Akira, Vol. 1

Features

• Comic: 364 pages
• Published by: Dark Horse December 13, 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1569714983
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1569714980
• Book Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 1.4 pounds

From Publishers Weekly
Originally serialized in Japan between 1981 and 1993, Otomo's 2,000-plus-page science fiction epic Akira was reprinted as a monthly comic book in the U.S. in the early '90s. This new six-volume series is the first time it's appeared as an English-language graphic novel. Set in Tokyo 38 years after its destruction in World War III (which, according to this story, happened in 1992), Akira eventually evolves into a philosophical investigation of time. But this first volume is all action, nonstop car chases and gun fights strung together with exaggerated speed lines and lots of gigantic machinery. The complicated plot revolves around two teenagers in a motorbike gang that encounters a strange child with an old man's features. When one of the young bikers begins manifesting violent, supernatural powers that threaten to destroy him, both bikers find themselves enmeshed in a massive conflict between two sinister agencies (which both believe they're fighting to save the world) over some unnamed thing so terrifying it's locked away in a vault and frozen to absolute zero. Akira has been praised for "massively decompressed storytelling" a few seconds of story time can take pages and Otomo's hyperkinetic black-and-white drawings explode across the page. The translation is sometimes a bit awkward, although it still expresses the story's visceral force. The book has been adapted into an animated film that's a favorite among anime fans.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
Dark Horse is committed to bringing the finest comics from around the world to America. Now, in association with Kodansha Ltd. and Studio Proteus, Dark Horse has again gathered one of the crown jewels of graphic fiction. Katsuhiro Otomo's stunning science-fiction masterpiece, Akira! Regarded by many as the finest comic series ever produced, Akira is a bold and breathtaking epic of potent narrative strength and amazing illustrative skill. Akira is set in the post-apocalypse Neo-Tokyo of 2019, a vast metropolis built on the ashes of a Tokyo annihilated by an apocalyptic blast of unknown power that triggered World War III. The lives of two streetwise teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, change forever when dormant paranormal abilities begin to waken in Tetsuo, who becomes a target for a shadowy government operation, a group who will stop at nothing to prevent another catastrophe like that which leveled Tokyo. And at the core of their motivation is a raw, all-consuming fear: a fear of someone -- or something -- of unthinkably monstrous power known only asAkira. And Akira is about to rise! Collected in six massive volumes, Akira has been reproduced in its original, black-and-white majesty as never-before-seen in an English-translated edition. If you love science fiction, manga or comics, Akira is the one work that must be represented in your collection!

Reader Reviews
Amidst the flotsam and jetsam of former pop-culture sensations, there are a few items of media that, through sheer visceral creative force, transcend the 'cool one moment, cliché the next' element of disposable entertainment. The Japanese manga/movie _Akira_ is among these rare and dignified. Although the movie version is cluttered and convoluted, an epic mess-and what can one expect from the effort of reducing 2000 pages into two hours?-there still remains a power and presence to it that is at once unnerving and captivating. I "got" Akira upon my first viewing, but like many others found the movie unsatisfying on a basic level. Characters and concepts popped up out of nowhere, seemingly important to the overall arc, yet remaining undeveloped. It felt as if an enormous amount of back-story was left untold. Thankfully, Dark Horse has decided to give the manga version of _Akira_ the definitive publishing it deserves, to fill in the gaps and give us a deeper and far more gratifying glimpse into Katsuhiro Otomo's astonishing vision of dystopia. And what a glimpse it is! Biker gangs roam the concrete byways of Neo-Tokyo, seeking a score or a scam or a healthy does of ultraviolence...Meanwhile, the top brass of the military attempts to keep an experimental group of growth-stunted paranormals under control. A chance run-in between these disparate tribes eventually leads to cataclysmic results, as something disturbing and long-hidden begins to stir in the bowels of the earth...Akira...and, as the movie-posters state, 'Neo-Tokyo is about to E X P L O D E.' This first volume, at 360-pages, introduces us to the shell-shocked environment of Neo-Tokyo, sets up the numerous character conflicts, and gives us a few premonitions of what is to come. The relationships between Tetsuo and Kenada, Ryu and Kei, are given greater detail than in the movie, and the story, though paced slowly, is far more smooth and lucid in the manga format. Otomo's art is masterful and, in places, astounding-the level of detail given to a cityscape or motorcycle shows this as truly a labor of love on the creator's part; the many hours devoted to each pages is a figure I cannot begin to contemplate. The drawings are clean and crisp and always consistent, at times cinematic in presentation. _Akira_ should be read at least twice, the first in order to digest the story, the second to fully appreciate the skill of the artist. Well worth the rather steep price. And if you like _Akira_, I would suggest investigating Hiroaki Samura's _Blade of the Immortal_ and Hayao Miyazaki's _Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind_, both further examples of manga at its mature best.