Akira: Volume 1

Akira: Volume 1 by Katsuhiro Otomo

Dark Horse

From Barefoot Gen's real-life semi-autobiographical recollections of Japan being bombed during World War II to the hyper-adrenalized cyberpunk fiction of Akira is a curious change of reading matter.

The story of Akira relates that a new type of bomb hit Japan during 1992, but thirty years later those not at the epicentre had rebuilt their own locales and carried on to exist in a world two steps removed from Bladerunner, one bike ride away from The Wild Bunch, and due for a plot that take a leap into the unknown way beyond The Fury.

Movie comparisons aside what happens in this 350 collection is that a gang of college kids on a dare enter the old wreckage of Japan on their motorcycles on night, some strange little fellow appears on a road and one of the bikers called Tetsuo gets hurt trying to avoid hitting him. The police (or maybe military, or even something more black ops orientated) turn up and take the kid away.

The day after the bikers can find no clues about where Tetsuo's been taken. A chance meeting with a brother and sister who seem to know more than most gets one of the bikers, Kaneda, involved more than he intended, and from there on its chase scenes, potential capturers, some torture, the odd hint here and there of some grand scheme involving kids psychokinetically mutated due to that bomb, and the ultimate mystery of who or what Akira might be.

The sheet tour de force pyrotechnics of Otomo's heavily cinematic-influenced art has the reader turning pages swiftly with great swooping panoramas and epic chase scenes countered by studied perspective holds to frame as revelations unfold.

One could say the movie influences are too great, but long drawn out visuals are the Japanese manga way, and Otomo adapted Akira to a highly successful animated film (anime) himself, and that's the area his creativity has continued in rather than comics. So do Japanese creators see manga as the poor parent to anime? I hope not.

Regardless, there's no doubt Akira is something very special and deserves much of the praise people have reaped over it, and several decades after first seeing print it still holds up well.

For myself, I look forward to seeing how the characters and plot develops in subsequent collections, while admitting I find the dichotomy of praising Barefoot Gen's intent and admiring the work of Akira.