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Another Post About Time in AKIRA


Good morning blog,

I know that a lot of other people have already written about the passage of time in AKIRA but I would like to voice my opinions on the subject, too. As mentioned in the Scott McCloud book, Understanding Comics, the passage of time in comics is fluid and moves in unique ways. On page 95 of McCloud, the author goes more into this by showing a panel where time flow changes within the panel. I think it is interesting to note that time doesn’t really exist in comics, or at least not in the same linear way as a movie or animation. It is with the author’s artistic choice to choose how long time will move within their panels. This is especially the case with AKIRA. AKIRA is filled with many scenes that depict action and suspense and the author helps to elevate those moods with the passage of time within the panels.

  One of the scenes I would like to take a look at is on page 222 and 223 of AKIRA; this is the scene where we get a first look at Akira’s “bunker” (I’m not entirely sure what this is, but it is definitely something that is meant to contain Akira). Katsuhiro Otomo makes the decision to present this image on a full-page single panel. By doing so, Otomo elongates the passage of time in this particular scene. As a reader, I know that Otomo wants us to stay and take in the mood in this scene; we are not meant to quickly pass through it in a matter of seconds. The suspense is heightened with this long passage of time and it helps to magnify Akira’s importance. 

I want to compare this scene with the scene on pages 290 and 291. Instead of taking in the moment and having a large passage of time, the readers feel the time being rushed. In this scene, members of the Clown gang and the other gangs are fighting while on their motorcycles. There is not one panel in these panels that don’t have the stylized action lines. The action lines help push the reader forward, making the time shorten; the readers know that this scene is about a few seconds long. In contrast with pages 222 and 223, this scene is something that Otomo wants the reader to go through in a few seconds, to continue flipping the pages for more action.

I believe that these two scenes show a good range of the different ways that Otomo uses the time to help emphasize the mood and tone in a scene. With the scene on pages 290 and 291, Otomo manipulates time to be slower so the readers can stop and acknowledge Akira’s importance. While the scene on pages 222 and 223, Otomo manipulates time again to be shortened to fit the fast-paced, action-packed panels of those two pages. Time is used in AKIRA to help bolster the tone of the scenes and create a stronger impact overall.

I had a lot of fun reading Akira this week! I wish we could read the other novels in the series. 

Bye for now!
Works
Katsuhiro Otomo, AKIRA 

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics

Comments

  1. LabonitaApril 25, 2020 at 2:06 PM

    I thought your blog post was a great analysis of the ways Otomo uses his illustrations to depict the changes in time from one scene to another. Your use of comparing two different scenes and analyzing the difference between the time and movement in both was very interesting to read. The choice to make an entire page one scene versus using three different panels to depict another really does drive home the passage of time in the comic. I also agree that in splitting one scene into many panels, it forces the reader to move through the comic with a certain speed and become immersed into the movement and action of the comic. 

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  2. MaggieApril 25, 2020 at 11:48 PM

    Hey Allison,

    I liked your comparison of the "longer" and the "shorter" action scenes of the manga. Although I agree with you that the decision of how many panels to include on a page does in a way decide the pace of at which the reader is reading at, I think time perception is not the only factor that prompts the reader to spend more or less time on a specific panel or page. I also believe that when the decision is made to enlarge a panel to a full page, it indirectly prompts the reader to spend more time on that particular scene, possibly unconsciously thinking of the scene as important, or worth looking at for more than a few seconds. I know that from personal experience, when I am looking at a set of panels as opposed to a single panel, I spend less time on each panel if they are clustered together on one page.

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