Review of Akira (1988) by Jon T — 30 Mar 2012

Often hailed by many as the "Citizen Kane" of all Anime, AKIRA, based on director Katsuhiro Otomo's graphic novel series, still looks spectacular for a film made in 1988; its backgrounds are intricately detailed and the animation flows as smoothly as any Disney animated feature.

That said, AKIRA is ABSOLUTELY NOT A CHILDREN'S FILM. As a matter of fact, it's one of the most violent, complicated, and nearly gruesome animated features I've ever sat through. The plot, which is basically compressed from 2,000 pages of story, takes a lot of scrutinizing to comprehend, with a rather twisted depiction of society.

(It was even more confusing in the Streamline English dub; thank goodness Pioneer's superior translation helps clear the murkiness from the original, and is better acted overall.) It sets in a gritty, post-apocalyptic Tokyo in which its "heroes" are juvenile deliquent biker gangs and the "villains" are corrupt government politicians.

The main plot point involves the "runt" of a biker gang, Tetsuo, who is horrifyingly transformed from a meek, insecure introvert into a dangerously violent psychopath with powers beyond his belief-all on account of an accident with a mysterious escapee from a lab.

Basically, the whole story builds up to a cautionary message about the misuse of power and corruption, and it gets even more grisly in the last thirty minutes, but there are lots of subplots that seem random and/or unexplained-in particular, a nasty politician using a gang to take over the executive council, or a cult who pronounces "Akira" as their savior.

All it boils down to is Tetsuo and his struggles with his "best friend", Kaneda, and his obsession to claim the power that is contributing to his madness. AKIRA does earn five stars for its in-depth plot and technical brilliance, but only slightly.

It's essential viewing for animation buffs, but a rather mean-spirited and gruesome one at that.