STORY: 8/10
The main plot is focused on stopping the newly escaped, child-psychic, named "Akira" from destroying Japan and the rest of the world. For the most part we follow a motor cycle gang member named Kaneda who somehow gets sucked into this government psychic conspiracy. Kaneda doesn't really care so much about Akira as he does about his bff Tetsuo who recently transformed into a Psychic and started acting all dickish. So Kaneda teams up with the female lead, Kei, in hopes to kill Tetsuo (the super powerfull psychic) with his bare hands. Meanwhile Tetsuo creates an ally out of Akira and they half-way team up because they're supposedly on the same psychic "frequency".
The story is not your linear adventure tale, but I wouldn't call it anything really special. You have your best-friend-turned-enemy and save the world plot all in the very first volume. At times this is executed brilliantly and will leave you either cheering for Kaneda to get revenge or for Tetsou to destroy more crap with his awesomely entertaining powers. Then we get to volume 3, which is hellish at best. It reminded me of a Scooby-Doo Chase scene where everyone just keeps running in and out of doors accomplishing nothing. It's a huge weak point in the mostly spotless story line. Considering that volume 3 is 1/6 of this entire manga I can't rate story any higher.
ART: 8/10
This is an 80s manga and you'll be able to tell at first glance. The characters have that 80s look to them and don't particularly stand out art-wise. Although I'm not complaining since the backgrounds more then make up for what the character designs lack. There are absolutely stunning two page layouts all throughout Akira. The background art work delivers on a level that isn't seen in most manga today. Now back to the character designs for a second. I had a hard time distinguishing Kaneda from Kei since they have nearly identical hair-cuts and facial structures. That definitely brings the overall art score down a bit.
CHARACTER: 8/10
I like the damsel in distress character just as much as the next guy, but its refreshing to see a female lead who isn't a whiny little pussy. Kei is both mentally and physically as strong, if not stronger, then any other character in the manga. Kudos to the mangaka for trying something different. Then you have Kaneda who is the typical hot-headed hero. I was trying to make a few comparisons throughout the manga between him and Naruto without much success until he started walking out of a room then stopped. He turned around and gave Kei a big smile and a thumbs up. Then uttered these exact words: "Believe it!". If that doesn't explain Kaneda's character then I don't know what will.
ENJOYMENT: 6/10
I rate enjoyment rather low because there were a lot of dead spots in the manga where I just wanted the meaningless side stories to end so I could focus on the main plot. This manga could have easily shed a couple 100 pages and not lost a thing. Also the psychic powers were a bit inconsistent which had me confused for a good while. For example Tetsou is shown to have the ability to teleport, explode things with his mind, fly through space, deflect bullets, and just overall do anything he wants with his powers. Then in one part, while at full strength, he starts getting beaten up by Kaneda who has no powers what-so-ever. He just gets his ass kicked for some unexplained reason. At first they say he's powered down, but then literally 1 second after he gets punched in the face he teleports into space and destroys an air craft carrier. I was left scratching my head wondering what the hell just happened. There were too many power inconsistencies and boring side plots for me to enjoy this manga any more then I did.
OVERALL: 7/10
There were times when I couldn't wait to turn the page to find out what happens next, but there were also times when I just wanted to skip 20 pages ahead so I could read something half-way interesting for a change. It also didn't help that the ending was well...open ended. Lots of questions went unanswered and the fate of a few important characters is never touched on. There was also a bit at the beginning where Kei's partner is described as her "sort-of brother", but there relationship goes unexplained for the rest of the series. There are a lot of little problems in Akira that build up throughout the manga. I set the standards high for this one considering its rank on MAL. It also didn't help that at the end of each volume there was a blurb about how much of a masterpiece Akira is. So is this a masterpiece? Maybe it was in the 80s, but to todays standards its nothing more than a slightly above average story manga with a lot of hype.
