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Once in a while, there is that anime or manga that reminds me why I fell in love with both mediums in the first place. And after nearly 15 years and hundreds upon hundreds of titles, it's happening increasingly less frequently.

"God Lies" is more than the sum of it's parts. The art is pretty simple. The characters are endearing, but nothing special. And the story - minus a macabre twist - is quite straight forward. But when it ends, you can't help feeling you wish there was more; and not because the story is lacking, or the ending botched.

It just strikes a chord you'd ... almost forgotten you have. It also does so without giving sermons or putting up airs. Now if that isn't art, what is?

P.S:
I was about to go on an epic rant about how this manga builds up a marvellous "fabula", and traps us within it by not giving away much of it. And how it amplifies this effect by constructing a classic linear narrative without resolving the ending, thus making us explore the said fabula even more in our own imagination. But that would have been against the very nature of this little gem. It would have been akin to explaining a joke. It would squeeze all the fun out of it.

Go read this; and bask in its serene minimal unpretentiousness.

P.P.S:
In a narrative based work of art ( Novels, Movies, Series, etc) the "fabula" is the world in which the story is happening. the "sujet" is the part of that world the artist is showing us. For example, in Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring, the fabula is the middle earth, and the sujet is the adventures of the fellowship while trying to take the ring to Mordor. Both terms are of Russian origins, and are used primarily in film analysis; but apply to most other narrative based works of art also.

Fact: The Wright brothers' airplane was the first ever man made, rideable, controllable, heavier - than - air machine. It revolutionized human civilization on the scales with which only a few discoveries/inventions are comparable.

Question: Was it a GOOD airplane?

No. It was a crapy piece of junk that could barely fly and couldn't make a turn.

Conclusion: not EVERY "first" is the GREATEST. As a matter of fact, not every first is even AMONG the greats.

Akira, in many aspects, did for anime what the Wright brothers' plane did for aeronautics. It revolutionized anime. It changed many viewers' perceptions and expectations of what can ... be done with this weird art form from the land of the rising sun. It proved that it can do a lot more than disproportionate girls with eyes the size of flying saucers and foreheads you can land a 747 on. Heck, to be fair, it even looks a LOT better than the Wrights' ground breaking but rather deformed effort.

It did a bunch of other things too, though. Other, NOT so praise worthy things.

Akira set the trend for countless followers who thought LOOKING cool, IS being cool. Brought about the doctrine of "the hell with logic and cohesiveness as long as you have awesome visuals". It yielded a never ending array of smartass-wannabe anime and manga in which the amount of MEANINGLESS blood and gore and angry pre-pubescent protagonists were directly proportional to how fuckin' philosophically deep! the piece would be.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against blood, gore, or philosophical depth. But I need to see an effort on the part of the artist. An effort in creating a universe in which such extremities - or any other plot device for that matter - make SENSE. In creating characters from which such behaviour is justified, or at least understandable. Not a mish-mash of ideas pasted together SO haphazardly that you get the feeling not even the creator knew where he/she was going with it.

All in all, nobody can deny the influence Akira has had on the medium that is Anime. But just like the Wrights' plane, it can barely fly. And I doubt you'd be willing to take a ride on that thing even if Emma Watson would promise to tag along. You'd much rather appreciate it on display, in a museum, with both your feet solidly on the ground. Akira should be approached in the same way. It's a museum piece. A damn important one indeed. But not necessarily a good one.