Saturday, 30 July 2016

Akira

Mangaka: Katsuhiro Otomo

It is widely considered to be the best manga of its type (cyberpunk, dystopia) receiving many rave reviews  and national awards. I was looking forward to reading it but in the end it was under whelming.




Plot 3/5
10 years before the  events of the manga an explosion rocked the city of tokyo reducing it to rubble. The people and the government built a city nearby called Neo-Tokyo. The government carried out experiments on gifted children to harness the power of ESP in the process creating multiple test subjects. In the end the 2 most powerful children were a small child named Akira and an adolescent named Tetsuo, discovered at around the same time as the second disaster.


Character: 1/5
I guess my main issue with the manga was the lack of a likable or even relate-able protagonist. It was like watching a badly acted movie. The only thing going for this manga is the story which is original in some ways and definitely a fore runner of many of the dystopian mangas today. Character development is non existent and the story lacks a Main Character. In the end it is a mix of different narratives swirling into one.

Sure the final fight is pretty amazing but over all it felt like i was reading the skeletons of a hollywood screen play.

Art: 2.5/5
At par with what was done in the same time period. But a lot more detailed. Character designs are pretty average. 

Personally I recommend against it but if you feel differently please let me know.


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