Akira influenced Akira

Otomo adapted his own manga, and did it while the manga was still running. The serial ran 1982 to 1990; the film arrived in 1988 with six years of story to compress and an ending that did not exist yet. What that produces is unusual for an adaptation: the film is not a reduction of a finished work but a second version by the same author, with Tetsuo's arc pulled forward, the Colonel's role enlarged and the manga's long post-Akira reconstruction gone entirely. Otomo then finished the manga differently.