[where it all started]

I've just finished reading all six volumes of the Akira manga and well, it's made me love Akira all over again. Like the first time I saw the movie, it has once again left me breathless, slightly euphoric, my spine tingling, and my mind full of scientific and philosophical waves of thought that's almost impossible to contain. I just finished the complete Akira experience and I feel like a geek who's ready to die now.

About the manga: There's not much to say except that this is absolutely THE best manga I have ever read. Dark Horse comics did a great job at translating the script and Katsuhiro Otomo's storytelling and art (damn his inking! it's not human) is just.. WOW. If I had the money and the means I'd buy all six volumes and read it all over again. That aside.. if you're a guy who saw the movie first before you even thought of the manga, the first thing you'll notice is that so much of the original story was left out in the movie. The movie's story is only a condensed version of mostly volumes 1 and 2 of the manga - that's almost four volumes of story lost. In the manga, Tetsuo and the others weren't the only psychics in the story, Kei had a bigger part as a psychic medium and Lady Miyako wasn't just some religious fanatic - in fact, she's one of the most influential characters in the story. And the biggest difference, I think, is that in the manga Akira isn't just bits and pieces of human anatomy, Akira is an actual boy.

Changes like this aren't really surprising since this always happens in manga-to-anime translations, stories in paper have to be condensed to fit the new medium. It's just that you can't help but feel that so much of the original story was taken away. It's almost as if the animated movie didn't do the real story justice (well.. almost, since the Akira movie is still a masterpiece).

Now that I think about it, if there's one anime title I can say that truly influenced my life, it would be Akira (other than say, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, or Ghost in the Shell). I saw the movie for the first time in our old Betamax player and I remember the images of those huge creepy stuffed toys giving me nightmares when I was a kid - I wasn't old enough to understand the story. When I got older, I saw the movie again in WOWOW and was finally able to understand the story (a bit). It was an Anniversary Special or something like that, I think, and since Akira was produced in 1988, I probably saw the movie in 1998. My older brother also had a few Akira collectible cards - Although it was my older brother who really introduced me into all these things, Akira is still one of the biggest catalysts in my "artistic mutation".

All the art and imagery from the movie, the quality of animation, the creepy music, the powerbikes!, the stomach-churning violence, so much destruction, the drama, philosophy, that unique disturbing effect, everything, had such a great impact on me that it's what made me seriously want to draw - and seriously consider drawing as a future profession. If I remember right, this is where I started to draw lots of highly detailed post-apocalyptic art (people wearing shredded clothes, destroyed buildings, rubble, etc). I think This is also about the same time I started to become an anime fan.

Akira was the start of it all, I guess. It's one of the most influential if not THE most influential anime movies of all time, it inspired me to draw and I'm proud to be part of the generation of artists that have been influenced by Katsuhiro Otomo's work.

Special thanks to Ais for downloading all six volumes of Akira through Flashget and The Saint (whoever it was) who undid the binding, scanned and violated his Akira graphic novels for the good of the people who can't buy the manga and "digital preservation". We shall all remember your sacrifice.