Anime: Akira

With its dynamic action, grand scale and incredibly detailed animation, Akira is often claimed to be a milestone in the history of anime. However, there're two crucial aspects it lacks to be considered a truly great show.

You know, most good old-school anime (Berserk, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Area 88, Wings of Honneamise etc.) share two common traits, regardless of their genres: they give you some food for thought and some characters you can relate to. Even seemingly mindless action shows like Ninja Scroll or Fist of the North Star have impressive male leads acting with dignity in all the dire straits they get into, and that can teach you a thing or two. However, after analyzing Akira I concluded that, while showing some serious promise, it delivers very little in those aspects. It takes place in a rotten, corrupted society, but never elaborates on the reasons for its decay. It comes up with its own concept of God, but never explains it. It has some characters, but you will hardly find something in common with them as they are just primitive, angry punks with unlikeable personalities and unrelatable motivations who keep making ugly faces and yelling each other's names (TETSUO!!! KANEDA!!!), much to the viewer's annoyance. In fact, the only idea you can infer from this movie is that a filthy society makes its younger generation aggressive, and their anger wipes out an old world so that a new one could emerge. However, that undoubtedly interesting reincarnation-like concept also remains undeveloped, because any relevant social commentary or explanation on the Akira phenomenon and those psychic powers the characters use is replaced with a non-stop sequence of action, violence and explosions. Which is admittedly entertaining, but only on the most basic level.
Perhaps, there are some concepts in the manga that the authors didn't manage to transfer into the show, but what matters now is the result. It seems the creators focused exclusively on action and production values, leaving out most original thoughts and character development. Therefore, this movie looks like a monumental work with an interesting yet undeveloped central theme and absolutely no characters to associate with.
So, Akira has two strong points: exciting, large-scale action and a very detailed, well-animated dystopian world. If that is what attracts you and you are ok with all the ugly imagery in this anime, go ahead and you won't regret it.
However, if you look for something intelligent, or beautiful, or something with interesting and likeable characters, I highly recommend you to look somewhere else.

All sorts of cryptic spoilers ahead. A 25 years anniversary essay / review.

So here we are, in the year of two-thousand-and-thirteen. Is that still too early or way too late to carry owls to Athens? Or is it a case of better late than never? Or even, what's old will be new again? Or just the fact that classics appear and disappear, to make room for the new and exciting things of the day and run in circles to greet us again some time later. It's been 25 years, so let's have a look again.

Akira, that is the film that long held the distinction of being the Star Wars of anime, a game changer, a five-hundred pound gorilla of Japanese feature animation, an unkempt giant among a bunch of bubbling chimps and exotic butterflies. The most popular and notable thing among things that are usually not notable and popular and hence easily largely overlooked. In the early 1990s, Akira was the one and only showpiece of eastern "cartoons" to show Western audiences -- or rather the small niche that cared -- that animation can be more than wholesome, easily digestible family entertainment. Until then, hand animated movie fare was the turf of the Walt Disney Company and their many princesses and talking horses that populated softened and simplified versions of popular European fairy tales, streamlined and cute-ified for an all-ages, all-areas appeal.

Akira then, was the devil that stole all the harps in heaven and dished out some loud and devilishly nasty Rock'n'roll to the unsuspecting masses. It's probably not an understatement that for most people in the West, doing it like this was unseen and unheard of. Katsuhiro Otomo, the original manga creator and director of this movie version, sped up, condensed and inflamed his intricately drawn many-thousand-pages long graphic novel and birthed the epitome of what was then an oxymoron for most movie watchers in the West: An animated movie for grown-ups. A high-octane, high-budget, no-frills ride down the cold war angst ride, with guts and concepts never seen before in this glory in an two hours long animated feature.

Akira is also a beautiful sign post of the 1980s idea of the future, informed by the youth and heritage of its creator. All the neon signs, bike gangs, happy pills were real concerns and expectation. A youth in revolt, with World War III barely being over. Another atom bomb or two. Corruption and decay in Neo Tokyo. Right in the midst of it, Tetsuuuuuuo and Kanedaaaaaaaa, they battle it out in a brand new stadium, not even finished yet, but already crumbling, a grand opening show for no one to see. Two unlikely brothers, always at each others throat. Japan's favorite super power has never been more destructive. PSI, the fantastical ability to move and manipulate any physical object by the power of thought alone, leaves no stone unturned. An often heard estimate in the 1990s said, a live action remake would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. So it never happened. Which is a good thing; some films are not meant to be remade, 2001 and Citizen Kane also conserve the look and feelings of their respected eras. Speaking of which:

The themes; Yes, it's Kubrik's 2001 thing, but it's more about the beginning rather than the end, the first third in particular. Tetsuo in puberty is human kind in puberty. Weapons of mass distraction in the shaky hands of the angry and confused. The star child is a neglected teen, huffing and puffing and growing limps of skyscraper proportions. Not even Sol's death laser (Tesla would be proud) can withstand his wrath. The madness must be contained, for the sake of spectacle, with more madness, if at all possible. These days, CGI is lifting the physically unachievable, back in 1988, animation was the best tool for that.

And so, it fuses and transforms into a disaster movie without monsters and mecha, an unwieldy Sci-fi adventure without spaceships and aliens, a teen flick with next to no gossip and romance. A political thriller too, with not much time for finger pointing. A bright dystopia, in equal parts awful and awesome, brimming all over the electromagnetic spectrum. Where dogs get killed on screen (gasp!) and teddy bears sweat milk to bring surreal horror to hospitals patients nearby. Where a transformation by mutation doesn't end with just a rash and pointy teeth. The specific Japanese component of Akira is not just the genre bending mixing-and-matching of ideas and themes not likely seen together in Western films, it's also the fatality, the going-through-with-it with bold ideas, what made it memorable and exciting. The tag line ("Neo Tokyo is about to E.X.P.L.O.D.E.") is as cheesy as it's true. Even my old VHS tapes' claims of the film being an "animated Blade Runner" are not too far off, although it remains an awkward, helpless comparison to market the "unmarketable" (George Lucas).

What's still quite astonishing too, is the fidelity and thoroughness of the film, that remains largely unmatched. In its two hours and some odd minutes run, there are no shortcuts and compromises to be seen. All the formal things that plague cheaply produced animation, namely the still frames, the panning of still frames, the zooming of still frames, the two frames mouth flip-flop animation, the awkward five frames walking loop animation, the oh-8-fps-are-good-enough animation, they are all -- thankfully and rarely -- nowhere to be seen. The character designs are neither "too anime" (no pink spiky hair, no Betty Boop eyes), nor too realistic. They hit the spot, and yet the old Archilles' heel of sci-fi they can't avoid; Technology is magic in the future, yet clothing styles remain firmly stuck in the past.

Which brings us to the characters themselves, most of them time tested archetypes, sometimes bordering on hilarity: There's the honor-and-control driven military commander, the freakishly irresponsible mad scientist, the scheming, corrupt and greedy politician. They are so functionally written, it's almost embarrassing, but they work splendidly, always serious in their demeanor and actions. Except, perhaps the white-coated, Einstein-haired, sheepishly talking chief scientist. I find it hard not to laugh at his "universe" lines. By contrast, Kei, mysterious underground cell member and would-be girlfriend of one of the less-than-insane protagonist is the most nuanced of the bunch, the most level-headed person in a zoo of gloomy freaks and crazies.

Now, music as they say, makes or breaks about half of a film. The ear destroying sub-sonic drums and the beautiful, other-worldly "requiem" theme near the end (almost 15 minutes on the soundtrack album) do what they can. The songs and sounds are certainly memorable and distinct, but this is not a case of Conan, the barbarian. The soundtrack comes and goes as needed, doing what is necessary, nothing more, but certainly nothing less either.

So here we are, 25 years after the fact. Mr. Otomo is not doing much any more. Steamboy, his other big film flopped some years ago, barely recognized by anyone. Meanwhile, the closest thing Hollywood came up with was the 2012 movie Chronicle, a stripped down, minified version of one of Akira's main ideas (give someone a superpower, that has no reason or experience to handle it responsibly). Both films are good, but it's unlikely anyone will remember Chronicle in the years to come. There's a good chance Akira might still be remembered, along with the best-of Ghibli canon (the new owner of the studio, Disney, will make sure of it) and whatever big project can leave a mark.

Critic's Log - Earthdate: December 3, 2012. Review #25: AKIRA

The
time has come, This is my 25th review and I have a special movie to
talk about. I will now review the 1988 landmark anime film... AKIRA!



In
the year 2019, 31 years have passed since the outbreak of World War
III. In the city of Neo-Tokyo, all authority is waging a never-ending
struggle against underground forces that virtually rules the shattered
city, A top-secret child with amazing powers of the minds breaks free
from custody and accidentally involves a biker gang in the project. The
incident triggers psychic powers within one of the bikers named Tetsuo,
and he ends up being taken by the army and being experimented on.
Tetsuo's mind has been warped and he is on a path to destruction.





To
be technical, this is a TMS Entertainment production and this anime
film is directed by Katsuhiro Otomo (who also created the manga of the
same name). It is also a landmark anime for one obvious reason. For
1988, the animation blew everyone away. When I first saw Akira, I was
blown away. I knew it was made in 1988 before I saw it but I find it
almost hard to believe that it was made in the late 80's. It has fluent
animation, the action scenes sometimes looks badass. I love the Bike
Chase scene in the first 15 minutes of the film. The animation still
looks amazing. If you didn't research this movie on Wikipedia, I'll tell
you this then. This anime film has more than 160,000 animation cels
throughout the two-hour experience. There was a whole lot of effort put
into the making of this film. This film was one hell of an achievement.





The
animation is not the only good point in the movie, although it may be
the contributing reason on why most people would like this movie. The
music by Yamashirogumi Geinoh really fits the movie well. I like some of
the ominous themes in this movie. The music is mesmerizing throughout
the movie.





As
far as voice acting goes. This will be a lengthy topic to discuss. Oh
well, here goes... The Japanese Cast is not bad, in fact it's pretty
good. Mitsuo Iwata is fine as Kaneda, Nozomu Sasaki is good as Tetsuo,
and Mami Koyama is not bad as Kei. There's a lot of seiyus that are not
really big names but they play their roles just fine. Here's a little
fun fact about the subtitled version, the voices were recorded before
the animation was finished. Also, the animation staff focused on
matching the characters' lip movements match the dialogue (which was a
first for an anime production). As far as the English Dub goes, there
are actually two dubs to Akira. The Streamline dub (which was from the
90's) and the Animaze/Pioneer Dub (which was done in 2001) I will
actually state my opinion on both dubs. It is going to be very difficult
for me to comment on the Streamline dub because I know there are some
people that have grown up watching the Streamline dub and they actually
liked it. I am more familiar with the Animaze/Pioneer Dub because that
was the first dub I saw. I have seen a little bit of the Streamline dub
and I tried to get used to it. There are some people that like the
Streamline dub and there are some people that don't like it. I
personally didn't like the Streamline dub, I'm sorry for those that like
that dub, but the voices sounded way off to me. I was surprised that
Cam Clarke voiced Kaneda though. So what do I think of the
Animaze/Pioneer dub? I think it's a good dub. Johnny Yong Bosch fits the
role because Kaneda is a punk and Johnny was a perfect choice for
Kaneda, Joshua Seth is also great as Tetsuo. Wendee Lee was also good as
Kei but I felt Kei sounded a bit older than her age in this dub, this
is just a minor nitpick but Wendee Lee's performance was pretty good. as
far as other performances go, Jamieson Price was great as the Colonel,
and there were some well-known dub actors in the movie such as Michelle
Ruff, Michael Lindsay, Mike Reynolds, William Frederick Knight, Skip
Stellrecht, and Steve Blum. The Animaze/Pioneer dub is good, but I sort
of prefer the subtitled version on this one. Kevin Seymour really did a
good job as ADR director in which he didn't disappoint in the later dubs
that he worked on with animes such as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Code Geass. I've said enough on the voice acting





As
far as characters go, the characters (in a way) have personalities that
would fit the setting of the story that which the movie presents.
Kaneda is a street punk that has a sense of humor. His best friend
Tetsuo really has some problems which I really can't blame him too much
for since he has a inferiority complex. I almost found Tetsuo as a whiny
little bitch but there is a slight cool appeal that I see in Tetsuo and
it was somewhat fascinating to see Tetsuo progress in character
development. Kei is an alright character of all the bunch, She doesn't
have too much development compared to how she developed in the manga.
The Colonel on the other hand is a pretty good character from start to
finish. He may be tough and ruthless but he has his reasons. I like how
he is pragmatic to recognize the danger that Tetsuo's fledgling powers
pose. I also like his sense of honor that reflects on the Military. Call
it a soldierly sense of honor if you may. I like the Colonel. The other
characters are pretty good for the most part.







The story of Akira is a
bit hard for me to describe because the animation is what most people
remember about Akira. There's definitely a lot of style with some
substance to go with it. The story does have a post-apocalyptic setting
and most of the scenes you see or will see does fit that setting. It's
obvious that this is an adaptation of the manga of the same name and
Otomo-san took some liberties from turning his 2,162 page manga epic
into a 2 hour film. It's not completely faithful to the manga but since
Otomo-san directed this film, I don't have much room to complain. I will
say that the manga has a far more complete story, this movie does have a
story but it can be a little hard to remember for some people. I guess
it's good for the most part. There are times I just get blown away by
the animation and totally forget about the story.





Akira was available by
Pioneer/Geneon before it went out of print, it was later picked up by
Bandai Entertainment until they went under. It was rescued by
Funimation. At the time I'm writing this review, it will soon be
available from Funimation. The manga by Katsuhiro Otomo was available by
Dark Horse Comics until the rights expired and it was picked up by
Kodansha Comics. The Akira manga is available from Kodansha Comics. An
American live-action film was in the works but it is in development
hell.

With all that said, Akira has incredible animation
that ended up as one of the most popular anime films today. This film
has garnered a cult following which I think the animation contributed to
that. The music is mesmerizing and a tripfest in some themes. The movie
has a couple badass characters as well as some badass moments. The
story may have not been faithful than the manga but it is directed by
the creator of the series so there's really no need to complain about
that. This is a really cool movie and anyone that likes anime should see
it. You won't be disappointed for the most part.

I give Akira a 9 out of 10, It is EXCELLENT!

Feel free to comment below.

Critic's
Log - Post-script: Well, I just got to 25 reviews and an Otaku's work
is never done. Even though I don't get paid for posting reviews, I do
have fun writing reviews and posting them. Feel free to check out my
other reviews that I have posted if you feel up to it. I also want to
thank some of my friends that I have or made throughout the time I had
making these 25 reviews. With that said, That is all I have for the time
being and have a great day.

I feel the need to start this off with a bit of clarification. While I have been watching anime for over a decade now, I did not watch Akira until about 2 years ago. I have just watched it again, and feel compelled to write about it - it seems there are no well written negative reviews on this film here yet. I must also make clear that I read the manga first. With these things in mind, understand that my expectations were much higher than the average Akira viewer.

I have always been of the opinion that anything held up as a 'holy grail' of any sort will fail miserably when examined further - and Akira is no exception. I will agree that Akira is an extremely important piece of anime history. Indeed, many of my generation would not have discovered the genre at all were it not for this film.

The animation itself has held up remarkably well over 20 years. The attention to detail is amazing, especially when taking no CG into account. 160,000 hand drawn cels is no easy feat, even for the most skilled of art teams. Background detail, non-static facial expressions, and countless other bits of greatness bring this to 9/10 - even two decades after release.

I have very little to say about the sound and soundtrack. Akira is part of a former generation of movies - when soundtracks were a collection of pieces written for the movie, not an extra piece of merchandising. It fits well, but is nothing special. Not quite unremarkable, but not overdone in a way that would detract from the film itself. 6/10 for sound and soundtrack, which is not bad for what was generally an afterthought in those days.

Now comes the difficult part - the story and characters. I have to combine these because my issues with them are the same, and are scored together in my mind. To be fair, my scores for these two would be slightly higher if I had not read the manga, but not much - 4 or 5 perhaps. The character development is practically non-existent, the story is a jumbled mess, and I can't help but feel that it really wanted to be an Evangelion-type epic but was crammed into two hours.

The majority of my issues come from the massive changes from the manga. To be fair, it is difficult to put almost 2,200 pages of amazing design, story, and characterization into a two hour film, but I am frankly disgusted by the alterations. There are various lists available all over the Internet, but I would urge anyone truly interested to simply read the manga. The differences between book and film will be slap-you-in-the-face apparent. The character development is completely different, the storyline is completely different, the ending (and implied moral of the story) is almost the complete antithesis of the original manga, and even the year the events take place is different.

All that said, the film makes up for many of its flaws by simply being in the right place at the right time. Akira was the first exposure to anime for many people, and the dumbed down (compared to the manga) story combined with stunning visuals made it perfect for America in the early 90's. At that time, we were growing up - or at least aging - but did not want to give up cartoons. Akira showed a lot of us that we didn't have to give up anything at all except some cash for the VHS - buy or rent. Akira's value as a life-changing experience for many earns it a 9/10 - it is unquestionably an integral part of anime history.

As far as enjoyment of the film itself, 4/10 is being generous. The first time watching it 2 years ago, I spent most of the movie frustrated by all the changes. This time, I turned it off with 45 minutes to go. I doubt I will watch it again - but I will undoubtedly read the manga again.

I have just watched Akira again after so many years. It was awesome! Definitely a masterpiece. Now I'll tell you why... *drools*

Yet I feel uneasy writing a review about such a famous, big anime (You dare write a review to Akira?). That must be what has kept people from writing reviews -or that Akira is "so mainstream". As of now there are only 10 reviews of Akira here; which is a pity, because I know that there are so many people around who has not watched this one yet, liking Elfen Lied instead -which imho the scam of the century (no offense). I think Akira deserves everybody's interest. Even more so because everybody has something to say about it.

Animation: 10/10
What can you say about the animation? Whoooaaah! That is what you can say. It is obvious that "Akira Committee" did not refrain from spending all their money for so good animations, probably because this is where the anime-craze went on a crazy rise outside of Japan. You can watch the anime over and over and over again, and keep discovering great details in backgrounds, and character animations.

A regular warning: One thing you have to keep in mind is that this one is a 20-year-old anime now. You will not find any CG effects here (mmm a little), and no shiny bright colors... You will need to wait for Miyazaki for that; or for hyper-fluid character animation, maybe Shinichiro Watanabe.

Other than that, Akira is state-of-the-art animation, a masterpiece, which no anime of its time could match. More than 20 years after its release, you still cannot see no anime with such painstaking details, with different backgrounds for every other scene. This is important, because as I put my DVD into the drive, I was constantly reminding myself that this could end up with a dissappointment (try playing Warcraft 2 today...). It did not. I will watch it again tomorrow.

Only annoying thing is the occasional Dunlop advertising, which I forgive.

Sound: 10/10
Forget about the sound effects. Everybody knows that they are nice. Forget about the OSD. It is obvious that the atmospheric music keeps you awake all the time, gives a depth to the animation... The trick lies with the silence: I have not seen any anime that uses silence so well. Just at the right moment, just at the amount...

Story and Characters

Rekindling a 50-year-old discussion, I think that evaluating an anime by comparing it to the manga (or an adaptation movie by comparing it to the novel) is definitely wrong. I do not say that we should not compare them of course, but I say that the anime should be considered an artistic unity in itself, not an off-shoot of the manga and evaluated as such.

There is nothing interesting about the story background. It is your post-apocalyptic Tokyo, it could as well be New York or London, people on the rise, corrupt scientists and politicians everywhere... Of course, do not forget your 80s-cliche motorbike gangs... It was old stuff even for '88. Plus the machismo characters, the rape scene with the torn t-shirt that shows the bare breasts... It is a mediocre Hollywood epic. There is no depth to the story nor the characters.

Story: 7/10

For the story, at least there was the awesome ending. I do not really think it was surprising, but I am not the authority: I had already watched the anime before. The thing is it connected the story all well: a strong ending for an epic. It also left you with that feeling of emptiness, a momentary silence that you feel when you get up from your seats after a good movie.

The plot is, on the other hand, nicely-told: As expected from an epic, it is slightly longer than expected (120 min) with extra time spent on great animations of destruction.

The downside was that there was less depth to the story than I remembered. It was not obscure or open to many readings (which I think is bad). I would rather describe it as mediocre. Hence the score: 7 (with the added value of the ending).



Characters: 7/10

Characters were as mediocre as the story itself. They were luckily not simply one-sided and idiotic, a few of them even had their own motives and self-conflicts. But neither was really surprising or innovative. Most of them were complete stereotypes that you even today see A LOT in Hollywood. Nor were these characters especially well-told. Hence my 6.

One thing to be respected is that the characters are not all 2-meter-shining-beauties of today's most anime. Many people (including me) may underestimate the importance of this, but (with a few exceptions) all we see are beautiful girls and boys, thus a lot of fanservice. This anime has ugly people (not the green midgets), but Tetsuo, too, and all the girls that surround the gang.

Value: 10/10
Do not ask me. Look around. The anime is today a pop-culture phenomenon (almost as famous as the dancing baby).

Enjoyment: 8/10
I terribly enjoyed this. Will rewatch soon. One thing I disliked was the rather shallow story, and stereotypical characters. But these are not entirely unforgivable. Hence my 8.

A final note: I am a critic of those reviews which give out 10 points to everything, but it is a must for a masterpiece like Akira. I hope I was able to justify every 10 points I gave away.

Akira is regarded as one of the most famous anime movies of all times, hailed for its cinematography and historical importance as the title that showed the west how animation can be far more than kidstuff. But how does it stand the test of time after all these years?

The theme is definitely hard to work on a modern audience. Back then science fiction was all about making technology seem very dangerous and scary, able to destroy humanity, or help it evolve into a new form of existence. This is no longer the case, since by now technology is a wonderful thing, full of videogames we can escape to, and have cyber sex. This does not make it bad, just outdated and down to personal preferences.

The tone still works fine. It is rather campy but focused on being a dystopia, where civilization became decadent, politicians are incompetent, people riot and expect a messiah to deliberate them, before everything blows up to smithereens.

The plot was and is simple, a result of cramming a huge manga into about two hours, simplifying and changing considerably several points to the point all you are left with is a fairy tale version. Reading the manga to get the full picture is not excusing nor improving anything, so yes, it is nothing much to talk about.

The characters suffer a lot because of the simple plot. They feel bland and shallow, closer to plot devises than people. Although many of them have different goals and motivations, there simply isn’t much time dedicated on anyone besides Tetsuo. Who by the way is the antagonist, not even the protagonist. This role belongs to Kaneda, a standard delinquent teenager who could be easily replaced by anyone else in his gang and you wouldn’t tell the difference. It’s Tetsuo who constantly changes throughout the movie, from a weak underling, to super saiyan Vegeta, and eventually to a huge Kthulu baby.

There is a decent attempt to portray the psychological damage and frustration everybody feels, but it comes off rushed and even silly because of the over-expressive way the characters are drawn. I know many who have a hard time telling if they are being serious, or to distinguish men from women because of the rather simplistic facial structure.

The pretty colors are of course the thing that still looks gorgeous and decades better than most of any other animated title of today. Extremely detailed, with multiple layers of animation and a high frame rate, all of which is hand-drawn. It is a splendid piece of work, even if it’s otherwise a minor aspect of what makes a movie good.

The music part is hit or miss. Most of the songs contribute to the eerie atmosphere of the setting, with the voice acting ranging from decent to god awful. And this is not limited to the first English dub which was done back when voice acting was a job nobody gave a damn about. Even in the original language, the actors don’t use the proper tone of voice half the time. It’s a bit distracting but otherwise nothing you can’t get used to.

After this breakdown, it becomes a 50-50 chance for someone to like the movie, thus making it controversial.
Theme: based on preference
Tone: yes
Plot: no
Characters: besides Tetsuo, no
Animation: yes
Music: yes to BGM, mostly no to voice acting

I personally find it very inspirational, very close to the problems of the era it was made in, and not about beta males porking their sisters in some school. It’s also retro, so it automatically becomes better than most of anything that came out in the past decade. It has some major issues but at least it’s a dystopia that makes sense, and not a piece of shit, written by Urobutcher. This is more than enough to keep it in my favorite anime list, and if you disagree with that, it’s because you grew up at a time when technology is all about fun and games.

SUGGESTION LIST
Tetsuo the Iron Man
Choujin Densetsu Urotsukidouji
Choujin Locke
Elfen Lied