Review of Akira

Your boy just watched his first classic. Old-school weebs now have no basis on which to call me an oblivious newfag retard. Thank god for that. -[In Summary]- Akira was pretty good. Aside from the visuals, this anime basically fit my preconceived notions about pre-2000s anime. The show is rough around the edges, but overall, quality enough for people to justify themselves watching and respecting it above all modern pieces of animation. That, and liking vintage things makes you look cooler because old things are more obscure by nature. Anyways, into the organized section of the review. -[Wait a minute, my eyes AREN'T bleeding?]- Akira's animation is phenomenal. Let'sget that one out of the way. Everything is so fluid that it puts 90% of modern anime to shame. TO BE FAIR, though, modern anime have more appealing and more complex artstyles, which are harder to animate. Since like, 2010, the anime artstyle meta has shifted to a marketable, sharp, and clean design- usually with wonky hair and eye colors. This leads pretty well into my next point:

There obviously was a lot of effort put into Akira- far more than modern anime, which is why a show made over 3 decades ago can compete even today. Most anime boomers seem to value this aspect, since high-effort anime are basically extinct in this climate. For this reason, Akira's animation stands out as proof of pure, respectable, non-corporate art. While 21st century anime are more generally appealing, Akira seems to tickle the fancy of people who truly love and care about animation. There's no need for an anime like Akira to have a protagonist with spiky off-colored hair because it's THAT good. This is not to say that it wouldn't benefit the anime, because it would.

Seeing this movie made me fantasize about what a modern passion-project anime would look like. I think Your Name might fit that bill, but I'm not exactly sold. I think I'll have to rewatch that to be sure.

-[Audio Stuff]-
The OST was good. I liked how sparsely the soundtrack was used in the anime to set the tone. As an inherently visual medium, anime can feel cheapened when music is overused. Other than the OST, though, the voice acting was unremarkable-to-bad, and the sound design was a rather mixed bag. Some sounds came through as clear and realistic, while others (specifically, dogs barking, vehicle noises, and some general collision noises) lacked that overall fidelity. This is obviously a result of the lack-luster recording technology of the time, so it is understandable. Still, though, if I'm to believe that Akira >>>>> every other anime, then I demand perfection on all fronts.

-[I AM CULTURALLY IGNORANT, PLEASE EXCUSE MY CULTURAL IGNORANCE (writing & story)]-
Okay. I did not enjoy the story of this show, nor did I enjoy the writing. I've taken history classes, so I'm well aware that things were not always dai-jou-bu in the world before my generation. Still, though, as someone who has not experienced the fear of wartime, I cannot relate to such themes. Akira is heavily focused on scary things like wide-spread civil unrest, rioting, and government conspiracies. As an American, I can relate to all three of these (at least to a small extent). In my world, it's 2020, a pandemic is going on, and basically nothing in my life has changed except that my favorite 24-hour Wendy's closes at 7:00. I'm sure that to someone born around the 1970s would see the profoundness in Akira that I don't, so I will largely ignore qualms related to the theme of war, as well as general 1980s scientific ignorance, since those aren't the fault of the work, but of the time.

With that disclaimer out of the way, yes, even despite me ignoring two of my grievances, I didn't like Akira's writing. There are so many flaws in this show's writing. The plot is contrived and predictable. Lots of dialogue comes off as cheesy and/or tropey. Character writing is also very lame, with 0/4 main characters being interesting. The character growth in the movie is not done well. One character ends up becoming chaotic-evil because he has a migraine or some shit, which is pretty dumb. Then, there's beef between two characters for some nonsensical reason. Also, the main protagonist of the story has little-to-no situational awareness, which seems to be a part of his character. Incompetent protagonists are okay, but it feels impossible for a character to be so oblivious. As a result, this aspect of his character feels inauthentic. Overall, the character writing was definitely the worst part of this movie, with the rest of the writing being only slightly better.

-[Overall]-
Ayup. That's a classic anime alright. The movie wasn't perfect enough to warrant a great rating. There were a lot of flaws that dragged the score down. If the show was as quality as the animation, then I'd understand this anime's near-universal praise. Unfortunately, though, I don't think that Akira is the pinnacle of anime. It's still pretty good, though. 7/10