Akira. Whether you're a fan of manga, anime, comics,film, science fiction, or just any kind of art form, most likely you have heard of the name "Akira", along with Akira Kurosawa it must be the most popular Akira out there.Whether it deserves the title of classic is up to those who have given it a chance, however if you are considering the movie best is to read the manga first.
Being called "classic" has many justifications, classics are usually good but in no way perfect. I kind of wish I could give this a 7.50, for 7 is too low but 8 is too high, why it got a 7 we will see in the following review.

Story: Akiras plot is quite unique in its own and not so unique as a whole. I'll spare the description and get to the heart of the matter. Six volumes, each are almost 400 pages, this is a long story.Problem is that the first three volumes don't have much happening other than explosions, wild goose chases and people screaming each others names with anger.See in most cases there is a certain build up before the shit hits the fan, in Akira shit hits the fan within the first few pages and keeps on doing so until the end where the shit just becomes way too much to handle.
We are introduced to a wide range of characters, names mostly, and watch them run for three volumes straight until a huge explosion erupts and then in volume 4 a story emerges. Now that is not necessarily bad, the constant movement in the 3 volumes do lead up to an important incident that if it were without we would have no story, and the action is enjoyable and well paced, definitely a page turner. However we don't know what exactly is going on, and we don't know the characters well either. So imagine going through half a series without really knowing who you are following.
In other words the idea is good, the execution needs some cut backs.

Characters: And the main reason it gets a 7.
With a story so long, and with so much going on you have to feel for the characters.
Lets start with Kaneda. He's a fifteen year old punk with a snotty attitude that takes drugs for fun and loves bikes. The end.Nothing is revealed,what about his parents? Are they dead?Does he hate them?Love them?He likes bikes...okay.But who is he anyway and why should I care about what happens to him?
Kei, she is part of a group of terrorists. Okay, she can kick serious ass. Fine. Why is she with these people? What is their goal?Why them and not someone else?At some point she speaks of goals and values but how can someone understand what she's talking about when nothing is revealed?
Same happens with most that appear, the problem is they are shallow,you only know certain aspects about them like the fact that Kei is tough, you don't know them. Hence you don't care.And saying that Kaneda is cool is not good enough for me to care if he randomly disappears or gets a deadly disease.
The only character worth mentioning is Tetsuo. He is basically the only one with a personality, someone that you can care about. From the moment he appears on panel you can pretty much figure out what his place is. He isn't valued much and when he obtains power he gives the finger to all that did him wrong and goes berserk.His character constantly changes throughout; he becomes angry, greedy, arrogant, but then humble, sad and vulnerable. One moment he's a ruthless bloodthirsty monster, the next only a boy that needs to be loved. but even his personality takes an awful long time to appear. Personally I was routing for him till the very end, heck I ended up reading this whole damn thing just to see what will happen to him.
Maybe the writer intended it to be this way,maybe he simply didn't want us to
care for the others but then again Kei and Kaneda get an awful lot of screen time so I should be on their side not his.Also the so called "love" between the two felt forced and completely unnatural.It was just annoying to be honest I mean wtf they didn't even know each other and all of a sudden they want to have kids?Come on man, that is just laughable.

Art:the art isn't anything spectacular, but it's nice. The direction of the series though is very good and that is something Otomo has been praised on. Some scenes were utterly beautiful( one with Tetsuo and the ocean waves comes in mind), the city of Neo Tokyo is just as futuristic and mad as it should be. The bikes were cool to look at, the styles of hair and clothes are a bit dated, the faces are distinguishable, they were definitely paid attention to with detail except maybe Kaneda and Keis(really, these two have so many problems).The action scenes are clear, there wasn't one moment I didn't understand what was going on and that my friends is a hard task considering most manga.

Enjoyment: this is a good story, putting aside the various character problems. If the characters were better I think it would be excellent.It is enjoyable and you can easily get caught in the drama, page turner indeed, it never bores(well maybe vol three. worst one out of them all).The use of the supernatural powers was done well, the whole plot was well crafted, politics, terrorism, human stupidity, it's all there. This is worth a read for the single reason of seeing all the similarities it has to later works, Akira definitely launched a bunch of stories with a similar feel to them and plot.