Review of Akira

For me, Akira was always built up as a classic and one of the greatest anime ever made. While I did end up really enjoying it, there were some areas that let me down a bit. First, the good: The soundtrack is amazing and fits each scene perfectly. Its disturbing, exciting, somber, and hype as hell when it needs to be. It elevates every scene and is one of the reasons why the opening scene is so damn iconic. The animation is also amazing, which is quite the achievement considering the film is 30 years old. The animation is detailed, fluid, and honestly looks better than anime I'vewatched from earlier this year. For those who don't know, Akira had a budget roughly 8 times the size of the budgets for the previous Studio Ghibli films, meaning the animators had a lot of money to make sure Akira looked very good.
The visuals are also amazing. I know that the gory, graphic, and downright disturbing nature of the visuals might not appeal to everyone, but if you thought something like Devilman: Crybaby from earlier this season was a breathe of fresh air, you should like Akira.

Now the not so goo:
Put simply, the story and characters were not that good. They weren't bad, but the characters were so simple and straightforward, with a plot that was a bit to convoluted for its own good. The Manga the film is adapted from is apparently way longer than the film could cover, so the story can be a bit messy.

Overall, I would say Akira is mostly worthy of its extremely high regard, at least when it comes to the visuals and soundtrack. If you enjoy older anime, action, and plenty of gore and do not mind some short comings in terms of story and character, I think you will enjoy Akira.