Review of Akira

Note: This is a spoiler-free review Like many other Gen-X anime fans, this movie cemented what good anime was supposed to be to someone in an emerging market. This movie is greatness; Neo-dystopian realistic post-war setting, plenty of action, science fiction plot and story mystique, inner workings of urban life, the street life of motorcycle gangs, topped with smart and intelligent dialog; American audiences were starved for smart anime having grown out of the after-school fair of Robotech - ignorant and unaware of the sagas like Macross it had chopped and spliced - because it was thought audiences wouldn't get it. Akira proved that wrong.From the explosive action-packed first frames to the ending metaphysical denouement this film set the standard for thought-provoking science fiction anime long before 1995's Evangelion.

The film has aged exceptionally well; the animation holds up, the sound is great, the dialog is still smart and the themes mature and relevant to people today as it was in the Cold War era.. all while being more accessible to most audiences than many anime that followed it.

This is a must-see film; not just for the sake of anime film history, but because its still as entertaining now as it was when it first hit theaters.