by Katsuhiro Otomo
A classic manga that sparked the sci-fi genre internationally, Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo is set in Neo-Tokyo (a futuristic Tokyo set after world war III). The story revolves around Kaneda and Tetsuo, two 15 year old childhood best friends. When Tetsuo starts exhibiting paranormal powers, he is taken in by a mysterious secret group of the government. At a bar, Kaneda meets Kei, a member of the Resistance. The Resistance is an anti-government terrorist group that works to free the Espers, a group of psychic children cared for by the government. After Kaneda steals one of the Epser’s pills, he is officially a criminal, with the entire military looking for him. At the end of book one, Tetsuo escapes and confronts Kaneda, concluding the book with a huge battle.
I really liked this book because I have never read anything like it. This book has a unique plot, unlike anything I’ve heard or watched. The characters’ personalities are all very different, which adds a lot more diversity to the book. The characters don’t change much during this first book, but I am excited to get my hands on the second volume to see what becomes of them.
Another thing I liked was the inclusion of character flaws. Many authors leave out the imperfections of the characters to make it easier for the story to flow but I like how Otomo added in many flaws to make the story more realistic. It also made it harder for the reader to predict the story so I felt more surprise and thrill with the story development.
The style of the art in this book is unreal. I was shocked to see how well it was drawn. The author included every single detail in each frame. I really enjoyed taking time and looking at everything on each page. There was a slight problem though, several of the characters looked alike due to the manga style and in some scenes, I couldn’t tell who was who or what side was fighting whom.
Overall, I think this was a great book, and I would recommend it to ages 12 and above, but there is also a movie version that is unfortunately rated R.