Review of Akira

I've heard nothing but praise for this movie through the years and I know it's very influential, so I decided to check it out expecting to be blown away by a masterpiece... That didn't happen. I don't know if my expectations were just too high but I found it hard to enjoy it. Its strength is definitely the animation quality. It's very good for the time it was released. And though the art style is not my favorite, there are some really beautiful visuals such as when we see Neo Tokyo for the first time. And the sound design is pretty cool too. I'm sure itmust have been quite impactful at the time. But those things alone count for nothing if story and characters are lacking. The worldbuilding is very shallow, just like most of the characters. Considering the movie's runtime, that's baffling. You can barely tell Kaneda's gang members apart and they all come across as nothing more than screaming obnoxious teenagers through 90% of the movie. Tetsuo is simply insufferable, there is no way to feel sympathy for him. I only started to sorta care about Kaneda himself close to the end but felt no reason to care about anyone else there. The romance that the movie kinda tries to build up falls completely flat and at no point there's any explanation about what Akira is and why there are people who worship him. Some of the concepts presented, such as the espers are good but once again there's no explanation about them. The whole concept of Kaneda and the rest being bikers is also quite irrelevant to the story.

I really don't mind the action and the gore, I think they were very well done but there needs to be something more. I have a feeling that the manga might be better in explaining those things but the adaptation has to speak for itself. I understand that certain stories benefit from having some of its aspects stay vague but that is not the case with Akira. It's like we're just watching a series of actions without knowing why they are happening.

Overall, I can understand how it might have influenced a lot of other stories in different mediums and I can't tell if I'd have a different experience if I had watched it in the 80s, but for me it was just a very confusing experience.