Review of Akira (1988) by Sean S — 26 Oct 2012

I wrote a large examination of this film once about why it doesn't work as a film and yet remarkably fulfills the self destructive feel of its content at the same time - in essence, you can watch Neo Tokyo eat itself alive just as the film unravels narratively and in coherent technique, creating perfect thematic resonance with its form. It's a mess and maybe perfect for it. Mind boggling hand drawn animation, amazing tribal/electronic score (once again so fitting to the content), searing images of horror on a character to character scale as well as a societal scale (institutionalized violence erupts just as shockingly as wayward telekinetic rampages), a landmark in anime and animation period. Hard to stomach, and yet magnetizes attention. I tend to have to take breaks months/years long before I rewatch, and yet I rewatch. There's nothing quite like 'AKIRA'.

I'm not an anime purist when it comes to subtitles vs. dubbing, but this is one time it's a must see in original Japanese dialog with subs (unless you speak Japanese) as the English dub renders inappropriate wacky over the top spin in the tone that's very out of place.

Currently reading the epic (thousands of pages long) manga by Katsuhiro Otomo, who was also this film's director. If you haven't seen a decent anime film before, I would suggest the beautiful and world renowned work of Hayao Miyazaki. 'AKIRA' would invite you with a kick in the face, yet (here's another ironic contradiction emerging from the film prefaced by a 'yet') many in the western world were apparently introduced to anime by this film in the 80's/early 90's, leading to its growth here across the great blue divide of the Pacific.