Review of Akira

Well, Akira, anyone who has watched anime knows Akira, you may not know what it's about but everyone has heard the name. Akira is definitely the most and possibly most talked about anime there is. But is Akira good is the true question, is it good, the answer sadly is no. Story 3/10: Okay, read these lines out loud "KANEDA! TETSUO! *RATATAT!* *BOOM!**GRAHALGRAHAL!!*" congratulations, you have just recited the whole plot of Akira that you will be able to understand. Yes there's more then just that but it makes absolutely no sense. You will always here from people "read the manga" but that's the problem,you shouldn't have to read the manga to understand the plot of the anime, that be like saying you have to read the comics to understand the plot of The Dark Knight.

Art 10/10: This is Akira's true saving grace, it's ungodly good animation. Most anime features stiff characters that stand perfectly still for a majority of the time with nothing but their mouths moving into only a single position so it looks like the only thing they're saying is "ah ah ah ah ah" and it still somehow manages to look choppy. Akira on the other hand has constant movements from characters who actually move in a somewhat more relaxed and realistic manner, and they even have slight movements with dialogue and lip syncing, LIP SYNCING! And on top of it that animation is so smooth you will be in awe, I don't know how many frames per second Akira has but you will never find any anime that moves this smoothly (and this movie was made in 1988)

Sound 5/10: First on music, the music in Akira was fine, nothing wrong with it what so ever, but it's forgettable. Most people will never remember a single song from Akira or feel compelled to listen to it again. Now as for the voice acting, first a little info, there are two dubs, one made back in 1989 (streamline) and another in 2001 (pioneer,) and there is constant debate among the Akira fanbase as to which one is good and bad, the truth is they're both bad. The streamline has the right emotions displayed and the actors can actually scream in pain and such when the script calls for it, but the characters in Akira are a bunch of 15-18 year old punks while the cast sound like they're all 40 year old greasers from the 50's, while the other dub had more suitable voices but the acting was half-assed, so you have a choice between bad acting or distracting out of place voices (I haven't seen the sub so I can't really talk about that)

Character 6/10: The characters are kind of a love hate thing with me. For one I liked the major characters personalities, Tetsuo's punk "kiss my ass" nature (later turned psychotic power hungry mega being badass,) Kaneda's cocky, fun-loving, "I just don't give a fuck" attitude, and most of the bikers. Most of the other characters though were just horrible, from that resistance fighter with the mustache (pick which one) to the girl who looks like she's Kaneda's clone. Which raises the other issue, the character designs, every character looks like every other character from that group, Kaneda looks like Tetsuo with combed hair, the girl Kaneda meets looks so much like him he's practically moving around with a mirror, all the resistance fighter guys have trench coats and pencil mustaches and there's no way to tell any of them apart.

Enjoyment 6/10: Okay, Akira had a confusing as all hell plot and lacking character designs, but still the animation is wonderful and that does help make the action scene brain melting. You will enjoy the hell out of the biker gang fights, the shootouts, the mutation scene near the end, and even some of the dialogue because of the movements and lip syncing (LIP SYNCING! The lips actually move to accommodation the word being said!!! I still can't get over this!) is enjoyable. So yes although a lot of the time you're just gonna be saying "get on with it!" there will be many enjoyable moments.

Overall 6/10: Akira is essentially the Citizen Kane of anime, what could possibly be called the single most important movie in anime, and it has truly set the bar from animation quality (a bar that no other anime has come anywhere close to.) But ultimately this film is the most over-rated anime there is, yet it's one of the most important to anime, I'd say watch it just so you can say you have (maybe you might enjoy it if you did read the manga, who knows.)