Akira volume 1

Akira was the anime that broke the mold and was for many of us in the West the first breath-taking, jaw-droppingly amazing introduction to the animation coming out of Japan. But before the anime Katsuhiro Otomo had created the manga, an epic story about government experiments, psychic powers, human evolution and behind it all the constant threat of total annihilation!
Everyone by now probably already knows the set-up of the series: 21-st century Neo-Tokyo stands atop the ashes of old Tokyo, a city destroyed by the phenomenal psychic power of a young child known as Akira. Neo-Tokyo is a powderkeg of revolutionary activity the civilian administration is straining against the control of the military, religious cults are springing up and rebel groups are acting to destabilise the city. Amongst all this the youth of the city, bored with the restrictions in their society are acting out, forming biker gangs and fighting turf wars across the city!
One night when out cruising round ground zero of where Akira destroyed the city years before a young biker named Tetsuo crashes after trying to swerve away from a child with the number 26 tattooed onto his hand. Tetsuo is taken away to a military hospital and is not heard from for some time. His fellow bikers, led by Kaneda, get caught up with a group of revolutionaries trying to smuggle out some children who have been experimented on by the military. And this is where the action starts: whilst Kaneda gets caught up with the rebels, Tetsuo is experimented on by the military as they seek to recreate another Akira - this time one thy can control. But what fools men are when dealing with forces that they cannot comprehend!
As to be expected from Otomo, this epic is both artistically stunning and superbly written touching both high intrigue and human, personal stories. Most of the principal characters are introduced in this volume, and already are being fleshed out and developed. The quality of the art also helps in this as Otomo even manages to capture the subtleties and nuances of the characters without the use of verbal interaction. The world that Otomo is setting down on paper in this series is in many ways the most completely realised world I have ever viewed within the medium of comics & manga. The attention to detail is amazing in the scope of the cityscape where every building is fully detailed and not just left as the impression of buildingness. All in all the art and story is flawless, a perfect 10 from what I can see. The copy of volume 1 that I have is the mid-90's release from Titan Books which used the transfer from Epic comics. This edition used digital colouring pioneered by Steve Oliff for this title inparticular, that has now become the standard for comic book colouring amongst all the major U.S. comicbook labels. The Epic release also used a different translation of the story than the Dark Horse editions. Unfortunately due to my complete ineptitude with Japanese, as well as no Japanese language edition, I have no idea as to which edition has the closer translation.
Since I was first introduced to the manga form of Akira (thank you Manga Mania!)I have fallen head over heels for it. The level of storytelling far outstrips the anime in my opinion, with the scope to develop the characters and themes far more on the page then Otomo ever had on the screen. This is a manga classic in almost every sense of the word!
10/10