Review of Akira
Akira can be summed up in this one sentence, and as you've seen by my reviews/watched list, this may come as a shock - this film is a rival to Studio Ghiblis masterpieces. It's a bit more gory, but just as moving and well produced. And I'll get on to those reasons now: Story: The story I won't summarize a) I have to much else to write about and b) that's what bios are for but it is darn emotive. The setting is beautifully presented in terms of how it's dealt with (I'll get onto the art soon), the script I guess, and it's alltotally believeable. Whether this is because it is a future Earth would be a logical explaination. The one thing I did not like, and this is REALLY nitpicking, is it is set in 2019. Sure, this was made in 1998, but we will NOT be that advanced in 5 years. That's why 2050 is always a good bet. The atmosphere is also bang on. In one instance, the whole film goes silent as one of our protagonists go through space... Moments like that. 9.
Art: As stated above, the art is beautiful. Again, this is becoming a little like CGI, in that if it's hand-drawn, it's guranteed a high score, but this seriously is Ghibli/Cowboy Bebop level of standard, and you can never complain with that. The character models looked a bit... Awkward. Western-ised I guess is the best way to describe it. 9.
Sound: Despite what I said about the little touches of silence that add to the atmosphere, there are actually quite a few periods of silence, and well the background music is OK, it's barely audible. However, credit has to be given to... Well, the credits. Awesome song that fittingly finishes an awesome film. 6.
Characters: OK... We have Kanade, Tetsuo, Kei, The Colonel and the Espers are the main characters in the film. Kanade and Tetsuo take 'turns' in both being the main protagonists - Kanade does end up being the 'good guy', but Tetsuo's rise and struggle to power and then containing that power - reminiscent of Hitlers rise and consilidation of power if you have ever researched that area of history.
Kanade is a natural born leader and is just very relatable and likeable. He is the leader of a bike gang (the bikes are VERY nice, neon and futuristic and oooooo SHINY) and, yeah, typical of a good protagonist to be fair.
Next are the Espers - they're a mysterious trio, with their background only being explained at the end of the story, and they're actually the weakest of the bunch because of this - only getting screen time to explain Tetsuo's mysterious powers he's just obtained (trying to be as spoiler-free as I possibly can...)
The Colonel, as you'd expect, is the leader of the military force following these bike gang wars (as explained via Kanade being a gang leader) and also protecting the scientists who are trying to find out what these mysterious powers both the Espers and Tetsuo are. His character gets more fleshed out at the ending of the film, but he's not a bad character by any means beforehand.
Lastly, Kei. Honestly, she's the love interest. Yes, as it is a film of this high a quality, she's done really well, but that's all she is. 9.
To sum it up, I really cannot put it in better words than this:- A real, proper rival to the Ghibli films. There IS quite a few gory moments, but please don't let that deter you, or you'll miss out on a smashing film. 9.