Akira #1
| Writer | Katsuhiro Otomo |
| Artist | Katsuhiro Otomo |
Welcome to Neo-Tokyo, built on the ashes of a Tokyo annihilated by a blast of unknown origin that triggered World War III. The lives of two streetwise teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, change forever when paranormal abilities begin to waken in Tetsuo, making him a target for a shadowy agency that will stop at nothing to prevent another catastrophe like the one that leveled Tokyo. At the core of the agency's motivation is a raw, all-consuming fear of an unthinkable, monstrous power known only as Akira.
Katsuhiro Otomo's stunning science fiction masterpiece is considered by many to be the finest work of graphic fiction ever
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CRITIC REVIEWS Back to Top
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9.0
AIPT - Mark Pellegrini
Sep 24, 2015The art is superb, particularly in the layouts and technical details, and Otomo's sense of fluid motion is practically unparalleled. Read Full Review
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8.0
The Graphic Library - Sara Campbell
Jun 11, 2021As soon as I finished reading this manga, I couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about. People point to Akira as being so inspirational and launching genres. Someone even compared it to the Japanese version of Watchmen in terms of its influence. However, I’m coming to this well after the series was published, and I’m seeing the fruits of Otomo’s labor. I’m not seeing how ground-breaking it is because the ground has already been well and truly broken by the time I’m getting into manga. It has an interesting story in a post-apocalyptic world that reminds me very much of the video games I'd play on Nintendo that were set in the decimated world of the post-war 1990s. Akira is pretty close to our time frame right now, so it's fun sort of fun to read a story published 30 years ago that thought the "future" was going to be so different. Read Full Review
2025 In Review:
