Review of Akira
"TEEEEEETTTSSSSSUUUUUUUOOOO!!!!" "KAAAAAANNNNNNEEEEEDAAAAAAA!!!!" "SHUT UP!! THAT'S *MR.* KANEDA TO YOU, PUNK!!" 25 years after this cultural phenomenon was released in cinemas worldwide, it is still unbelievable to fathom its almost traumatic impact it has had on nearly every form of media since. AKIRA, an adaption of quite possibly the greatest game-changer of illustrated literature, was among the first anime to cross the Pacific over to the United States of America. It was a test of the waters, to see if the West could appreciate anime as a new media form. Few other decisions in film have left nearly as large of an impact. From the start AKIRA was a cult classic,an innovation, a new art form screened in art houses across the country. It was a whole new look at a new style in storytelling, one the general public could never experience in the West. Much like Akira Kurosawa's impressive filmography it is almost unfathomable how much of an impact it has had on film since. It has heavy and prominent influence in such media as Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil 4 and 5, Cloud Atlas, AI: Artificial Intelligence, one of the best episodes of South Park (Trapper Keeper) , Ghost in the Shell and nearly every other manga/anime since, and most notably The Matrix. The Wachowski Brothers even said if it weren't for AKIRA, The Matrix could not have been made.
The manga series it is based on is massive, spanning 6 expansive Volumes and chronicling a larger than life saga of greed, corruption, madness, and anarchy all surrounding a tragic event that will forever change Neo-Tokyo. The film does its absolute best to try to cover the 2000+ page manga series, but to be fair the manga wasn't even finished by the time the film was released. It summarizes entire issues with 2 sentence lines, and though not required at all to read the manga prior (As I had not) reading it would give a possibly overwhelming clearer picture and backstory. However, the film is articulately crafted enough so these densities go unnoticed to one who simply wants to enjoy the greatest and most influential anime film ever made.
Yes it is an anime film, but don't think of it as simply drawing on paper. This is a full blown deep psychological science fiction cyberpunk social commentary on humanity and brotherhood, one that demands constant viewings to keep up with. The more I think about AKIRA, the better it becomes. The animation has aged like fine wine and it still the greatest traditional animation I have seen since Fantasia. There is so much effort put into every line, every color choice (As them manga is black and white color choice really stands as noteworthy here), and it diverges away from the anime cliche of mouths flapping to "kind of" make it match their words. The audio and mouthing are as perfectly synced as they can be, and that's very rare for anime.
It doesn't take much to think of this as not animated and simply a moving canvas. From the blazing neon of Neo-Tokyo's gangs riding their motorbikes to the mass destruction of a man-made God leveling the entire city, every frame looks like a deep and extravagant artwork. There is a ferocious and lively intensity and passion that pops out to the viewer and demands attention with its pure extravagance.
Aside from animation, the film score is simply majestic to say the least, easily being Top 5 material for my favorite scores in film. Shoji Yamashiro has created something truly unique here, a style I have yet to see replicated at all. Diverging from the trope of cyberpunk setting requiring synth electronica music bombarding out of computers, AKIRA's score is a tribal one, with chants in Latin and Japanese, oriental chimes, melodramatic organs, and tribal beatings of drums. Few film scores get me as hyped and pumped as "Kaneda's Theme" or "Tetsuo" or make me feel enlightened as "Requiem". It feels almost evangelical, which is perfect considering the film's heavy religious parallels and Hiroshima influence. It's beautiful, disturbing, angelic, upsetting, enlightening, and haunting all at once.
While still being strikingly philosophical and cerebral the film is still one of the most compelling and crowd pleasing I have ever seen, and every time I watch it with company we all anticipate the next "TETSUO!" or "KANEDA!" and cheer with passionate euphoria at their cues. Though it pales in comparison with the sweeping epic of written fiction it is an adaption of, this was sort of intended, as author and director Katsuhiro Otomo intended to make 2 totally different stories. The film, a religious commentary while the manga is a political one.
And this is all without even gracing the plot.
In the year 1988, all life as we knew it came to an end. However, the end was just the beginning.
2019. Neo-Tokyo. A wasteland of innovation and chaos. Anarchy reigns in riots on the streets, and the army and government try in lal their power to suppress it and reclaim order and civility. A biker gang, two members of which named Tetsuo and Kaneda, roam the streets, fighting other biker gangs. In a freak accident, Tetsuo is seriously injured and is seized by the government. In hidden labs he is experimented on, turning him into a psionic soldier, a God among men.
They fail to understand what a God does when he finds out he is being controlled by mere ants. Thus, the true end comes.
NEO-TOKYO
IS ABOUT TO
E.X.P.L.O.D.E!
This is all you need to and should know. An epic by every definition, AKIRA was, is, and always will be a true landmark, a pinnacle of animation. Calling it the greatest animated film made is a horrible understatement given the connotation of "animation" as it is much more. It's an artistic pinnacle, the beginning of a revolution of storytelling here in the West, the bridge to a whole new world in Japan, the bringing of anime to the West. A haunting, bizarre, at time revolting, yet all in all poetic and strikingly beautiful and breathtaking experience you will never forget, and find it hard to walk away from.
Oh yeah, as rule of all anime, sub over dub. The English dub is laughable and the Japanese audio actually fits the mouthing of the characters.
The manga however totally and wholly CRUSHES this film in every way possible. If a fan of this film, check out the manga. It is unbelievably better. But it's fine, they're both totally different stories.