo greedily embraced global commercialism with reckless abandon.  I see the story as a warning for the downfall such recklessness could lead to.  I think of Akira's awakening ushering in WW3 being a symbol for the economical collapse that was destined to happen (and did when the bubble burst).  While Japan did not become a wasteland of urban decadence following the bubble, as Neo-Tokyo did following its original destruction, the dangers of Tokyo becoming a far more reckless place were possible.  If guns and drugs were even half as accessible in Japan as they are in America I really could see Tokyo looking like Neo-Tokyo in the first half of this series.

    It goes without saying that this is a series that every series fan of anime and manga needs to read, I kick myself for not reading the entire thing sooner.  It has been available in North America for a long time and shouldn't be too hard to find.  It’s worth every penny.  Enjoy