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SF Manga 101: Akira
Glenn Hough (gallyangel) is a nonpracticing futurist, an anime and manga otaku, and is almost obsessive about finishing several of the lists tracked on WWEnd. In this series on SF Manga Glenn will provide an overview of the medium and the place of science fiction within it.
Oh, hello. I was just sitting here by the fire meditating on…well, ok. I was asleep. But I did think of something interesting to share before I get to Akira.
Nausicaa was originally published between February 1982 to March of 1994. Akira‘s original run was between December 1982 to June 1990. Ghost in the Shell’s initial release was between May 1989 to November of 1990.
I’ve maintained that Nausicaa, Ghost in the Shell (GITS), and Akira are the top three. This means that nothing published since ’94 has cracked the top three. Top five, yes. Top ten, absolutely. But not the top three. 18 years. I think that’s a long time to have no movement at that level. Nothing has come along which is that good, which is that important to SF. It’s an interesting observation for us to ponder.
Anyway, Akira. I’ve gotten the impression that of the mangas I’ve talked about in this series, it’s Akira that many of you might have heard of before. That Akira, much more so than GITS or Nausicaa, had a media punch behind it. It was a big deal way back when for the Epic/Marvel team to publish Akira. It was an even bigger deal for them to finish the series after several years of hiatus. So when Dark Horse says this about Akira, they say it with that big deal mentality:
