What film led the way for the second wave of anime fandom outside of Japan and is a major influence on live-action films? We teamed up with Tom Pinchuk from AnimeVice.com to tackle. : Akira - What’s the Difference? br br Manga artist Katsuhiro Otomo started writing and drawing Akira in 1982 in WEEKLY YOUNG MAGAZINE. By 1988, he was directing the feature film adaptation - - two years before he'd actually finished the series itself! As such, Akira the anime and Akira the manga exist as unique companion pieces; not only because they're both products of the same creator, but also because the movie is effectively an incomplete preview for the much larger saga Otomo eventually got to finish telling in print. br br Akira is now regarded as a landmark film that went on to be cited as an important influence many by illustrators in the manga industry. The film is also considered a forerunner of the second wave of anime fandom that began in the early 1990s and has gained a massive cult following since then. It has been cited as a major influence on live-action films ranging from The Matrix to Chroniclebr br Have you read Otomo’s manga? Have you watched (or re-watched) Akira recently? Which do you think is better: the manga or the anime? Are you having telekinetic psychic visions right now? Have we awakened something inside of you?br br What other works would you like to see us explore on What’s The Difference?br br Want to know what's going on with Cinefix in the future?br Follow us Twitter for updates: br Oh, and we're on The Facebook: br Welcome to What's The Difference, where CineFix takes you step-by-step and page-by-page through all the differences between your favorite movies & shows and their source material. Adaptations are a tricky game, something always gets changed, added, or omitted in the process.