A Classic Comic

Several months ago, I was talking in class with our student T. We talked about Japanese manga that we like. They mentioned they like the manga ‘Akira’. I told them that I had seen the animated movie, but I had never read the manga and always wanted to. The movie adaptation of Akira is world famous. A lot of people have not read the manga overseas however. I had heard the movie changed the story and ended much sooner than the original manga story does.

About two weeks ago, at the end of class, T. suddenly said “I have all of Akira in my car, you can borrow it”. I was surprised. We talked about it many months ago and they never suggested the idea. None the less, I have recently been reading through it when I have the chance. Despite the manga being over 35 years old, it still holds up. Its setting and art are extremely high quality, and it’s interesting to see how they imagined a strange dystopian version of our future. I am over half-way through currently and the story has shifted a lot.  I expected the story to involve a lot of talking, however to my surprise Akira is full of action too. It has constant action / fight scenes and has a non-stop pace.

I will probably finish it sometime in the next few weeks. If you like dark, dystopian settings or unique stories then it is worth checking out. It may be old, but it still holds up today.