I invested a little time this week reading the first two volumes in the old hard back re-prints of Akira that came out a long time ago. I hadn’t looked at the Akira books since they first came out and I wanted to see if my impression of them had changed over time. Nope, my impressions still remain the same. Akira remains one of the all-time greatest mangas ever published.

What I really enjoyed about the book is the mystery that surrounds it. There is a certain sense of wonder one feels trying to figure out where the story is going. Of course, this is all done in a good way and not because the storylines are confusing or off the wall. We truly wonder who Akira is, who created him, why, and how our teenage heroes fit into the mix.

The storylines are also plausible and that is another huge plus. Far too often I will read storylines that deal with secret government programs that are so huge we wonder how they are kept a secret. The way the world of the story in Akira is crafted we never have a feeling that the absurdity of the setting is too great to suspend believability. With Akira, the very fantastic proceedings never cease to remain quite real. That is a huge plus since it helps the proceeding immensely.

Akira truly is a fantastic manga all across the board. That is why it is so well deserving of its popularity and cult following.