Read All the Comics!: Akira

Sunday, May 5, 2019

Akira

Akira 1-38

I’ve been dreading this review, purely from a length standpoint. Akira is thirty-eight prestige issues long. I figured it would take about a week to read. The problem is that having already read this at least twice, I didn’t see myself having very much to say about it. Akira just is. It’s a thing that’s enjoyable during the reading, but upon reflection, feels like a little more than a time-waster. Would third time reveal hidden depths?

Eh, not so much. Beneath the amazing art by Katsuhiro Otomo and all the glorious explosions, violence, and citywide devastation, is a story that’s pretty empty.

He's so good at this.

Most of what happens is dictated by plot. Things happen to these characters as they’re shunted from situation to situation, and they float along with no real control over what happens to them. Why did Tetsuo want to to free Akira? Unclear. At the end of the day, what did Akira himself really do? He sat there as a figurehead, a blank slate weapon of mass destruction with literally no personality. What’s Tetsuo ultimately trying to accomplish? Why does he want power? Why did he form his little empire? Why is he training potential psychics? With all the disparate groups trying to kill Tetsuo (Lady Miyako, Kaneda, Ryu, the Colonel, the Americans), did any of them really succeed? Akira saved the day, Tetsuo’s neutralized, and that’s about it.

It ended up taking six days, but it wasn’t a slog by any stretch. While I read it, it felt like so much was happening. But at the end of it all, I couldn’t help but wonder what the point of it all was. Sound and fury, signifying nothing. None of the characters who survived feel different from how they started.

I’m not the hugest fan of the movie, either, but that has the benefit of a spectacular soundtrack and stunning animation.