Alternate Title: アキラ
Genre: Action | Science Fiction | Psychological | Punk-ish
Company: The Akira Committee Company, Ltd.
American Liscensing Company: Pioneer Animation (Pioneer Entertainment)
Format: 1 movie
Dates: 07/16/1988
Original Creator: Katsuhiro Otomo
Age Rating: Not suitable for young children; 15-18 and up

Synopsis: The year is 2019, and life in Neo Tokyo is still being reconstructed years after the explosion in Tokyo in 1988 that started World War III. Kaneda is a 16 year old orphan, and a notorious bike gang leader (his bike gang is just one of several that have sprouted in Neo Tokyo). One night during a battle with a rival gang, Kaneda's best friend Tetsuo is injured in an accident because of an encounter with a strangely overaged child. After being injured, Tetsuo is taken captive by the government and used as a human test subject in psychic experimentation. Kaneda soon finds himself in the middle of political conspiracy that is surrounding his friend Tetsuo's discovered ability to have powers like the mysterious Akira.... But, Tetsuo is ready to use his new found powers to take out his revenge on the world that has treated him terribly for all his life.

SCORE: 88%

Akira is a very well animated film considering its age (And I mean that. Have you ever seen the mass majority of 80s anime? Yuck!), and has a style not like any other anime. It takes a couple times watching to understand this movie, and if you don't have a mind that can debate theroies and that can think in abstracts, you probably won't be able to understand the later half of the movie and the end (or all of it for that matter). You might like this movie for it's style and awesome animation (this movie is known for being popular amongst slightly punk-ish anime fans), but the animation really isn't suppose to be the point of this movie, and if you don't realize that, you've missed the story and the whole point.

Plot: This movie...have plot? Actually, yes. It's very hard to follow, and you might have to watch it a couple times, and then you might still be wondering what the hell happened, but a plot is present. The biggest drawback to this movie is the extreme amount of attention it has received (This is the movie, along with its predecessor manga, that renewed the interest in anime and manga amongst Japanese teenagers in the late 80s), which has almost made it even more legendary than it might even need. But, that's fan hype for ya.

You can tell with this movie that the original story was hacked to bits for this movie. The manga was far too exstensive to be fit entirely into one movie and shouldn't have been butchered (Akira needs to be redone as some sort of movie saga, or OVA. That would be a lot better). Even though a lot of story is cut, the plot is there, even if it's just barely.

Most often when a story is cut too much for a movie, it likes to ride too much on visual (The Escaflowne movie for example). Luckily, the characters ended up having a little personality in this movie, and the strongest personality was probably Kaneda's, then Tetsuo's. Kaneda's personality cracks me up, because he manages to be such a bad ass motorcyclist punk, but also a pathetic dork when caught and trying to pick up on girls. At least, in this movie you get to know down deep that Kaneda is actually a very good kid, so much, that he's almost lovable (But not quite. He is a bad ass after all ^_^). It's too bad not more is known about many of the characters' pasts, including Kei's. If more was known about why these characters were getting involved in this government conspiracy, there would have been more character, and they would have been easier to relate to.

Visual: Even with its age, this movie surpasses many modern anime visually wise. The characters were very simplistic when it came to eyes, and face structure was varied pretty well from one character to the next. The style of this anime is very different from any other I have ever seen (The characters not having big eyes might be part of the reason why many Americans like this movie but not other anime, since many Americans can't and won't try to get use to big eyed anime). This stylization made the characters seem pretty solid though. This goes along with my philosophy that usually the simplier in stylization, the more solid and better, and that seems to be true of this movie.

The bike scenes were amazing, especially when it came to the various camera angles that could almost make you feel that you were trailing the bikes you were watching. The light flares of the bikes were amazing, and Kaneda's bike kicks so much ass (I still need to get a model of him with his bike ^_^).

Gunplay was handled pretty well, and blood worked good too. However, I have to count points off for when Kei shot a man in his face, and the blood that came out seemed too bright for the lighting and almost pink. This seemed to happen more than once too.

Tetsuo's freak out was nasty and incredible. Leave it at that so not to ruin the movie for ya ^_^.

Explosions were incredible, and they sure had enough of them, but not without being too unrealistic. That "one-of-a-kind-explosion" at the end (and beginning also, actually) was actually pretty original and unexpected by me.

The visuals were awesome, and really pushed the limits of animation for the time this movie was released. However, I wasn't amazed too much, and I probably should have been, but I've seen too many other animes I guess to be extremely impressed. But, don't get me wrong. The visuals are truly amazing and not quite like any other movie I've ever seen.

Sound: The music was amazing! I haven't enjoyed a soundtrack this much since the first time I watched Ghost in the Shell (Even though most definitely either hate or love that soundtrack). The soundtrack almost sounds like it wants to go back to Traditional Japanese Music roots, but has a beat of it's own. The cool use of drums almost wants to make you get up and dance and beat on your chest like a cave man ^_^. The ending of the music piece during the final explosion however, almost seemed out of place.

Sounds? My God, talk about fitting well! Guns, explosions, crushing of bones (ick!) and crashes worked very well. The sound helped immensely and made the fight scenes seem very painful.

The Dub: If I'm right, with the movie's remastered re-release in 2001, there was a new dubbing. It's passable, and not bad at all, but if you're familar with a lot of dubs, you'll recognize the voices. The voice actors can't help that, but it's kinda scary hearing a Digimon character voice coming out of a raging Tetsuo. The Japanese is better. ^_^

Dub Letter Grade: C+

Extra Rants and Bitching: Uh...yeah. I love this movie actually, but too much chop-it-up! I like Kaneda and Kai! ^_^ Kai's a little pimp with his snazzy tie! LOL

Score Comments: 88% is actually a pretty decent score. But, all the hype created by the companies lead me to be a little disappointed. That's not the movie's fault, but that's only part of the reason for this score. The plot worked, sure, but it was chopped up way too much. Characters, needed more history. The end, it may have been resolved, but it's left a lot of open questions. The final resolution of the movie will not be easy for all to understand, and most will probably never get it at all.

Websites:
Akira 2001 (Official Pioneer Website for 2001 re-release)

Have a website about this series, or do you know of a good one? Want me to link to it on this review? Well, the feel free to email the sucker to me! Just make sure to put "Review Link" in the subject.