Akira is not seen as one of the classics of anime and manga for no reason. When you read Akira and find yourself enveloped in the world, you’ll realize quickly why everyone raves about it. The manga opens up with the main character and his crew speeding down a highway on their bikes, whooping and yelling. From there on, the tone and pace for the rest of the manga is set. Just like their bikes, the story comes at you quick and never ceases to be exciting. It’ll keep the reader at the edge of their seat from chapter 1 all the way to the end at chapter 120. Climatic events and the downtime in-between are so well blended together that it’ll feel like your going from climax to another climax. It makes you feel that you are in the meat of the story, the heat of the action, almost through the entire read. Just when you think things have calmed down for a bit, every turn in the road brings about something new and exciting.
While the positives outweigh the negatives in terms of story in Akira. One aspect of the story that felt lackluster was the explanation of important themes in the story. In Akira, there are supernatural themes that play quite an important role in the overall flow of the story. Even though they play an important role in the story, there wasn’t enough explanation to fully grasp and understand these supernatural themes. In turn, can lead some readers to be confused at how certain plot events unfold. Even so, Akira’s story is dark and gritty and filled to the brim with underlying themes are lend itself to the storytelling amazingly well. The story takes the social and political discord of a city plagued by secrets and a devastating past and runs away with it. It takes the psychology of man when faced with near extinction and wonderfully implements it into its storytelling. All of this and more coalesces in a masterclass of storytelling.
I will start by saying that I think the art in Akira is amazing. Akira brings Neo-Tokyo to life. From its desolate highways to it’s beatdown buildings, the art fits the setting so perfectly that you can’t help but to be enveloped by it. The character art style is the 90s personified. All the characters have that 90s aesthetic to them that just brings you directly to the 90s. To top it off too, the body language of the characters, especially the expressions are done perfectly. Without reading anything and just looking at the facial expressions of the characters from panel to panel, you’ll without a doubt be able to decipher what is happening.
This feeling of immersion that the art gives off could only be achieved by attention to detail and Akira is sprawling with exactly that. Not only does every character’s body language feel real, but the background has so much detail that it’s appalling. Each billboard is drawn out, each window of a building is drawn out, each button on a control panel is drawn out. I could go on and on, but that is how much the background is detailed in Akira. All these small details all get overlooked because we unconsciously understand that buildings are supposed to have windows, clothes are supposed to have buttons, etc. But it’s because that these details are drawn out that make the world that much more realistic.
This all comes together inside the confines of each individual panel as well. The transition from page to page, panel to panel, is clean. All of the art stays within the borders of its panel and never bleeds out into the white space. And each panel is spaced out far enough that it doesn’t feel like the page is a mess nor too close that you feel the page doesn’t have enough content. You combine the art style of the 90s and the extreme attention to detail, and you have clear paneling on top of all of that. Akira is truly a masterclass of anime/manga art.
The cast of characters are definitely the weakest point of Akira. While they aren’t necessarily bad, outside of Kei, Kaneda, and Tetsuo the remainder of the cast isn’t too important. That being said though, the characters, supporting cast included have a nice depth and complexity to them. No character does things for no reason or to simply move the plot along. All the character’s actions are brought about by the design of the character. For example, Kaneda only does the things he does so that he can see his friend Tetsuo again and bring him back. So, even though the supporting characters aren’t all that important, Akira does a good job still giving them a compelling enough design to warrant the decisions they make and how the story unfolds because of that.
One thing Akira excels at is establishing character development throughout the length of the story. Not only do the main characters get good character development but also some of the supporting characters, such as Ryu and the Colonel. The development comes at a good pace as well and doesn’t feel out of place. The character development doesn’t feel out of place. No character becomes unrecognizable, the progression that each character goes through is justified and warranted. Not to mention the relationships that are established throughout the story. None of them feel rushed or for the sake of the plot. The relationships between each character slowly builds upon time spent together and events experienced. All this makes the flow of the story and the world of Akira that much smoother.
Akira was an absolute blast to read. Going in, I already knew that Akira was a classic but I really never understood why. After giving it a read, I can see why people consider Akira a classic. The story is excellent, I’m always a sucker for a Cyberpunk/Post-apocalyptic world, and I think Akira brings that type of world to life. But even more than story, the art is what makes Akira for me. So much detail in brought into the world and it makes the world that much more real. All that combined with a good cast of characters and the manga is bound to be enjoyable.
As a closing statement, I would recommend Akira to just about anyone. It is mostly an Action manga but just the world inside Akira can pull anyone’s attention. From its rich story to its impeccable art, Akira is a manga I think everyone should experience.
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