Continuing Otomo’s epic story of futuristic Tokyo. In Volume 1, readers were mesmerized by Otomo’s obvious gifts of drawing and dialogue, letting readers explore his vision of Neo-Tokyo.
Years ago, a cataclysmic event leveled Tokyo. The city was rebuilt and amidst the ruins of the blast, a new stadium was constructed. It is here, at ground zero of the blast, where a teenager named Tetsuo encounters a psychic force that will change his life. Tetsuo crashes into a psychic on the run. The psychic had been part of a group of psychics organized by the military. Tetsuo had been in a biker gang run by another teenager, named Kaneda. After the crash, Tetsuo begins to show psychic powers. With his newfound powers, Tetsuo takes control of his own gang, called the Clowns. Kaneda and his gang get embroiled in a pitched fight with Tetsuo and the Clowns. Tetsuo is nearly killed but is able to escape the fight alive. Kaneda is determined to find out more about what has happened to Tetsuo. On his quest to do this, he finds a young teenage girl named Kei, who is part of the underground resistance. Kei and her group fight the military operations that are conducted at the sight of ground zero. Kei and Kaneda end up being captured by the military.
Book Two of the six book series opens with Kei and Kaneda escaping from military custody. Both know that something is wrong with Tetsuo (he is also in military custody), and they’ll have to deal with him soon. The storyline for Book Two sticks to Tetsuo, the psychic group organized by the military and Kaneda’s plans to stop Tetsuo from doing any harm to the city. Tetsuo soon finds out about the force that destroyed the city. It is called Akira. Tetsuo escapes military custody after finding out that Akira is still alive and ventures out to find him. The military musters everything they have to stop Tetsuo from awakening Akira.
Everything is straightforward with Katsuhrio Otomo’s writing. His characters are strong and realistic. They act how normal teenagers act: they make decisions in haste and feel the pressure of life. Otomo has natural gifts of imagination and style, and this becomes evident as you read Akira. There are no captions or thought balloons in Akira, Volume 2. You can breeze through each page in a matter of seconds. The climatic moments are breathtaking and show Otomo’s mastery of the printed page. His images are much stronger than his words. He has a knack for knowing when dialogue is needed, and when it isn’t. It’s a quick read because of this. So don’t be daunted by the six volume series. Akira is definitely not an underrated work as one of the best anime films of all time was based on it. The original is almost always better, although the Akira movie has a lot of things going for it (great soundtrack, fast-pace, and talented voice actors), the original is better. If you’re a color nut, try to get the original issues published by Dark Horse; the trades are all black and white.
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