Rated 4 stars on Prospero's Manga

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Product Description

In the 21st century, the glittering Neo-Tokyo has risen from the rubble of a Tokyo destroyed by an apocalyptic telekinetic blast from a young boy called Akira -- the subject of a covert government experiment gone wrong now imprisoned in frozen stasis. But Tetsuo, an angry young man with immense and rapidly growing psychic abilities, has done the unthinkable: he has released Akira and set into motion a chain of events that could once destroy the city and drag the world to the brink of Armageddon. Resistance agents and an armada of government forces race against the clock to find the child with godlike powers before his unthinkable destructive abilities are unleashed! One of the true international classics of graphic fiction and unavailable for nearly a decade in America, Akira has once again taken America by storm, its first Dark Horse volume selling out almost overnight in comic shops and bookstores across the country!

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #519867 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06
• Released on: 2001-06-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From the Publisher
In 1982, manga modernist Katshuhiro Otomo created a worldwide literary sensation when Japan's Kodansha Publications released the first volume of his 3000 page sci-fi fable of the apocalypse, Akira. Few westerners had experienced manga (Japanese comics) before Akira, and its rocketing ascent through cultural divides helped impress a cynical world that had long been convinced that pictures in books should be relegated to children's stories. Now pictures were being used to tell one of man's most explosive and harrowing tales. Since his groundbreaking work on Akira, Mr. Otomo has completed a number of inspired manga classics, including the powerful post-apocalyptic Legend of Mother Sarah and the dark study of a child's dreams, Domu. Otomo's mastery of the manga artform was recognized with a top Japanese book award, the Grand Prix, awarded to him in honor of Domu in 1989. Dark Horse Comics published the first English-language versions of The Legend of Mother Sarah and Domu, and is currently publishing a true-to-its-original-form, black-and-white, six-volume re-issue of Akira.

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Customer Reviews

The Middle-Chapter Blues
Volume Three of Katsuhiro Otomo's epic sci-fi saga finds the newly awakened Akira being pursued by Kei and Kaneda, the Army, Nazu's militant faction, weirdly-powered flying children, strange Government robots, etc.

After being freed from his cryogenic sleep by Tetsuo in the last volume, Akira is still groggy, and so we really don't get any insight into his character, and he doesn't become an active participant in the story until the very end of the book. What an ending, though! After this, the series spins off into totally unexpected territory. This volume seemed like mostly filler, though. The story is basically just a lot of people playing "keepaway" with Akira; He's stolen from Kaneda by the flying kids, Nazu snatches him from the flying kids, etc. Like most long stories (In any medium), the middle lags.

Otomo's art continues to be mind-boggling. The amount of detail in every panel is incredible, and you could just linger over the art all day. Even at three stars, Akira 3 is better than most other comics....

A Masterpiece Continues to Unfold...
Why on earth are people so concerned with the number of pages? Who cares?!! This third installment of the series is by far the most emotionally and graphically charged part of the story to date. The characters and the complex web of fate that entwines them are explored in much greater depth. The political factions and their agendas are brought to light. Relationships develop between the characters and new characters shed a whole new light on understanding the world of Neo-Tokyo and its political climate. In general the story takes focus and burns a hole right through to the last page as Akira and his devastating power "awaken". Graphically stunning. An epic story that continues to grow in scope. Unbelievable. Otomo is an unrivaled master of the medium.

The most action-packed volume so far
This book was hard to get a copy of, but I finally managed to get my hands on one yesterday. Like the first two volumes, I read it straight through as soon as I got home. I hadn't planned to do that, but it was so good I couldn't put it down.

This volume is the smallest so far in terms of the number of pages, but it is almost non-stop action from first page to last. Akira is awake, but still groggy from his long sleep. Multiple groups want to capture and control him before he fully wakes up. You can't skip a page if you want to keep track of who has Akira from one moment to the next.

Lots of action, lots of firepower, lots of destruction. I can't wait for volume four.