Akira #6 (Manga Monday)

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Title: Akira #6
Series: Akira
Author & Artist: Katsuhiro Otomo
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Manga
Pages: 460


Synopsis:
Tetsuo pretty much fights with everybody-the Americans, Kaneda & Kei, Lady Miyako and the Specials- and loses control. Loses control of his power, his body and his mind and keeps morphing between being Tetsuo and an amorphous conduit for the Energy of Life.

Neo-Tokyo is bombed, solar lasered multiple times and then Akira'd.

The Ending, where Kaneda and Kei take up where Tetsuo left off with the Great Tokyo Empire, was a bit of a disappointment but considering when this was written and what the culture was at the time, not surprising.

My Thoughts:
This had some seriously awesome battles. Tetsuo morphing into a giant blob and destroying things, Tetsuo capturing one of the laser arrays and crashing it into the American naval group, Tetsuo and Akira's energy getting jiggy.
Kaneda shooting, laser gunning and then just punching out Tetsuo.

It was great.  5 star Great in fact.

However, the ending, where it turns out that Akira and the specials were the next genetic step of Mankind but had been forced by the scientists to become what they were and Akira's desire to just be with his friends, was a let down.
The kid started/ended World War III, was cryogenically frozen and was the Fear of the whole freaking world, turns out to just want his friends? Yeah, lame.

I don't understand the whole Tetsuo/Akira thing. Somehow they had to meet at just the right time, their energies combine and then all the kids could be together? I realize manga likes to be vague, but this was positively opaque.

The final message, that Japan was going to stand on its own 2 feet and would no longer brook foreign intervention was definite political pandering of the day.

Overall, the series was good and I am glad I bought these. I highly recommend this to older teens and up, as this is a good series to show the roots of manga in America.