Akira

I had't seen the Akira movie until this year and loved it so I was excited when I got this opportunity to to read the manga as well.

The drawings of Akira are beautifully done and hold there own without the use of color to lean on. The compositions and panels are very dynamically designed and laid out. The slow portions are open and airy with minimal visuals to emphasis important things and a sense calmness then often there are sudden explosions of fast-paised action with a lot of visual noise and activity to create meaningful energy and drama. The compositions reflect both speeds with simpler squares and long rectangles for the calm portions and more tight angular panels creating tension and discomfort. I can see that this method of pacing is a style also used in classic Japanese film.

Something interesting that I noticed after seeing both the manga and film is that even though they were both made by Katsuhiro Otomo, they are each arranged differently to accommodate for the differing strengths and weaknesses of each medium. I think this shows a lot of strength on Otomo's part to be able to translate his story into both the seperate languages of comics and film. To me it feels like the film flows nice and logically without giving away that it was cut down and condensed from the original manga.