Review of Akira

Akira, the anime that got Kanye to be Weeb. Spoiler, Warning. I know I'm late to catch up on this gem but hey, it's a timeless classic right? Means I am not late to the party at all as this show ascends time. With that let's get into the review, now I will only be brief on the things I like because there is honestly a whole lot I love about this. What I will get into is the issues I had, don't worry it's not a lot. Pacing, right from the opening scene we get a good glimpse of 1988 Tokyo just getting absolutely destroyed. Nextsecond we are in 2019. Kind of a big jump but that's not all. Soon the story that is 'Akira' starts to unfold, we have riots and protest breaking out without any introduction or explanation. Straight up just thrown into the scene, while I can appreciate the direct story-telling it's trying to present I won't say the execution of scenes were the best. We have scenarios just jump-cut to the next without any pause whatsoever and how the show captures time is pretty bad, everything seems to be happening in a matter of hours or just a few days despite the issue being very big. Plus, if you watched the whole show, it's quite amazing how this is 2 hours long despite many scenes being at a very fast pace and not much time to take the whole story in.

Secondly, it's the story. I'm probably guessing that the reason why the story was not as compelling or hard-hitting is that they compressed too much of the manga to one movie. Maybe taking up a manga that is pretty hard to adapt. Moreover, I will admit the plot is pretty mediocre but this having been released in 1988 must have blown so many peoples minds, myself included. It's a very somewhat one-dimensional story about how humanities actions or motivation to push science to its limits. How advancements in science would eventually lead to our downfall, kind of cliche stuff. But I would never have imagined it going down like how Akira pulled it off, it's seriously bizarre stuff.

With all my complains, I still have not enough compliments to say about this show. This must be a critical moment in anime history, actually, make it Japanese history. This was groundbreaking at its time of release and it's still till this day considered incredible. I know many people have mixed feelings about this show, but admit it, there is never going to be another gore-y, brutal and absolutely horrifying visuals in this day and age. I like to see it as this show pushing the boundaries before the eventual 'society standards' comes in. Like people advocating for this or that or that is part is too horrible so on so on... This show probably touched many adults that saw let's say Studio Ghibli's childish or fantasy-like storytelling. (except Grave of the Fireflies but that's WW2 themed)

Take a look at anime movies out nowadays, they're pretty, probably filled with romance, involve a lot of conventional Mecha or are just base on the now. Look at Akira, made in 1988, a show about dystopia and how we humans are stupid in general. I'm not talking about some Neon Genesis Evangelion extinction shit there but more of the mistakes of society as a whole, corrupt government, horrible education and so on. This movie is not perfect but it's certainly influential or a big pushing point for the anime medium as a whole.

-SCORES-

Character- 9/10: I am still in awe by how lively and vibrate almost all the characters are. Even those supporting characters are so maliciously made there are so many details to intake in scenes. The closer you look the more you realised how well made the characters are, them taking life not so seriously as well and having some funny moments too.

Art- 10/10: Say what you want about their weird looking face but I dig all that shit. I don't understand how one can critique this style all because the faces of the characters look funny. Have they seen the atmosphere that the show has made? How futurism and dystopia collide to make up this gorgeous of a masterpiece that is Akira. I am in awe by how the visuals look, it's so beautifully made. You won't get these kinds of standard nowadays. All you get are cute characters with the shine filtered put on high so everything looks shiny and pretty.

Writing- 7/10: Definitely the weakest part but it just goes to show how hard it is to adapt a manga all into a film.

Sound- 10/10: Sonically this blows my mind, to the mouth made sound effects to the chilling and haunting OST. I am seriously impressed by the production level of this shit and there are some really bizarre and out of this world sounds that the producers made as well.

Overall, a classic.

Light 9