Review of Akira

Akira for me is a story about power and how it corrupts people who are exposed to it. There are two most important story threads in this movie. First one focuses on elites, shows us the ugly side of Neo-Tokyo, its oppressive nature and infighting for power. The second one shows us people of the city, life in it and how corruption of the city affects people in it. Through teenage eyes of our protagonist we see how fight for power among the ruling class affects normal people. This makes us of course symphatetic to those kids, we want them to get the power to change theirfate and that is what happens. Here Akira shows us that power can corrupt normal people as easly as politicians, that everyone has their flaws and selfish desires that can turn them into even worse people than those who opress them.

This is just one and most basic theme of this movie if you really want to you can dig into its concepts for hours.

For a movie from 1988 you would expect that animation and visuals would be dated, but that is far from truth. This movie is one of the most incredibly animated and detailed works i've ever seen, every frame is a piece of art and every action scene is a spectacle. One of the more dividing aspects of this movie is the character design. This is something you will either accept or not, all I can do is ask you to give it a shot and get used to it.

Sound design is flawless and soundtrack itself is very unique. It is a combination of traditional japanese music with a modern twist to it and it really fits the movie especially when we get to more fantastical elements of this film.

I would say that characters are the weakest part of Akira. They all feel to me like they are made to realize all of its themes and concepts. We get a military badass, resistance fighter wanting to change the system and other minor characters that don't matter that much. The strongest ones are of course Kaneda and Tetsuo.
Kaneda is a rebellious teenager who tries to survive in this dystopian reality, save his friend and take responsibility for his actions. On the other hand, Tetsuo tries to impress his friends and eventually become someone others can rely on. Their dynamic in the movie was pretty engaging although not that memorable.

Akira is a classic for a reason and you should definitely experience it for yourself.