REVIEW - Akira (1988)

I'm gonna be honest, Science-Fiction is not my favourite genre when it comes to movies. Sure, I like Star Wars, Cowboy Bebop, Steins;Gate and Back to the Future and I certainly plan on watching 2001: A Space Odyssey some time in the future, but I never really got into the genre that well. It's hard to explain why, but I just never really found an interest in spaceships or the future or a post-apocalyptic world. I dunno if it's because it was too 'grungy' or too hard to follow, I just never really found a reason to get into it and there was nothing that captivated me about the genre. However, as an Otaku it would be an injustice to me if I never at least watched the following sci-fi epic.

Akira, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo

One of the movies most iconic images, Kaneda braking on his custom built bike.

Akira literally begins as it sets to go on: with a bang. In the year 1987, in the midst of World War III (well that was a very pessimistic view back then, eh Mr. Otomo?) an explosion occurs in a top secret underground lab in Tokyo, Japan that levels the entire city. 30 years later, Neo-Tokyo is built up from it's ashes near Tokyo Bay. From the looks of things, Neo-Tokyo is a booming industrial city with an ambience of a society on the verge of collapse. We cut to a group of bikers, led by Shotaro Kaneda (played by Mitsuo Iwata/Johnny Yong Bosch) going around Neo-Tokyo kicking the shit out of other biker gangs and also causing havoc around the city. However, in a fight with their rival gang, The Clowns, one of Kaneda's friends, Tetsuo Shima (played by Nozumo Sasaki/Joshua Seth) crashes his bike into what looks like a small child, but there's something off about it. It has blue-green wrinkled skin and pure white flowing hair. Shocked from the crash, Tetsuo passes out and Kaneda and his group are placed under arrest due to martial law being in place. Tetsuo is taken in by the army and Kaneda and his gang are sent to a police station for questioning as to h=why they were out causing havoc on the streets. They manage to get out and Kaneda runs into Kei (also known as Kay in the English Version) whom he instantly has a crush on. Meanwhile, at the Army HQ, a Doctor by the name of Onishi (played by Mizuho Suzuki/Simon Prescott) is conducting experiments on Tetsuo to see if he can become a psychic weapon along the lines of the infamous Akira - the boy who lost control of his powers and single-handedly destroyed Tokyo in the blink of an eye. The rest of the movie falls down into two simple categories: a cat-an mouse game between the resistance that Kaneda joins (which Kei is a part of) and the army (who hold Tetsuo in custody, hence why Kaneda joined the resistance) and Tetsuo. The other plot arc in the movie follows the struggles of Tetsuo, and trying to utilize his new-found powers, not for the good of mankind but rather because he wants to prove Kaneda that he can indeed take care of himself. While the plot is somewhat cliché, it actually has some really good twists and turns and has a great narrative with an extremely powerful message which, while simple, is poignant in the way it is told and the way it comes across to the viewer. It's a balls to the walls sci-fi action flick with some heavy detail to help try and build a pseudo-realistic post-apocalyptic world.

Neo-Tokyo is a sad yet booming city.

Rather than dissecting the characters of Akira like I do in my normal anime reviews (i.e I talk about the main and my personal favourite), I'm just going to talk about the characters in general for the sake of nit spoiling too much of Akira. While you could say that Tetsuo could fall under the cliché of being the character that wants to prove to everybody that he's strong and reliable, I personally don't think that any of Akira's characters are cliché. Sure, they do some cliché things (like Kaneda falling in love with Kei at first sight) but their actual selves are not clichéd. They act pretty realistically to situations (as realistic as can be in a situation that happens in the world of Akira) and are somewhat down-to-earth. You actually end up cheering the good guys on in the end because of how badly they have it. Forced into school by the army, not allowed to bike in the night time, they're basically not allowed to have what they call 'fun' so they end up doing all the bad things that they do like hanging out at bars and wrecking cars and breaking the speed limits on their bikes. I mean the fact is that they are oppressed so much that you can't help but feel for them at times. The resistance is quite small but very clever in the way the go about operations thanks to some inside help, and when they're sneaking through the lab later in the movie the tension is just palpable and it just adds to the atmosphere of the scene so much. While definitely not without some problems, the cast of Akira is fun, diverse and tragic and is one of the better casts in an anime movie.

In regards to animation, Akira's animators were smart in the way they animated the movie using pre-scored dialogue. What this means is that the lines were recorded by the voice actors and the animators animated the characters mouths around the way the line was spoken by the voice actor. Akira was also a very influential piece of art at the time, paving the way for other anime of its art style such as Dragon Ball Z. The sets and backgrounds in the movie are all extremely detailed, and for something animated at the end of the 1980's, Akira looks absolutely beautiful. Characters move realistically and very fluidly and only do the impossible when they really need to. The hand-drawn animation is put to real good use here, and Akira and all of its 160,000 animated cells looks absolutely jaw-dropping. It is honestly the only real attempt at a proper realized futuristic Tokyo and it just looks stunning.

Soundtrack-wise, it's very heavy on the rock and typical sci-fi music, but it's got a kickass soundtrack. I think the only reason why I don't like it as much as most other anime soundtracks is that it's not as diverse as I'd like it to be. Sure that may have been the creators vision of what people in the late 2010's Tokyo do when he created the manga back in the late 70's/early 80's, but even so the soundtrack is great, just lacks some diversity. As regarding which dub you watch, any of the dubs are fine to be honest. I personally prefer the original 1988 Japanese Dubbing since it goes better with the mouth-animations, but that's just me. The 2001 Pioneer Dub is fantastic also and gets a thumbs up from me.

To quote a review on the 2006 DVD Version of Akira: "No Akira, No Matrix. Simple As." I think that reviewer hit it on the head perfectly. Akira is one of the most influential movies ever made, let alone Science-Fiction movies ever made. It, along with Trigun and Cowboy Bebop, helped make Japanese anime popular in the western world. It's stylized setting, down to earth cast and it's amazing animation helped pave the way for a new audience for anime, and I couldn't thank it enough for that. While it's not perfect, it's one of my all time favourite movies because of how well it gets its message across. 

Story: 9

Characters: 10

Animation: 10

Soundtrack: 8

Personal Enjoyment: 9

FINAL SCORE FOR AKIRA: 9.2/10