Review of Akira

I'm glad I added yet another one of the classics to my repertoire but I'm also slightly disappointed. What I expected from Akira and what it actually turned out to be differed quite a lot. During the first 20 minutes or so, I was really enjoying it. A post-apocalyptic city in the grasp of gang violence, terrorism, oppressive government and poverty. Awesome animations, soundtracks, cool futuristic bikes and our "badass" bike gang. Their quarrel with the other gang will be enjoyable to watch, I said to myself and we will get some character development till hell breaks loose, I also thought. Then the story tooka drastic turn so quickly that it felt like I accidentally switched the tab and started watching another anime. When that drastic turn happens, everything I've watched until that point felt meaningless and like a waste. But the biggest problem is, when that turn happens and the story changes, it gets worse. It is very vague and cryptic even, which is not something necessarily bad but in Akira, it feels like this was not a choice but simply incompetence on story-telling and world-building because characters are just as bad. Tetsuo sucked so bad as an antagonist but Kaneda was slightly better, however both of them and everyone else lacked personalities and depths and none of them actually achieved anything so this once again made me feel like this is all pointless.

Animation and soundtrack are the redeeming qualities of Akira and they are the reasons why I don't see it a total waste of time. It has iconic scenes and you can tell that it inspired lots of modern anime, which alone worth praising. It is just sad it lacks a story and decent characters to go along with those animations.

6/10