Beginning once again with some gorgeous colour pages the second volume of Akira starts a few hours after the events of the first book. Several different characters discuss Tetsuo's growing powers making reference to his relative strength compared to Akira. Meanwhile, Kaneda and Kei are being held captive by the government.
During the first volume we are shown in various ways that Kaneda is a very self centred person. He seemed to be driven primarily by sex and motorbikes and showed a casual disregard for the feelings of others. However, the first time we see him in book two he is lamenting the loss of someone close to him, showing us that he's not all bravado and swagger. Its quite touching really.
Things start hotting up as Kei stages an escape attempt and before long Kaneda is back to his old self. The action scenes at the start of this book are wonderful and Otomo's choreography is brilliant, he really captures a sense of movement with his panels and the pace is relentless. Things come to a head as we see Tetsuo confront the children which is more than a little unsettling as he is quite clearly unhinged and seemingly capable of anything.
There is a great sequence with Kaneda and Tetsuo fighting. Even though it is a battle between psychic powers and a high tech weapon the fight feels more like a playground brawl, where both combatants are flailing wildly at each other but making very little impact. Its one of my favourite scenes from volume two.
The escape from the government building takes up half the volume and afterwards the focus shifts to Tetsuo who is now looking for Akira. There is a brief lull in the action and the plot involving the resistance is further developed but then things pick up as Tetsuo breaks into a top secret facility, closely followed by members of the resistance and the army.
The second half flies by at a break neck speed, I thoroughly enjoyed the reappearance of the flying buckets, but even amongst all the action sequences Otomo still finds time for some really poignant scenes such as the the knife fight on the elevator or the Doctors last moments. In all the panic of Tetsuo's assault a scientist triggers a 'Code 7' alert which sets the tone for the next volume.
The volume ends superbly leaving you desperate to read part three and find out what happens next. Its funny because even though I know what's coming I really am looking forward to seeing how the events unfold. I have often thought that each volume of Akira deserves its own film but I doubt that will ever happen. Still when the art work, pacing and story telling are this good who needs movies?
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