Akira (1990)

[アキラ]

Volume 5

Author/Artist: Katsuhiro Otomo
Publisher: Kodansha

Synopsis:
The Americans and the Soviets converge on Japan to take charge of the situation in Neo-Tokyo by any means necessary.

Story/Characters:
We kick things off on the unnamed US carrier CV-85 with the assembly of the scientific team for the 'Juvenile A' project, a joint venture to deal with Akira. Naturally, the admiral commanding the strike group would prefer more direct action, but he's not nearly as obstructive as you would expect the military leader to be in a story like this. While they're navigating the tangled way between a scientific and a military solution to the problem, we have Miyako's bunch planning to use Kay as a sort of avatar for their fight with Tetsuo while Tetsuo's quest to master his powers is steadily escalating the situation. Naturally, Kaneda isn't quite on board for Miyako's plan, but Kai reunites him with an old 'friend' to join the fight.

All this builds up to the final confrontation where four different factions converge to take down Tetsuo. I'm sure you can imagine how well this is going to go.

Art:
Otomo continues to impress with his remarkable attention to detail, which really shines with the carrier and other hardware. We also get a number of good action sequences and some particular events that I won't spoil here that really deliver on the spectacle.

Conclusion:
I feel this volume is stronger than the previous one. The new setting has firmly been established and all the disparate plot threads are being tied together as we get ready for the finale. Kaneda feels a bit superfluous here, but you could argue that's part of the point. At any rate, it's definitely worth a read.

Rating:
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