ANIME BREAKDOWN:
AKIRA
アキラ
"Neo-Tokyo has risen from the ashes of World War III to become a dark and dangerous megalopolis infested with gangs and terrorists. The government seethes with corruption and only maintains a token control over the powerful military that prevents total chaos and hides the secrets of the past.
Childhood friends Tetsuo and Kaneda plunge into Neo-Tokyo's darkest secret when their motorcycle gang encounters a military operation to retrieve an escaped experimental subject. Tetsuo, captured by the military, is subjected to experiments that make him a powerful psychic, but, unfortunately for Neo-Tokyo, Tetsuo's powers rage out of control and he lashes out at the world that has oppressed him! Nothing can stop the destructive forces that Tetsuo wields except possibly the last boy to destroy Tokyo. "
Volume 1:
"Akira is set in the post-apocalypse Neo-Tokyo of 2019, a vast metropolis built on the ashes of a Tokyo annihilated by an apocalyptic blast of unknown power that triggered World War III. The lives of two streetwise teenage friends, Tetsuo and Kaneda, change forever when dormant paranormal abilities begin to waken in Tetsuo, who becomes a target for a shadowy government operation, a group who will stop at nothing to prevent another catastrophe like that which leveled Tokyo. And at the core of their motivation is a raw, all-consuming fear: a fear of someone -- or something -- of unthinkably monstrous power known only as...Akira. And Akira is about to rise! "
Volume 2:
"In the year 2030, the dazzling Neo-Tokyo has risen from Tokyo's ashes, but the power that once levelled Tokyo and sent the world to the brink of Armageddon -- a being of monstrous telekinetic power known only as Akira -- lives on in absolute-zero frozen stasis far below the city. Those who stand guard will stop at nothing to keep Akira from awakening, but Tetsuo, an angry young man with immense -- and rapidly growing -- psychic abilities becomes obsessed with confronting Akira face-to-face. In time, Akira will surely awaken, and Tetsuo may be the only being potentially capable of controlling him, but Tetsuo is becoming increasingly unstable and violent, and a group including his former friend Kaneda sets out to destroy Tetsuo before he can release Akira -- or before Tetsuo himself becomes so powerful that no force on Earth can stop him! "
Volume 3:
"In the 21st century, the glittering Neo-Tokyo has risen from the rubble of a Tokyo destroyed by an apocalyptic telekinetic blast from a young boy called Akira -- the subject of a covert government experiment gone wrong now imprisoned in frozen stasis. But Tetsuo, an angry young man with immense and rapidly growing psychic abilities, has done the unthinkable: he has released Akira and set into motion a chain of events that could once destroy the city and drag the world to the brink of Armageddon. Resistance agents and an armada of government forces race against the clock to find the child with godlike powers before his unthinkable destructive abilities are unleashed! "
Volume 4:
"Set off by the bullet of a would-be assassin, Neo-Tokyo has been leveled by Akira's godlike psychic fury. Now cut off from the rest of world, the Great Tokyo Empire rises, with Akira its king, Tetsuo its mad prime minister, and a growing army of fanatic acolytes. Forces on the outside still search for a way to stop Akira, and the answer may lie in the hands of the mysterious Lady Miyako, a powerful member of Akira's psychic brotherhood. But the solution to harnessing Akira may ultimately be more dangerous than Akira himself! "
Volume 5:
"In the 21st century, the once-glittering Neo-Tokyo lies in ruins, leveled in minutes by the infinite power of the child psychic giant, Akira. Now a wasteland of rubble and anarchy, the Great Tokyo Empire rises, a ragtag group of zealots and crazies who worship and fear Akira and his mad prime minister, Tetsuo, an angry teen with immense powers of his own -- and equally immense twisted ambitions. The planet at large is not taking the threat lying down, however, and the might of the world is ready to take on the Empire, but will technology's most advanced weaponry be enough to destroy Akira -- and is Tetsuo an ever greater threat? "
Volume 6:
"The explosive finale to one of graphic fiction's greatest achievements is here! The mad psychic colossus Tetsuo, the world's military, and the remaining psychics of The Project face off -- with the child psychic god, Akira, the wild card -- in what may not only decide the fate of mankind, but may determine the next step in human evolution!"
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