Akira

Akira is a monster of a story to recommend but it is fantastic.  It’s the first cyberpunk epic that I’ve come across, but Japanese storytellers are famous for daring to tell the impossible tales.

The trouble with recommending epics is that it’s hard to explain to an outsider why an epic is phenomenal and groundbreaking.  Take Lord of the Rings.  The story is about two hobbits who journey to destroy an evil ring by throwing it into a volcano.  It really doesn’t sound as cool when you put it like that, although that is what the story is about.  And that’s not even why the story is great.

Lord of the Rings is great because of the nobility of kings and gardeners, beautiful prose and poetry, a mythology based in our world, how the fate of many is based on the decisions of a few, the terrible betrayals by those that are closest to you, plus the cool magic and battles.  But to explain how the book does that, you’d be talking for a half hour and chances are, you wouldn’t have said anything to convince them that they must drop everything to put this story in their life.

Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo is much the same way.  It’s 2,000+ pages of graphic novel, broken down into six volumes, and trying to explain why this book is just about impossible… but that’s never stopped me before.

In a future where Tokyo was destroyed years before by a weapon greater than the atomic bomb, Neo-Tokyo is barely holding onto civilization when it is run over gangs and terrorists.  One of these biker gangs is led by Kaneda, and in it is his best friend Tetsuo.  After an accident, Tetsuo awakens psychic powers that make him realize how jealous of Kaneda he is.  Their friendship is shattered when Tetsuo seeks Akira, the force that destroyed Tokyo years before.

It’s definitely a coming-of-age tale about moving on from the recklessness of youth to the responsibility of adulthood, but it also explores the themes relevant to our times, especially the effects drugs have on society and the irresponsible misuse of our environment.  There’s much about honor even when you’re on the losing side, and in a way, Japan’s own identity as a nation.  It was quite moving.

There is a content warning: not for children at all.  Still, I think this is a very important book to have in our culture, and I certainly can see how this work influenced the manga that we have today.  This story began many of the traditions used in the genre today.