Akira. Book one

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Manga / Akira 1	4-week checkout	Due 05-23-2024
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Manga / Akira 1	4-week checkout	Due 05-20-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Comics & Graphic Novels / Manga / Akira 1	4-week checkout	Due 05-12-2024

Welcome to Neo-Tokyo, built on the ashes of a Tokyo annihilated by a blast of unknown origin that triggered World War III. The lives of two streetwise teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, change forever when paranormal abilities begin to waken in Tetsuo, making him a target for a shadowy agency that will stop at nothing to prevent another catastrophe like the one that leveled Tokyo. At the core of the agency’s motivation is a raw, all-consuming fear of an unthinkable, monstrous power known only as Akira.

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The story begins submitted by Quoniam on May 18, 2007, 3:44pm In the year 1992, on the sixth of December at 2:17 PM, a type of never before seen, of unknown origin, destroyed Tokyo, triggering World War Three. Thirty-eight years later, the nations are at peace and preparing for the first Olympics to be held since the war. They will take place in Neo-Tokyo, which has been built on the ruins of ancient Tokyo. One night, when racing to the site where the struck, Shotaro Kaneda and his motorcycle gang make a strange encounter: Kaneda's friend Tetsuo nearly runs over an extremely aged child. In the process of the , Tetsuo breaks his arm and hits his head. Since the Olympics are to be held near Tokyo's ground zero, the gang is in a restricted area, and military police are summoned. They take Tetsuo with them, and forbid Kaneda and the others from seeing him. As the police leave, Kaneda picks up a capsule that was dropped by the boy, who suddenly disappeared.
While Tetsuo is recovering, his doctors report that he is showing signs of developing strong psychic powers. He doesn't show up to school the next day, and his friends worry. Meanwhile Kaneda has taken the capsule he found to his friend, one of the school nurse's assistants, and asked her to find out what's in it. She discovers that it is a sedative powerful enough to kill twenty men. Kaneda takes it and hides it in the gas tank of his motorcycle.
Kaneda is soon found by a named Kei, who is a member of an underground resistance movement trying to overthrow Japan's new martial government. Kei is after the capsule, as is a man known simply as 'The Colonel'. The Colonel operates out of fear of an entity known simply as 'Akira'. Akira, and several other children with psychic powers, were the subject of a gruesome experiment that began before the war. Due to his incredibly dangerous power, Akira is imprisoned in a room at a temperature close to absolute zero, but one of the children says that Akira will soon awaken. The Colonel hopes to make Tetsuo into one who can defeat Akira.

This graphic novel, by Katsuhiro Otomo, is considered one of the greatest works in the history of manga, and it's easy to see why; 'Akira' has influence seen in nearly every work of earth-based Science Fiction, from visual styles to psychological impact. It strongly influenced Lynn Okamoto's 'Elfen Lied' series, which is considered to have one of the best story lines in all of anime. The entire story of 'Akira' is contained in six volumes.