Akira

Produced by Akira Committee

Directed by Kitsuhiro Otomo

Akira is a cult classic adored by many loathed by few Otomo-san’s 1987 film is without a doubt the most famous anime to ever hit the west.  Now 16 years on it’s time to look at Akira in retrospect. 

Akira is a movie that excites from the beginning on both a visual and aural level in fact the first thing you’ll notice is just how beautiful everything looks from the opening sound and vision extravaganza of Tokyo been fried in nuclear death to the colourful night scenes, to the sounds, the buzz of lights as they flicker on cars whizzing by in the distance the screech of motorcycle tires and of course the fantastic musical score. 

And these sounds correspond to some slick animation every frame is breathtaking characters motions are beyond fluid and buildings and the rest of the cityscape is brought to life by the amount of detail that has gone into creating it.  In fact in some scenes it is possible to see the painstaking effort the Akira Committee went to in order to achieve such detail lit buildings contain lights some 1.5mm in height in some cases .5mm this kind of thing is truly remarkable. 

The plot focuses on two street punks Kaneda and Tetsuo. Kaneda is the ringleader of a group of motorcyclists he is tremendously cocky and fancies himself as a bit of a ladies man.  Tetsuo on the other hand is the complete opposite he has an inferiority complex when it comes to Kaneda and his peers.  Tetsuo is also filled with pent up rage and confusion.  In the first couple of scenes a motorcycle chase takes place Tetsuo is involved in a crash and is abducted by the military.  Experiments are conducted on him in order to unlock the full potential of his mind however Tetsuo cannot deal properly with his new found power and it gets the better of him This in turn leads to the destruction of Neo Tokyo at the film’s hectic climax.

All of this sounds excellent doesn’t it and to tell the truth Akira was [and still is] a marvel to behold.  However what Otomo more than makes up for in pain staking effort and set piece direction there are a few things he falls short on and one of these is pacing.  Akira is a very hard movie to watch it tends to erratically change pacing one minute action is flying at you from every direction the next there’s an hour long narrative section, this of course is accepted in Japan as been good story telling and good story telling  but the simple fact of the matter is good story telling does not always make the best cinema.  

Another criticism is the way in which the story was adapted for the screen it seems that Otomo wanted to make the story a lot shorter we never really see the awakening of Akira himself and the situations the characters find themselves in are sometimes completely different to the manga.  What may have seemed like the best thing ever in 1986 now seems slightly dated perhaps at this point it has become a parody of itself.  Compared to the mighty Princess Mononoke I feel AKIRA has become somewhat dated and has lost some of it's charm and mph over the years.  What once was the ultimate is now the stuff of legends still good but not as good.

Pacing, plot trimming and wrinkles aside there is one other thing that stifles Akira and that is Tetsuo placing Tetsuo as the leading character was a bold move by Otomo and the fact that Akira himself never appears is some what disappointing considering the manga’s story was almost entirely different, gone is the bitter rivalry between Tetsuo and Kaneda’s motorcycle gangs and although the rivalry is played on it is not played on quite enough to justify Tetsuo’s inferiority complex.  Fans of the original manga may be disappointed by the decision to drop the rebirth theme concerning Neo Tokyo rebuilding itself towards the end of Volume 6 in the manga version.  This decision takes away from the hope aspect of the film instead leaving the movie at a emotive end which is good in itself.

Quibbles aside Akira is still a quality piece of anime [and cinema] and should be seen by everyone who is interested in Sci-Fi [and everyone who isn’t]

Seven out of Ten