Read it. Katsuhiro Otomo isn't one to stuff his morals/ideas down your throat, instead he portrays a society at and beyond breaking point.
It's the true depiction of the terror and glory of an atomic bomb. The mushroom cloud's imagery and mythos fills this saga. It isn't about the tragedy, the hypocrisy or even the "obvious" moral of such things....although there's plenty of tragedy and hypocrisy to go around and we have front row seats.
However that's just a backdrop. The real story is about people on the edge of this, people with real lives, ideals and the startling realization that their lives and ideas may not amount to much.
In the shadow of The Bomb/Akira/The Cataclysm, the "power of god", unleashed but untamed by humans the sanctity or even "rightness" of their life is often all too petty and swallow.
Akira is a glimpse into the Abyss that lies beyond the carefully built facade of society and law: a place where the primitive, the godlike, the real essence of MAN lies.
