Review of Akira (1988) by Eldwin T — 20 Aug 2011

I must confess, I was a little disappointed with Akira. With the adulation it's received over the years I don't think it'll be any surprise that I had extremely high expectations. This no doubt lead to the great sense of 'meh' I felt after it finally ended.

I have no problem with anime, quite in fact, I particularly enjoy it. From Evangelion to Princess Mononoke to Hellsing, I can enjoy anime of all genre. I think my relative knowledge of the genre may in fact be something that most fawning critics don't possess. They see an anime with relative depth that's gaining momentum and they flock to it. That's the problem.

There are so many animes with much more depth, much better stories, and better developed characters than Akira.

It also hasn't aged well. It looks dated. This really detracts from the enjoyment, particularly when conflated with the fact that so many animes that came after Akira mined it's conventions. It's all too familiar.

This is the problem. Akira was seminal, but it isn't the 80s anymore. Anime has evolved far past Akira and I can't forget what I have seen. My enjoyment of Akira was stilted by my enjoyment of anime, but I respect it for it's time.