Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Violence
Whoa. This was substantially more intense than the previous volumes.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
fast-paced
This volume is so very different from the previous three that it's basically a second act after a brief intermission. I didn't have me ripping through pages as quickly and feverishly as the previous storyline did, even though this is a direct continuation, but it still had me like whoa. Also, there is a part toward the end that is one of the most mesmerizing wild scenes in a comic I've ever seen. It feels gigantic and it's breathtaking how massive and loud it feels within the confines of a black and white comic. This series is now so much larger-scope than it originally was and it already wasn't what I thought it would be. Holy shit, Akira rules
One of the great pleasures of this is seeing Otomo regularly reinvent what Akira is for each volume. This one is sort of even more dystopian than the last dystopian bit, with some Lord of the Flies feral children, a bit of explanation of what’s going on suddenly ameliorated by some muddying the waters especially with regards to Tetsuo and Akira themselves, and then ending with one of the messiest action sequences I can ever remember. I am particularly impressed how much Otomo likes to make the narrative significantly messy and ugly, as it genuinely feels disturbing and tangibly unsettling on several levels. And he also seems determined to create cliffhangers that crucially take off in radically different directions each time. It’s a dream of a comic in that regard: telling a solid story and constantly reinventing how it’s being told at the same time