It’s worse than a cliché to remark on the affinity shared by filmmaking and graphic storytelling—because in many ways, it’s simply not even accurate. First of all, movies, well, move. Movement within any given shot can have its own rhythm, energy, beauty, and meaning. Second, the camera itself moves. Comics can try to simulate this, but its “tracking shots” are predictably linear and of course never capture the aesthetic pleasure of a continuous glide.
 
All that said, Kasuhiro Otomo’s Akira is surely one of the purest expressions of the cinematic sensibility in comics history—so much so that maybe it’s time to embrace the cliché and forget about everything I said above. The “camera” does glide, the lens does zoom, and at times you could even swear that the images, if not moving, are at least pulsating. Truth be told, there’s more kinetic energy within Otomo’s panel borders than in most Hollywood action movies. In short, this first volume of the classic early ’80s series may be one of the top sci-fi “movies” you’ll catch this year.
 
Fans of Japanese pop culture—or actually most anyone with a passing knowledge of anime—will tell you that Otomo went on to direct a film version of Akira that was released in 1988 and helped set a new standard in Japanese animation. But even if you’ve already seen the movie, there are many, many reasons to read the manga as it inescapably adds both greater scope and greater detail than what’s possible to convey in the runtime of a single feature. And catching up with Otomo’s manga has become that much easier since it’s now available in a “Kodansha Comics” version distributed by Random House.
 
This new edition basically reprints the English-language Dark Horse run that began in 2000. In fact, Dark Horse president Mike Richardson provides an afterward that isn’t afraid of gushing about the “creative genius” whose work he felt fortunate to publish. Richardson also mentions how he resisted the temptation to colorize the art and break up the saga into more bite-sized installments. No question that this was a wise decision. Make that is a wise decision because this new edition is nothing if not unapologetically big and boldly black-and-white. Which is just what one wants when it comes to best showing off Otomo’s achievement. Sure, this tale set in “Neo-Tokyo” 38 years after World War III calls for color on some level: the biker gangs screaming down the streets, the clown-masked street thugs, the multiple large-scale explosions that punctuate the narrative. And certainly the painterly splashes of color, with their rich cobalts and deep blacks, that appear in a handful of prologue pages are beyond striking.
 
Yet to render everything in color—or everything small and standard—would rob us of much of the incredible intricacy that helps make Akira such a visual feast. Characters smash through storefront windows and each shard stands out in shadowless hyper-relief like a slo-mo sequence from Wanted or The Matrix movies…but with a noirish attention to composition and mood that is more reminiscent of a Carol Reed or Orson Welles film.
 
As you could probably surmise from the preceding descriptions, Akira is violent. Its hero, Kaneda, may be likable in many ways—he’s both brave and loyal—but he’s also a teen who enjoys brawling and can be a bit of a cad: He’s what in olden times would have been termed a juvenile delinquent. What’s admirable about Otomo’s writing is that he doesn’t sugarcoat Kaneda even though he’s our POV character, and this lends a degree of maturity and honesty to a text that is otherwise quite pulpy. The other pivotal character is Kaneda’s one-time buddy Tetsuo, who in the course of volume develops both psychokinetic abilities and a drug habit that helps alleviate the resulting headaches. Both teens find themselves caught up in the machinations of a government agency (yes, it’s mysterious) that will go to any lengths to keep in check a powerful force (again, mysterious) known only as “Akira.” And of course there’s a rebel group out to expose the agency’s secret, yet tax-payer-funded, programs, a group in which love interest Kei happens to feature prominently.
 

Over its 360+ pages, Akira alternates high-octane chase sequences with talky but effective scenes of dialogue on matters of science and/or intrigue, and it’s laced with teen angst and humor throughout. Really, this first volume is just an elaborate setup to introduce the major players and to hook readers into the remaining five—a task at which it succeeds admirably. The suggested retail price of $24.99 might seem like a lot to spend on a paperback manga, but the expansive trim size and one-of-a-kind content make this volume a good buy for those collecting milestones in the genre and probably a must-have for libraries.

written by Katsuhiro Otomo