At this year’s New York Comic Con, Funimation and the Hero Complex held a screening of the seminal animated movie Akira, directed and co-written by Katsuhiro Ohtomo, to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Having never seen the film before, I made sure to be in attendance to screen this highly regarded film on the big screen and to finally see what all the hype was about.
On July 16th 1988, a bomb drops on Tokyo, initiating the start of WWIII. 33 years later we open on Neo-Tokyo, a dystopian future filled with biker gangs, anti-government protests, anti-government terrorists/revolutionaries and a brutal military response that has taken its toll on the city, which is set to host the Olympics next year.
The film follows Kaneda and his motorcycle gang as they challenge and battle other motorcycles gangs in high speed and violent pursuits, but when one of Kaneda’s closest friends, Tetsuo, decides to try and prove himself and show that he doesn’t need Kaneda or anyone’s help to accomplish something, he ends up crashing into an odd child with strange psychic abilities. This results in Tetsuo being taken into military custody where they examine him and see that he also contains some a similar power. Eventually, Tetsuo’s power grows and he turns into an angry psionic (aka The Numbers or Espers) hell bent on proving he doesn’t need saving, destroying the people who made him this way and taking out any potential threats that could defeat him. Soon it’s up to Kaneda, a revolutionary named Kei and a trio of psionics who seem to be Neo-Tokyo’s only hope of stopping Tetsuo before he is consumed by uncontrollable power.
Released in 1988, Akira is certainly a sight to behold. It’s an impressive feat of animation and it’s easy to see the influence it has had on other sci-fi projects over the past 25 years, especially on films like The Matrix, Dark City and possibly even Looper, while you watch it. Much of the film plays out like standard anime action fare but when we reach the final 30-40 minutes, all hell breaks loose and it becomes this crazy visual spectacle that’ll blow your mind even if you hate anime.
There is a lot going on Akira that isn’t included in the general plot. While everything comes back to the godlike psychic known as Akira or goes back to Tetsuo in some way, some of the more interesting aspects have to do with trying to keep the peace or changing the status quo in Neo-Tokyo. The Colonel, who is in charge of the esper program at the government facility has the best interests of the state at hand while his colleagues in charge of other areas of government want him out since he is burning money on experiments which could be used to help better the economy and strength the police force which is currently stretched thin. Then you have revolutionaries who don’t like the state of affairs of their country and think a change is in order because chaos runs rampant on the streets in addition to the corruption in government. Lastly, there is an entire back story to Tetsuo’s childhood that perplexes me since Kaneda was a savior of sorts to him but resents him as a teenager.
I did find parts of the score to be comical at times because there were points where it sounded like a group of random people got together and tried to sing parts of a serious orchestral opera. It ended up playing as comedic in relief in my head instead of heightening the tension during the scenes it was played, usually right before Tetsuo would cause destruction.
Lastly, the film was dubbed in English which lead to some funny dialogue exchanges and I wonder if that would have been the case if I saw it subtitled. The dubbing was pretty good but I always feel that sometimes things are lost when dubbed versus subbed.
Overall, Akira is definitely a film all sci-fi fans must see because of its influence on cinema since its release. Furthermore, the animation and crazy story can be pretty compelling at times even if it feels overwhelming because of its scale. It may have been hyped up a little too much by those who have discussed it around me but, make no mistake, it is certainly a solid film and one worth checking out.
Rating: A crazy cool and influential sci-fi film that should be on your must-see list if you haven’t seen it already (7/10)
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