The start just as the rest of the story is very slow paced. As someone said before me I couldn't identify with any of the characters. They're pretty dull and it's almost coincidental how everything "went well" (with that I mean the world didn't blow up completely/become inhabitable)

The main flaw I see is the story itself I just don't see how the main cast influenced the story. As I see it if any random guy had obtained the powers there would be almost no difference in the results. I get that the political aspect really resonated with Japan at the time, but the characters and story are very lacking. It feels like an indiana jones film, even though he takes part in the action ,his absence would lead to almost the same results,making the message the story gives meaningless. It's as if a natural disaster happened and then you used that to give a weird nationalist political message.

I can only praise the art, even though the faces really creep me out and the body proportions are a bit weird (legs occupy a portion of the abdomen or viceversa in most characters and they use other weird proportions,such as changing: shoulder width, arm length... to give the sensation of heterogeneity between the characters).

I love Akira and strongly recommend it to anyone with any interest in sci-fi.
The characters aren't initially likable, but things quickly pick up and you begin to see that the children are a product of their environment. Otomo's ability to give such a large cast of characters distinct personalities is impressive.

first manga i've read entirely after FMA. dwarves fullmetal on art, background and characters (close tie on the characters, Kaneda is just as badass as Ed) loses on storyline.

i like Otomo's work, because his graphic content is unrivaled (well, unless you take the heavy artillery, like Jiro Matsumoto, Kentaro Miura, Tsutomu Nihei, Masamune Shirow, Hiroki Endo and Hayashida Q)

it's a turntable in the graphical works, with european incluences and techniques, like Mother Sarah does.

highly endorsed, especially since it's now a classic manga.

Stupid juvenile delinquents make a big mess fighting obviously villainous government stooges--not my idea of a story I want to pursue. After reading the first chapter of this thing, there is NO-ONE I can like or identify with. No matter how good the drawing is, or the reputation of the piece either, a story can't work with such a gaping lack at its beginning.

I understand, of course, that some or all of the motorcycle kids are supposed to be the characters we like -- but I'm too old to even be able to stand them and their posturing, let alone like any of them. I honestly think that lots of grown-ups younger than me would have the same problem; so for that minority of you who are in the grown-up age group, be warned.

IMHO, this manga doesn't really deserve to be seinen.

... Last updated on May 6th, 2014, 1:54pm

This manga is an absolute must read ! It has the best art and story telling I've ever seen in a manga. You could put Akira next to any movie, novel, music piece, and it would stand the comparison. This is the best sci fi work I have ever read/watched. I recommend you scroll down to Highway STAR's review, he worded everything perfectly.

My review is short as everything that can be said about the series has been said already:
The manga is nearly perfect is all aspects as the art is breathtaking, the narrative is engaging and the nearly all characters are properly defined. And there are many! The cyber punk setting further reaches Blade Runners level in terms of believability and the ending is also spot on. If you have only seen the the breathtaking but slightly cramped film adaptation than you earn it to yourself to read the source material and if you are new to the manga than read it right now to find out why it is among the most revered comics/manga of all time. The best one would be Berserk.

... Last updated on May 4th, 2015, 12:07pm

I love the movie even with its flaws. For an anime from the 1980s it looks great, but it needed about another 20-30 minutes to flesh out some of the story. The opposite is the case with the manga, it drags for the last 1/3 of it. Some of the good stuff is that it throws a lot into the mix: gangs, drugs, delinquency, political corruption, human experimentation, etc. Its not a clear good vs bad situation either. Kaneda ain't a sweetheart he leads a gang after all and he's a skirt-chaser. The last third of the story seems to get bogged down a bit and I get the feeling that the author wasn't too sure at first how he wanted to end it or maybe he did but wasn't sure how to get there. Still its a classic and if you are a manga collector it should be on your shelf along with Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Parasyte, and others. We are all maybe a little spoiled with what's come after these works, especially with what we sometimes see in the movies. They may not be perfect, but there's a reason they are award winning works.

I also wouldn't call it a masterpiece. It had a decent plot but the characters were kinda bland. It was very drawn out towards the end. Could of been better if they would of given Kaneda some ESP. but even then. probably a good series for 1982.

8/10 being generous

There are some good elements. It's an epic story of apocalypse with a very cinematic feel - the action flows very naturally, the artstyle is generally good (except for the characters themselves - e.g. the 1-2 kissing scenes in this manga are pure creepiness simply due to the way faces are drawn).

But the characters suck. They have no substance nor depth. That may have been the standard of manga/comics in the 1980s, but it just doesn't cut it anymore. There are some old manga that show their age yet are still perfectly enjoyable 20 years later (like YuYu Hakusho). But I don't feel that way about Akira. Neither Kaneda nor Akira nor Kei nor Ryu nor any of the other children with powers are particularly interesting. The only thing special about Kaneda is that he is the main character. Tetsuo is the only one whose character really evolves somewhat, but even in his case that mostly means power-ups...
And the manga is far too long for what it tries to convey. I wish more of those ~2k pages had been devoted to real character development instead of the 100th time navigating through some sewers or the 1000th similar action scene. Or that it were condensed to half its length.

In the end, I completely understand that this work is a classic. But I'm glad manga has evolved a lot in the past 20-30 years, and I definitely don't wish that today there were more manga like Akira.

My first introduction to AKIRA was the movie version, which I thoroughly enjoyed and still do. After reading the manga, I think it is safe to say that as exception as the movie adaptation is on its own, it really does not do the manga any justice.