The Film (5/5)

It’s just another night in Neo-Tokyo. Civil unrest and rampant crime are the norm. While Kaneda and his biker gang are busy having a clash with a rival gang, a shriveled up psychic girl is having a vision of someone named Akira who will come and destroy the city. Kaneda’s pal Tetsuo gets into a rather serious motorcycle accident as his bike explodes when he encounters a different shriveled up psychic kid. The military steps in and takes Tetsuo away in order to experiment on him. To rescue his buddy, Kaneda gets mixed up with Kei and her merry band of anarchists while Tetsuo rescues himself with his newfound telekinetic abilities and psychotic personality makeover. Kaneda quickly realizes that he needs to kill his best friend before the city is destroyed. Tetsuo, Kaneda, Kei, the psychic kids, the military and even the great Akira himself (best translucent cameo ever) square off in the disused Olympic stadium. Hilarity ensues.

Whenever I watch Akira, I’m instantly transported to my 14th year of life and the night my friend regaled me with tales of this insane Japanese cartoon. I demanded that he bring it over and thankfully, he complied. My nearly impossible expectations of Akira were destroyed with my first viewing. Completely blown away, I taped his bootlegged VHS and that copy became one of my prized possessions. This film and Repo Man are still in the running for my most watched -possibly over-watched- films even after all these years. So, what I’m trying to say is that yes, I’m a total fanboy.

This film is a gamechanger and a quick scroll through the trivia on a certain international movie database will give you a glimpse into just how much work went into this beast. I firmly believe that Akira set the standard for theatrically released animated films from Japan for decades and its influence is everywhere. The music alone is completely unique and almost as big of a part of the film as the visuals. I wish that composer Shôji Yamashiro had done more film music but damn, how could he hope to top this score?

In the chaotic and violent world of Katsuhiro Otomo’s formidable epic, the loss of self is still the greatest threat to humanity. The body horror onscreen is still as eyepopping and visceral as ever as the audience is forced to watch Tetsuo lose control over himself, consumed by powers he can’t possibly control. But that’s not all the social commentary here. The loads of disenfranchised kids -probably all orphans like Tetsuo and Kaneda- and their reform school that resembles Hades on a bad day, is rather disturbing.

Oh and in case you were wondering, science is terrible. The scientists care as much about the people they’re destroying with their experiments as the corrupt politicians do about the system they’ve rigged to line their pockets. The military come out smelling like roses in this one! It’s not all grim though, Akira has an emotional core and even has characters that you care about WHEN THEY’RE NOT SCREAMING EACH OTHER’S NAMES AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS.

Audio/Video (4.5/5)

Well, this presentation is pretty fantastic. This is my first look of Akira on Blu-ray -I totally missed this when it was first released in 2013- and I’m very impressed. The people who busted their asses bringing this to screen so many years ago did not do so in vain. This is vibrant and looks practically brand new. Audio is great with three versions to choose from. First up, the original Japanese is the way to go in terms of really kicking out the jams. This mix is damn near perfect. Second, is the 2001 dub that I really didn’t like at all when it came out. It sounds okay here but I still don’t care for it. For my money (due to my pernicious nostalgia), I go with the 1988 dub because that’s the one that I first heard all those years ago. This is such a treat for my teenage ears -what’s left of them.

Extras (4/5)

We get to hear from the director himself where he talks about the origins of the manga and his mindset when approaching Akira as a feature film. There’s a 20 minute bit about the music of Akira that’s fascinating. We get to see the technical side what went into restoring Akira in a featurette. One quirky extra is a translation of the graffiti in the movie which is fun. That and a glossary of terms used in the film are rather geeky. No judgment here. There’re  also storyboards and several trailers for Akira. While these extras are great, I wish there was something on here that would put this in context for a western audience. I’d be very curious to hear about this film’s history on home video in the United States and its impact on American anime fandom.

Overall

Did Akira change my life? It kinda did! While my mind had already been poisoned by the likes of Robotech and Voltron, it was this film that gave me a tangible example of anime that made me seek out more. And trust me, I hit the ground running, my nerdiness increasing exponentially along the way. I think that Akira is still a good jumping off point for people who claim that they don’t like Japanese animation. This endlessly watchable film is even more fun to discuss and it’s anybody’s guess what the hell is going on sometimes. I can’t stress this enough: read the dang manga! It answers quite a few questions and makes me wish that Otomo had finished it before he began work on this film. Even if they remake this into a series someday in order to do the manga justice (fingers crossed) or make a live action version (fingers half-crossed), the 1988 film will still be what all great animators should strive for.