| Review by Jim |
| Rating: **1/2 |
| Plot: Roughly thirty years after Tokyo was destroyed in a blast created by a powerful entity known only as "Akira," Neo-Tokyo has been reconstructed in its wake. Political corruption, military cover-ups, and motorcycle gangs run rampant throughout the city. Tetsuo, the youngest member in the Capsule motorcycle gang gets into an accident involving a telepath and he himself develops telekenetic powers. He gains this tremendous power all too soon and can hardly handle it as he sets out to find Akira, even if he has to rip the city apart. With Tetsuo as a ticking time bomb waiting to go off, will history repeat itself? Review: Before I begin, I'd like to show you a sample bit of dialogue. Kaneda: Tetsuuuuuuuuuoooooooo! Tetsuo: Kanedddddddddaaaaaaaa! I just had to get that out of my system before starting this review. Akira is widely popular because it's what introduced most newbies to anime. Akira is one of the "greats" that's synonymous with anime and will always be mentioned alongside it. However, me and my brother knew about anime before we saw Akira. I forget what anime got my brother started, but for me it was Demon City Shinjuku. In any case, Akira originally came out in 1988 and was in U.S. theaters by '89. While it was critically praised, it didn't do so hot at box offices (unless it's a kiddie anime, it never does well). So is it worth all the lavish praise it's been given? In my opinion, no, but that doesn't mean that Akira is a bad anime. Firstly, whenever I think cyber-punk, Akira is always the first thing to pop into my head. The cyber-punk setting is milked for all its worth. The huge, neon-lit city of Neo-Tokyo has such a presence that it feels more like a character than it does just a setting. And of course let's not forget the memorabe fight and chase sequences on the motorcycles. There's also some nice action sequences that involve people getting chewed up by bullets and such as well as Tetsuo's psychic powers being tested on the local military (and can't forget the finale when Tetsuo transforms, gross!), so your action and gore quotient should be satisfied. Akira also boasts some impressive animation, making it still look good even after this time and many animes later. The animation's smooth, vibrant, and colorful; the animation is still top-notch. The voice acting's decent enough, but it never really grabs your attention and the performances never really go beyond the call of duty. At least Kaneda's voice has some personality to it courtesy of Johnny Yong Bosch (who also voices Trigun's Vash). The story's pretty basic stuff with its main theme being that of an organism evolving before it's ready for its new gifts (like Tetsuo suddenly gaining telepathic powers). It's pretty much all about Tetsuo searching for Akira leading up to a climax at a stadium. In an effort to complicate things, the movie focuses on many secondary characters that influence the story a little bit, but don't really merit much time if any. This also hurts character development since we have to shift our attention from Tetsuo, who in my opinion has the most depth in his character, to more uninteresting characters. Perhaps it's because the makers had to cram and rush Akira's story (the manga ran for a very long time), but in any case Akira could've used some extra time in the oven. If you're anime fan, you WILL have to see this just because of its mammoth reputation, so you might as well get it over with now since it's not a bad anime, just a little rushed in some areas. It's worth one viewing, so I say give it a shot. |
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