Reviewer: Tom (Webmaster)
Based
on: Complete Manga
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Weighing in at 6 huge volumes ranging from £23 to £25 each,
Akira is likely to cause you an overdraft but really is the seminal manga no fan
could possibly do without.
Beginning much the same way as the anime, it opens with Kaneda and the gang
racing through Neo-Tokyo on their bikes which leads to Tetsuo nearly crashing
into Takahashi and then being taking away by the military.
That is pretty much where the similarities end. Tetsuo and Kaneda hardly see
each other from then on and Akira shows up far earlier and there are far more
characters which feature only in the manga. Most notably Chiyoko, a butch
hard-as-nails weapons expert who protects Kei for the majority of the story.
That's enough on the story as it is such a magnificent one of a kind experience
that you will never find anywhere else.
Impossible to put down, Akira deals with more or less every human issue you can
think of and by the time you have come to the end you will be deeply moved and
your outlook will have changed immensely.
The artwork of Akira is absolutely stunning. Excellent clear detail. The angles
of the characters and scenes are always superbly done. You never think 'he
should have done this', you always know that it is perfect.
Without a doubt the best manga I ever read and, in my opinion, up there with
Dickens and Shakespeare. One day it will hopefully receive the same respect from
the world.
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