Akira Vol. I Manga Review: Better Than the Movie

Ever since 1988 “Akira” has been hailed as one of the greatest achievements in Japanese animation. In fact, it was because of “Akira” that there was even a Japanese animation boom in the first place. It was a gateway “drug” for many anime fans in the late 80s/early 90s.

What many people are not aware of is that “Akira” started out as a manga written by Katsuhiro Otomo that started serialization in Young Magazine in 1982 and ended in 1990. There have been many American translations of this comic, most notably by Marvel, Tokyopop, and Dark Horse.

For those who don’t know the story of “Akira,” Tokyo was destroyed by a nuclear explosion in 1992 that starts World War 3. In 2030, Neo-Tokyo in built and is controlled by the military but is plagued by anti-government terrorism and gang violence. One of these gangs makes up our main characters Kaneda and Tetsuo who find a psychic kid who apparently is part of a government project called the “Akira Project”. This awakens Tetsuo’s hidden powers and the future of Neo-Tokyo turns into a bigger war zone than any of the characters can imagine.

Those who will read the manga will see a lot of major differences from the movie. These differences include many characters were removed (Lady Miyako), major differences in storylines (Neo-Tokyo being destroyed again and the war between the Tetsuo led Neo-Tokyo Empire and Lady Miyako’), Akira having much more screen time than in the movie and some character changes (Kaori is Tetsuo’s servant instead of his girlfriend).

Stylistically both the comic and movie look the same. Both are drawn by Otomo himself. Today this style is nothing too great look at, but at the time it was revolutionary. One thing that will annoy some people is the sound effects. They are odd and may be due differences in Japanese and English sound effects. This is only a minor discrepancy and is easily glossed over.

When compared to the comic, the movie is a shallow and poorly done mess. That doesn’t mean the movie is bad. It does boast some music that is loved by many anime fans and there are scenes that are well done (the scene where Tetsuo gets attacked by giant toys is still one of the greatest and well made scenes in anime history). The problem is the story. The story in the comic is better written, better paced, had better scenes and is better executed. The amount of story that was taken out makes it seem like “Akira” could’ve worked a lot better as a mini-series than a 90-minute film.