Anime Review: Akira

Review Akira

It is the year 2019. Thirty one years ago a nuclear bomb exploded in Tokyo. Now the city renamed Neo Tokyo is in the crapper, in typical cyberpunk fashion. In the middle of this futuristic rust bucket is Kaneda and Tetuso, two orphans in a biker gang. While they are going about their normal juvenile delinquent lives (ie fighting a rival gang) they run into someone very odd. The government gets involved in the whole mess and ends up taking Tetsuo with them. This also causes Kaneda to be involved with an antigovernment movement. This is only the beginning of things as the hospital where Tetsuo is taken notices a very odd transformation occurring in him. It seems that he could be connected with "Akira". However who or what is this Akira and what does it have to do with tetsuo?

Originally made in 1989 and released in America a couple years later Akira is considered one of if not the defining movie in anime fandom. It is often credited with being the movie that set off anime fandom in America. I am not sure if that is entirely true but given the quality of the movie it is not an obviously false statement.

The only possible problem anyone might have with Akira is the plot. Even though the story is well thought out it is an extremely confusing one littered with metaphysics. If you find it difficult to understand you are not alone. Watching it a second time may help. If that doesn't work you might want to pick up the manga that the movie was based on.

The animation quality for Akira is simply through the roof. Even though the movie is over a decade old only a handful of anime productions have even come close to the level of quality that is possessed by Akira. Not only is the movie extremely well animated it contains numerous action sequences that fully exploit the animation.

Most anime reviewers call Akira a classic. I am one of those reviewers. Akira has been a standard among anime fans and something no true otaku can miss. Rent it, buy it, or see it on television, I don't care you should see it. I give Akira a rating of excellent.