Review of Akira

Akira is highly acclaimed, a lot due to its great animation effort, and the manga popularity also seems to have helped. Indeed it is a quite positive effort from Katsuhiro Otomo. Regarding the hype though, I do not find it all that spectacular, nor do I get the feeling that I am watching something all that unique. It is a blend of sci-fi concepts in a dystopic setting, with a major plot that builds up well to a chaotic but interesting finale. However, if you go down to the detail, the characters don't stand out all that much, their adventures and action parts are a bitvulgar, and even the main plot does take some wild turns that sometimes feel forced.

Nevertheless, it has influenced lots of forthcoming series, the psychism and energy field thing are definite highlights here.

This is a film to watch, to some extent important and unique. Just take the care not to expect too much of it as I did.