Katsuhiro Otomo remains almost impossible to fault as both an artists or writer. Akira Volume 3 is absolutely brilliant - and I ain't just writing enthusiastically.
This volume, again, changes its manner of narrative. It's the shortest volume, moving at a faster pace, with far more time denoted to the current situation that characters find themselves in, rather than aiming to complicate the plot.
True, various actions go unexplained and new characters appear, but Katsuhiro aims to end the first stage of the story and and begin afresh in the next volume. He does this with amazing skill.
This is perhaps the most enjoyable novel of the series: with plenty of humour in the early sections and plentiful action. Like all the volumes it ends on a note of fear, uncertainty and absolute devastation. The artwork in the the last pages is famous and deserves to be. It is astonishing how Katsuhiro boxes, shapes and moulds his narrative. It is seamless, with characters moving in and out easily. The story is also thrilling, thanks to the drawing, the incident's themselves and how the pictures are fitted together on the page.
Furthermore, it becomes clear in this volume that while the themes of politics, the role of the military and science are important to the overall thrust of this saga, it is fundamentally a human drama, about how cataclysmic events impact on people's everyday lives.
If you've just skipped most of the preceeding blurb to read the final comment, here it is: AKIRA remains unparalled in the world of graphic fiction - go and by it all now.
