Akira is such a kind of movie that is still on the top of the best anime list. Even after three decades, no anime is born to compete with this movie, not just because of Akira Jackets only, but also this movie gives you so many moments to relate with. Well, Akira could have been better if it didn’t vary from the manga that much. Some of you might not have noticed all the differences, so the following are the four major differences that anime and manga had!
AKIRA!
The biggest difference between the manga and anime was all the variations made in the official character Akira. In the movie, the audience, especially the manga readers, may have spotted the difference in Akiras’s appearance. The film lacks his character, even though he is the main character around which the movie revolves. Besides being in a sealed box, and his name mentioned a few times, Akira was nowhere to be seen in that movie. Even Akira was not present in the manga, but he played a significant role in the manga series; even the whole story is based on Akira, so the movie should have portrayed him. It is not like it would have taken so much time, as the fillers during fight scenes had taken a lot of time, so time was never the problem.
LADY MIYAKO
Another character that was underused, Lady Miyako. You couldn’t even spot her in the movie unless you are a keen watcher of such films; she has very few appearances in the film than the manga. The manga version showed her in some significant roles, and people who watch manga might have the idea about how she was important for the story of the movie. Just like Akira, Lady Miyako was another specimen of Japan’s Government who ended up giving her psychotic powers. She also succeeded in running away from their lab and started flashing government experiments on her. She had so much to fight, to show the effects all those experiments had on her. Well, instead of significantly portraying her, the movie just skipped her story.
TETSUO
The movie and manga have a significant difference in portraying Tetsuo’s character. The movie tried so hard to picture him as the victim, a young boy who out of nowhere got the psychic powers, and it was not his fault that he went towards the bad side to utilize his powers. The movie sympathized with his character by trying their best to humanize him, though the manga did the complete opposite by not making lame and meaningless excuses for his actions. The manga portrayed him as a reckless young boy who got powers and some abilities and misused them. He did every bad thing from damaging Tokyo to getting drugs, so sympathizing with his character was never the right choice. Even he was the one who found Akira and freed him to get the power of Neo Tokyo.
GOOD FOR HEALTH, BAD FOR EDUCATION
While this Good For Health, Bad For Education is the most significant phrase in the manga, while the anime doesn’t let it play anymore. This phrase was totally about the drugs, especially the drugs Tetsuo was popping in. the movie fully ignored all those drugs. While the manga shows the impact of drugs on Tokyo’s life, how much drugs he used to abuse frequently, also, those drugs have affected his life in a much worse way. He was so addicted to the pills that he used to gulp down every pill he saw. Even he tried to force other people to see pills for him until finally, the government’s laboratory started making some pills to suppress his abilities.
KAORI
This might be a big difference, but it still is a significant difference. The movie has portrayed Kaori’s character most positively. She was the most loving addition to Tetsuo’s life; the anime pictured her as Tetsuo’s girlfriend, maybe a little platonic relationship, so you can’t call that a relationship. Tetsuo even failed to protect her by the attack of the joker gang from the movie. While in the manga, Kaori was nothing more than a sex worker for Tetsuo. The manga included her after the destruction of Tokyo. Well, her destiny in both versions was alike; she got killed in the end. So while grabbing the Akira Jacket, keep Kaori in your hearts; she could have been the sweetest addition to the cast if written properly.
