After the events of volume three the city is in ruins. The book begins with some colour pages of a helicopter flying over the devastated city, the double page spread is especially impressive. It would be fair to say that this book is the beginning of the second arc of Akira as everything we have known to be true is now turned on its head. Currently there is a stand off between two religious cults, those who follow Akira and the Great Tokyo Empire and those who worship Lady Miyako, with thousands of innocent refuges caught in the middle.
One of the highlights of volume three was Chiyoko the unstoppable housewife and her reappearance in this book does not disappoint! I remember getting this volume from a local library and how I had to reread the sequence several times because it was simply fantastic. The caretaker robots are still around too although now they are being hunted by the survivors. Maybe its because they look a little like the Tachikomas from Ghost in the shell but I feel rather sorry for them.
You have to admire Otomo for such a radical change of direction. This devastated landscape filled with desperate, lawless people is completely different to what we've seen before and yet the book still feels like Akira. There is a great series of scenes in a bar that helps explain the new status quo, I particularly liked the little nod to a barter system.
Tetsuo was barely even in volume three but in book four it is Kaneda who takes a break. Since the beginning Akira has been a serious story but Kaneda's antics always helped to lighten the mood and without him there is a darker more broody nature to the story. The early scenes with Kei and Chiyoko are tense and nervy while Tetsuo's attempts to create an army of people with the power are quite horrifying. Tetsuo's harem is another example of the growing darkness of the story. I really rather miss Kaneda.
Eight years after Akira Otomo wrote another manga called The Legend of Mother Sarah. It was the story of a women called Sarah who was looking for her lost children while walking through a blighted world. If I had to guess I'd say that Chiyoko's struggle to save little Kiyoko in book four must have been an inspiration for that manga. I've also noticed that on rereading Akira Chiyoko is fast becoming my favourite character of the series.
The pace is slower in this volume which works well. It's great to get some back story from Lady Miyako and the politics of the budding empire are equally interesting. The wanton slaughter in the temple and the subsequent assaults after continue the darker tone of this book. I love that even with all the psychic powered people in this volume its actually the 'normal' humans that are the truly scary ones.
I must say I'd forgot how much longer this volume was than the first three. At nearly four hundred pages you get a third more than normal. Yet even with so many more pages this volume never dips in quality. The scenes with Colonel traipsing through the ruins with his pet caretaker robot made me think of Wolverine and his reprogrammed Sentinel. If I happen to survive the end of the world I hope I'm lucky enough to have a robotic friend too.
Tetsuo's rebirth brings about a new type of phenomenon, one which dumps upside down sky scrappers of out the air and brings Kaneda screaming back into the story. The last thing we see is Kaneda asking: 'Is it over?' which for me is a really nice way to end this volume. But to answer your question Kaneda no its not, there are still two more volumes to go and I can't wait.
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