It's bit confusing regarding what Akira collections are out there and what collects what. The series was originally published in Japan in chapters in a magazine called 週刊ヤングマガジン (Weekly Young Magazine), over the span of eight years. It was then collected in 6 Volumes by the publisher 株式会社講談社 (Kodansha). These were all black and white editions.
It was first published in English by Epic which was an imprint of Marvel Comics between 1988 and 1996. This was published in what is called prestige format (higher quality paper square bound and longer than a typical comic but shorter than a trade paperback or graphic novel). There were 38 issues in the Epic run and color was added by Steve Oliff who was an early innovator in digital coloring. Epic Collected the English color run in 10 Trade Paperbacks (and industry term for collections of comics in book form) and those were collected in 5 Hardcover Volumes in a partnership between Epic and Graffiti Designs. The trade paperbacks and hardcovers only published the first 31 issues so there were 7 of the Epic issues that were not collected in book form. The comics and trades by Epic are the only versions to date, in any language, that featured full color. So the only way the full color version of the end of the story is available are in those last 7 issues by Epic. By the time those issues were published American interest in the title had declined and with some of the issues published years after the issues before. So the print run was lower every issue making the end of the series in color very rare. The high grade copy of the last issue (#38) gets well over $100 on the second hand market.
Dark Horse Comics later released the series in 6 Black and White English Volumes (as they are collected in Japan). They were released in the UK by Titan.
What I don't know and would like to know is which issues of the Epic series corresponds to the Epic trade paperbacks or what Epic issues correspond to the 6 black and white volumes by Dark Horse. If anyone has that information it would be appreciated. If I can collect that informations myself I'll edit it into this post.