The parade of fascinating artists continues yet again on this very Tuesday. Today we highlight Mr. Katsuhiro Otomo, a legendary manga artist and sometimes director of anime. Most recognizable is his seminal work, Akira. This title has the distinction of being the earliest and highest-profile manga and anime released on Western shores, and with good reason. Originally published in Japan, this manga weaves an intricate story of technological mayhem and adventure. The characters are incredibly well-formed, and the art is chock-full of an incredible amount of detail. The movie itself is quite interesting in the fact that attempting to compress 6 volumes of manga, numbering over 200 pages each is a heavy task to accomplish. In my opinion, it stands alone as a great piece of artwork, but as a story, the anime falls somewhat short of conveying the complete message of the manga. The story has everything, romance, psychic terror, drugs, and terrible repercussions of violence. Each brutal moment is not minced over so the reader can fully understand how threatening nature can be when toyed with. Read it, watch it, or look it up on the web. It's epic.
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