Akira

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Japanese: AKIRA

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 6

Chapters: 120

Status: Finished

Published: Dec 6, 1982 to Jun 11, 1990

Genres: Action, Award Winning, Sci-Fi

Theme: Gore

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Young Magazine (Weekly)

Authors: Otomo, Katsuhiro (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.66¹ (scored by 44,996 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #67²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #91

Members: 136,098

Favorites: 6,615

Resources

Wikipedia

8.66

Ranked #67Popularity #91Members 136,098

MangaYoung Magazine (Weekly)Otomo, Katsuhiro (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /6

Chapters: /120

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Synopsis

1988: It is World War III. Tokyo is decimated by a mysterious black explosion, unmatched in magnitude.

2019: Fast forward 31 years. Neo-Tokyo, hastily built on the ruins of old Tokyo, is a sprawling cityscape of neon extravaganza. It is a fusion of towering skyscrapers and cutting-edge technology that is permeated through and through with an explosive, hyper-violent cocktail of biker gangs, poverty, and revolutionaries. In this derelict metropolis live Tetsuo Shima and Shoutarou Kaneda, two bikers who are the best of friends and the fiercest of rivals, despite being affiliated with the same gang. Desperate to prove himself as Kaneda's equal, Tetsuo unwittingly pulls a stunt that culminates in the awakening of a cryptic existence that threatens to change both the face of Neo-Tokyo and the lives of those who call the city their home—the awakening of a government secret simply known as Akira.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Akira won the 8th Kodansha Manga Award in the General category in 1984, the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material in 1993, and was nominated for the Harvey Award for Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work in 2002.

The series was published in English by Marvel Comics under the Epic Comics imprint as 38 fully colorized trade paperback volumes from 1988 to 1996. It was one of the first manga to be translated in its entirety. The publisher later collected into the series 10 volumes although incompletely. Dark Horse Comics republished Akira in its original six-volume format from December 13, 2000, to March 27, 2002. Kodansha Comics USA currently holds the license and republished the series from October 13, 2009, to April 12, 2011. The publisher later rereleased the series in a 35th-anniversary box set; the set contained six hardcover volumes in the original right-to-left reading format for the first time, as well as the artbook Akira Club. The manga was also published in Brazilian Portuguese by Editora Globo based on Marvel Comics' release from December 1990 to March 1998.

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Related Entries

More characters
Characters

Kaneda, Shoutarou

Main

Shima, Tetsuo

Main

Kei

Main

Akira

Main

Shikishima

Supporting

Chiyoko

Supporting

Kai

Supporting

Yamagata

Supporting

Kaori

Supporting

Kiyoko

Supporting

Reviews

Oct 9, 2024

gbupp

Recommended

Overall, really enjoyable. It doesn't follow some of the standard story archetypes we see in manga like scaling power levels or character growth, though one or two characters do change throughout - we learn more about who the characters already are rather than seeing them change.

The art is fantastic. My only complaint visually is that the text bubbles can sometimes be confusing about who is talking, so you have to inference. In scenes with multiple people and an ambiguous line - that can be very difficult.

I wish more had been explained about Kei towards the end. Without ruining things, there is a ramp up ...

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Dec 29, 2023

jojohater97

Mixed Feelings

This was the most boring manga I have ever read. If it wasn't for my horrible compulsion to finish reading what I started, I never would have seen this out to the end. The last volume kind of picked up the pace a little bit, but it wasn't good enough to save the rest of the horrid storyline. There was no point in the story where I thought "man I wonder what happens next?". The main characters are bland, compulsive, uninspiring, and frankly, stupid.

Why is this manga so highly rated? The bikers theme? The cyberpunk elements? The cool hardcover physical set?

Reading this manga ...

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Jul 6, 2024

Feitan_exe

Not Recommended

Jeez i'm going to receive threats for this one, Recently I re-read Akira and If i'm being honest, it did not really age well.
Especially many ppl call the anime inferior, it actually did most of the things better than the manga.

Story: 5/10

The story is pretty dated, and stale, really nothing special as most of the time is invested on action and the overall exposition of Akira in the starting volumes rather than fleshing out the overall plot. The story also kind of drags out a little too long with the whole akira business gets too messy and the ending felt too out of the ... place. The fights were really intense with blood and gore. Here and there but that's really it. It's neither ambiguous nor completely direct, just stuck in the middle cause for the most of the time we don't even know, how can someone even obtain psychic, it eventually does explain but it was not really sufficient enough. If u are not capable enough to actually explain then pls just leave it which actually worked in the movie.
There is nothing much to explore in the plot, The world is neither as immersive as Eden, nor the plot.

Like literally the plot is like an actual fucking joke, like in one moment, Tetsuo is so powerful that he can go through space and make a hole in the moon or just fucking teleport to the military ship and just destroy everything in his way, but on the next scene, He gets whooped by small fries like Kei whose psychic powers were not as destructive as Tetsuo's but still give a hardtime and even that fodder Kaneda with no power beats his ass for some fucking reason, Also the main characters got insane level plot armors. Like how in the actual fuck Kaneda survives most of the conflicts thrown onto him like every fucking time, How did he survive the neo tokyo incident wtf happens no one knows and no one even wants to question, Cause none of them are actually smart enough and the story is obnoxiously inconsistent

Art: 9/10

The art is actually really good, it is in it's own league, it is a great classical hand drawn manga.

Characters: 4/10

They are as one dimensional and comical as u can find in many other media, most of the characters are like they are out of Western movies, Kaneda the hardheaded guy, Kei the cool marystu who just can use psychic powers by borrowing the abilities from all the other psychics in the manga, It was like reading a power fantasy nonsense, Chiyoko the fucking Japanese female Arnold Schwarzenegger, and there are many more apparently they are very poorly written, The characters relationships are so underdeveloped, It's baffling

Like for instance take Kaori's relationship with Tetsuo in the manga, Otomo tried really hard to make Tetsuo look like a broken villain but that actually backfired, i mean just look at Tetsuo, It feels unrealistic, like at first he was just killing ppl left and right then all of a sudden, she finds Kaori and even used her as a lab rat, basically testing her if she could actually endure the pain and gain that psychic power then out of nowhere, Tetsuo fell in love with Kaori, It doesn't even make sense
In the anime, it at least made some sense cause Tetsuo was always a dick, Him cold shouldering Kaori then later care about her was a better decision, cause Otomo is really bad at handling Romantic relationship so better just leave it

And in Kei's situation, it's even worse like He used to be attracted to Ryu for some reason then all of a sudden, he cares about Kaneda Jeez. It's totally weird and out of place, the romantic relationships are completely unrealistic and nonsensical

Overall, It's not really worth the read, Just watch the anime until and unless u like mindless action with no good or a cartoonishly dragged out story than ur welcome,

I would rate this a 5/10

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Poll: Akira Chapter 87 Discussion supersayen - Nov 1, 2010	6 replies	by BartCreator »» Jun 1, 7:32 PM
Poll: Akira Chapter 120 Discussion linkjoker - Apr 17, 2017	17 replies	by almightybismarck »» Feb 19, 8:18 AM
Poll: Akira Chapter 116 Discussion GurschachX - Dec 6, 2023	1 replies	by almightybismarck »» Feb 19, 8:06 AM
Poll: Akira Chapter 113 Discussion GurschachX - Dec 6, 2023	3 replies	by almightybismarck »» Feb 19, 2:50 AM
Akira ending Jacky08 - Feb 14	3 replies	by Jacky08 »» Feb 16, 12:59 PM

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