Akira (manga)
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| Akira | |
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| アキラ (Akira) |
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| Genre | Sci-fi, Seinen |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Katsuhiro Otomo |
| Publisher |  Kodansha Carlsen Comics Like Glénat Carlsen Comics Planet Manga Glénat Japonica Polonica Fantastica Norma Editorial Epic Comics, Dark Horse |
| Serialized in | Young magazine |
| Original run | 1982-12-20 – 1990-06-25 |
| No. of volumes | 6 |
Akira (Japanese: アキラ) is a cyberpunk serial manga by Katsuhiro Otomo. An animated film version was released in 1988 (see Akira (film)). Generally, Akira is seen by the manga community as an introduction to the medium.
Compared with the film, the manga is an epic which exhaustively examines its themes of social isolation, corruption and power. The manga also takes place in a larger timeframe involving a wider array of characters and subplots.
Akira's publication marked Katsuhiro Otomo's exodus from the manga world and his entrance into the film world.
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[edit] History
The manga originally began publication in 1982 in Japan's Young Magazine and finally concluded in July 1990. The collected manga totalled over 2000 pages and was released in 6 volumes by Kodansha. In 1988, it was published for the first time in the U.S. by Epic Comics, a division of Marvel Comics. This colorized version ended its 38-issue run in 1995. An English version of the 6 volume collection was released in the USA in 2000 by Dark Horse Comics.
[edit] Plot summary
[edit] Book One
The story begins with a prologue of sorts, detailing the events leading up to the main plot. In December 1982 (1992 in the Western edition), an unexplained but destructive explosion completely destroyed Tokyo, Japan. Believed to be the work of a new type of nuclear bomb, it leads to the start of World War III. Because of the mention of a "2000 accord" later in the story, it can be assumed that the war didn't end until the year 2000.
The story really starts over thirty years in the future, in the year 2030. Tokyo has been resurrected as the futuristic metropolis of Neo-Tokyo, which stands on a manmade island in Tokyo Bay. Shotaro Kaneda, a teenage deliquent who leads a motorcycle gang, trespasses into the "old city" - the dead ruins of Tokyo. After stopping at the "Heart of Destruction" - the giant crater left by the 1982/1992 event, and the future site of the next Olympic Games - the gang decides to leave to go to their favorite hangout, Harukiya. It's then that Kaneda's best friend, Tetsuo Shima, finds what seems to be a small child in his path. Just as Tetsuo is about to hit the child, his motorcycle explodes, leaving him badly wounded. Kaneda confronts the child, but finds that the seemingly six-year-old boy has the face of an old man, and has the number 26 tattooed to his palm. The child then disappears before Kaneda's very eyes.
It is then that a group of soldiers arrive at the crash site and quickly depart, without seeming to have accomplished anything. An ambulance apparently arrives and takes Tetsuo to an unidentified hospital. The next day, Kaneda and his gang are scolded and put on probation. The gang meets at Harukiya that night. Also at the bar are a strange duo of a man named Ryu and a girl, named Kei. Kaneda attempts to pick up Kei, but she runs out of the bar in a hurry. Kaneda and the gang chase after her.
Kaneda, while running after the girl, finds Number 26. He and a few members of his gang surround him, but the glass of a window near them shatters inexplicably. Then buildings start to collapse and fires begin. Colonel Shikishima arrives in a government helicopter to assess the situation. Later Kaneda joins a group of rebels during his search for Tetsuo and later finds out that Tetsuo has assumed leadership of the rival gang (the clowns). Kaneda finds that Tetsuo has changed in more than one way, and he kills Yamagata.
[edit] Book Two
The second book starts where the first left off, with Tetsuo being taken away on board a helicopter by the Colonel. Kaneda and his forceful partner, a young girl named Kei, are arrested by the military. They are taken to the army's skyscraper headquarters in Neo-Tokyo and taken to separate rooms, waiting for interrogation; however, three psychic children (including Takashi) use Kei's body as a medium to assassinate Tetsuo. During the confusion, Kaneda manages to escape with her. When confronted by the Colonel, the children respond that Tetsuo will awaken Akira, and that Akira will cause a calamity.
Meanwhile, Tetsuo (who survived) heals quickly, despite the fact he was shot just hours earlier. However, he is greatly shaken and angered by the attack, particularly when Kei escapes by teleportation. Using his powers, he coerces the doctor to take him to the children. In a heated encounter, Tetsuo manages to learn of Akira's location under the new Olympic stadium. Kei and Kaneda escape with the help of a man claiming to be on their side. He is later revealed to be the mole left for dead in the first volume.
Ryu and his friend infiltrate the secret military base moments before Tetsuo arrives. Tetsuo manages to release Akira despite the Colonel's warnings by destroying the huge refrigerated vessel in which Akira is kept. As a result of this, the base begins to freeze killing the doctor who is too stunned by witnesssing Akira to save himself. The release of Akira causes the automatic initiation of a state of emergency in Japan. In the chaos of the evacuation of the underground base, the vengeful agent and Ryu's friend are left to die. After Tetsuo escapes with Akira out of the crater, followed by Kei and Kaneda, the Colonel attempts to use SOL, a military satellite, to kill Tetsuo. He succeeds in only destroying Tetsuo's arm while Kei and Kaneda escape with Akira in tow.
[edit] Book Three
We resume with SOL's continuing destruction. Tetsuo disappears in the onslaught, while Kaneda and Kei, with Akira in tow, go into hiding with an apparent relative of Kei's named Aunt Chiyoko. Neo-Tokyo is still under Code Seven lockdown, and sphere-like police robots called "Caretakers" patrol the streets, brutally blasting looters with lasers.
The Code Seven Alert ends with a hearing that forces the Colonel to take the fall for all the chaos. As a result, the Colonel commences a coup d'état, declares martial law on Neo-Tokyo. Ryu meets up with a politician named Nezu, a sort-of ally of Lady Miyako, and tells him about what happened at the military compound. Nezu who was the man behind Ryu's organization, secretly betrays Ryu, to get Akira for himself. Sakaki attempts to retrieve Akira, but fails. Instead Kaneda and the others are double crossed by Nezu who takes Akira. Lady Miyako sends out three esper girls (Sakaki, Mozu and Miki) Miki is shot to death by the Colonel's subordinates, and Mozu is killed by Takashi. Sakaki survives but is seriously wounded.
After a full night of every faction battling for Akira, at dawn the Colonel captures Ryu, Kaneda, Kei, Chiyoko, and Akira. The other children like Akira (Takashi, Masaru and Kiyoko) go with the Colonel to greet them. Nezu tries to assassinate Akira using a gun; however, he misses and instead kills Takashi. Takashi's death traumatizes Akira, which in turn causes him to release psycho-kinetic explosion that destroys Neo-Tokyo and kills Nezu, Sakaki, Kaneda, and thousands of people. Masaru and Kiyoko saves the rest of the main characters by teleporting them a distance away to some buildings. When the explosion ends, Akira is found by Tetsuo, with water surrounding them. They both rise into the air.
[edit] Book Four
It has been an unknown length of time since Akira's destruction of Neo-Tokyo, and much has happened. The ruins of the city are now split between two cult-like factions. One is led by Lady Miyako at her ruined temple, where she gives food and shelter to the teeming masses of refugees. It is here that Kei, Chiyoko and others will rally in their fight against the faction that has formed at the other side of the city.
The other is called "The Great Tokyo Empire," which is led by Akira seated as a purely symbolic "emperor" figure. The real power is excercised by Tetsuo, who serves as prime minister, aided by a fanatical lieutenant who carries out Tetsuo's orders with great zeal. Backing them is a rag-tag army of ex-military/police/thugs as well as a powerful squad of telekinetics trained by Tetsuo and his aide to serve as shock troops/bodyguards for the Great Tokyo Empire elite. Tetsuo also acquires a caretaker of sorts in the form of a young girl named Kaori who is the only survivor of an inadverdant psychic attack by Tetsuo during an orgy of sex and drugs.
During this time the two sides clash repeatedly as upsets in the Great Tokyo Empires power structure (brought down by Tetsuo's determination to sever his addiction to the drugs which keep his awesome powers in check) lead to open war on Lady Miyako.
After a foiled kidnapping attempt of the child psychics in the care of Kei and Chiyoko, Tetsuo's Lieutenant forms a rag-tag army backed by a squad of psychics and marches on Miyako's temple. The ensuing battle is rife with bloodshed and destruction as the Great Tokyo Empire penetrates the temple's interior, massacring monks and refugees alike as they seek the childlike psychics in Miyako's care. After a tense showdown, Kei and Miyako are able to repel the invaders and all seems well for the time being.
Enraged at their humiliating defeat, Tetsuo's Lieutenant vows, "We're going back there in ONE hour!" Regrouping and arming themselves with heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, a second attack is launched that forces Kei and Miyako to seek refuge in a fortified temple tower where they encounter Tetsuo, who is by this point in immense pain from drug withdrawal. Tetsuo demands drugs from Miyako, who rebukes him harshly.
At that same moment, the Colonel, who has come to the temple to deliver one of his former child psychics to Lady Miyako for proper medical care, is waylaid by a squad of the Tokyo Empire's soldiers (led by a thug speaking only in rhymes). Discovering the ailing psychic in his care, they demand his surrender - but not before the Colonel unleashes his secret weapon.
Prior to his journey, a former government scientist rigged a remote control trigger that allows the bearer to onleash the awesome power of the SOL weapon system on its intended target. The Colonel brings it to bear on his aggressors with devastating results. Cutting through the sky, the laser bolt completely obliterates a massive section of the battlefield, throwing attackers and defenders completely off balance.
Tetsuo, witnessing the blast, is thrown into a massive state of panic which in turn triggers a massive psychic exertion. A "hole" is torn in the sky from which portions of the skyscrapers that were consumed by Akira's blast that destroyed Neo-Tokyo begin to crash down. Falling among this rubble can be seen numerous living people including Kaneda. The young man miraculously lands safely while nothing but destruction fills the scene around him.
When the smoke clears, the battle is over. Miyako's temple has survived the chaos, the Great Tokyo Empire is in full retreat and all settles into relative calm for the time being.
From the rubble emerges a dazed and confused Kaneda, who scans his new surroundings and utters...
"Is it over?"
[edit] Book Five
The American naval fleet lingers outside of the ruins of the city, where an international team of scientists (including one from the Soviet Union) meets up on the fleet's flagship aircraft carrier to discuss and study the recent psychic events in Neo-Tokyo. They decide to name their project "Juvenile A," in reference to Akira. Tetsuo, having great psychic powers, appears before the team, taunting them, and begins to rain destruction upon the fleet with their own weapons. As a sub-plot, demonstrating the US's desire to use the recent catastrophes as a means to extend its sphere of influence, it is revealed that US computer technicians are attempting to hijack SOL. Lady Miyako decides to use Kei to destroy Tetsuo, but Kaneda finds out and, after saying goodbye to Kei and kissing her, he recklessly goes off to kill Tetsuo before Kei does.
[edit] Book Six
Tetsuo's powers increase beyond his control, causing him to mutate into a huge, grotesque, swelling, techno-organic monster. SOL is once more used in an attempt to kill Tetsuo. It backfires, and awakens his ultimate power, which is like Akira's, and he begins to destroy Neo-Toyko once again, but Akira creates a larger phenomenon and absorbs the telekenetic energy and stops Tetsuo, causing him to turn back into human form, and all the remaining "children", Akira and Tetsuo are drawn into the new universe that Akira created.
Kaneda and his motorcycle gang start a new country, and as depicted in the book's closing pages, Tokyo is rebuilt from the rubble.
[edit] Additional material
A short story called 'Candy Flower Napalm', written by Warren Ellis and drawn by Terry Shoemaker, was published in Akira #38 of the Epic Comics' release. The story retells Lady Miyako's dream she had whilst laying in a coma. The dream is a vision of the future (told in the books, seeing as this vision occurred in the past) and shows, amongst other material, Tetsuo, the use of drugs and destruction.
[edit] Themes
[edit] Power
Akira, like Otomo's other work (such as Domu), revolves around the basic idea of individuals with superhuman powers, in particular psychokinetic abilities, but much of the story does not focus on these abilities themselves, but rather the people involved, social issues and the political ramifications of their existence. The social commentary is not particularly deep or philosophical, but rather a wry look at youth alienation, government corruption and inefficiency, and a military grounded in old-fashioned Japanese honor, displeased with the compromises of modern society.
[edit] Awards
The series has won a great deal of recognition in the industry, including a nomination for the Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work in 2002.
[edit] Book references
- Akira, Volume 1 : Publisher: Dark Horse ISBN 1-56971-498-3 Release: December 2000
- Akira, Volume 2 : Publisher: Dark Horse ISBN 1-56971-499-1 Release: March 2001
- Akira, Volume 3 : Publisher: Dark Horse ISBN 1-56971-525-4 Release: June 2001
- Akira, Volume 4 : Publisher: Dark Horse ISBN 1-56971-526-2 Release: September 2001
- Akira, Volume 5 : Publisher: Dark Horse ISBN 1-56971-527-0 Release: December 2001
- Akira, Volume 6 : Publisher: Dark Horse ISBN 1-56971-528-9 Release: March 2002
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- AKIRA 2019: Katsuhiro Otomo's Manga Akira, review and information.
- An Introduction to Akira
- Akira manga review at Mangareviewer.com
- Blue Blade Akira
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