Teenagers revolted by the system without any respect for teachers and authorities, addicted to drugs, who instead of complaining on twitter, ride futuristic motorcycles and get into big trouble with the government. These are the tools of Katsuhiro Otomo to express his criticisms against Japan and the post-nuclear world in AKIRA. And it is a lot of fun how marginalized and abandoned adolescents by society are the main triumph of the plot to mock the government's oppressions.


Tetsuo - a teenager with the personality of a school terrorist - awakens paranormal powers after running over an elderly child, who has escaped confidential Japanese government experiments. Kaneda - leader of the teen biker group, whose Tetsuo was a member - needs to prevent Tetsuo's psychotic breakdown, armed with unbridled paranormal powers, from destroying any sign of life that comes his way and even worse, reactivating the sleeping AKIRA - another being with powers even more immeasurable than those of Tetsuo.


We read the clash between Tetsuo and Kaneda, set in a post-World War III NeoTokyo, guided by a political and revolutionary narrative. While on the one hand Tetsuo becomes more violent, powerful and unsociable, with the blind support of the army colonel and his team of scientists, Kaneda is allied with Kei and Ryu, members of the Nezu political party that opposes the military.


In 112 chapters and 6 volumes, the plot can be divided into 2 parts;
The first half supines the mysteries and establishes its cyberpunk universe with motorcycle racing, chases through the sewers, escapes from prisons, enemy being hurled into the air with telepathic powers, wall and rocks exploding with paranormal waves, and Tetsuo pissed off with everything, while the reader screams inside:

WHAT IS AKIRA?
by every person reading


In the second part, he clarifies his mysteries in an absurd and surreal way, heading the narrative to unexpected places, with catastrophes at all times. Instead of people being thrown around by the power of the mind, now it's buildings falling down and ships exploding. Motorcycle racing has become motorcycle racing ... with missiles. Everything from the first part is boosted by 1000x and the Tetsuo is even more pissed off.

"- THIS TIME TETSUO WENT TOO FAR!"
by Kaneda


The characters are similar, to the point of looking like generic versions of Kaneda and Tetsuo. Kei looks like the female Kaneda. Her brother, Ryu, looks like Tetsuo with a mustache. Every soldier, monk, bandit is like the other. It is normal to ask yourself "Who is who?", Especially in the busiest parts. Despite improving in the second half, with the features gaining more details like - scars, wrinkles, bulging eyes and etc. - and the hair being "combed" in a more stylized way. In addition to new ethnicities and different types of fat, muscular, skinny people gain space.

Akira's macro point is the urgency of the plot in which heroes need to stop Tetsuo, and the way things change from Eleven from Stranger Things to Vegeta from DBZ as credibly and interestingly as possible.

"KANEDAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!"
By Shima Tetsuo


"TETSUOOOOOOOOOOO!"
By Shotaro Kaneda
The manga highlights the anime that popularized it and or any other generic version of its work (coff ... Stranger ... Things ... coff).

GOOD FOR HEALTH BAD FOR EDUCATION