Akira

*Stereotype: Akira is a gratuitous bloodbath.

Maybe, but it's also a hard-nosed societal critique. Gore fans get what they want, but they have some morality shoved down their throats, as well. Most people who hate this movie watch it with a predetermined mindset. . . It takes thought and patience to piece together its sophisticated story.

*Stereotype: Akira rocks!!

The animation equals or exceeds Disney's best, the music is awesome, and the characters are complex, but "Akira" has its flaws. Chunked together from a long pre-existing storyline and filled with gritty violence, "Akira" draws fanatics too bloodthirsty to appreciate its message, and scares away critics intelligent enough to understand it. It takes a very open mind to enjoy this movie.

All in all, be careful with this movie; it's not for everyone. Just ignore the hype on BOTH sides and judge for yourself. I recommend the subtitled version; the dub's voice actors suck and anyone who'll understand this movie is obviously smart enough to read.

Oozing with metaphorical messages and warnings, as relevant today as when it was first released, this apocalyptic take on a future world takes place in 2019, some years after an Armageddon event in Tokyo. Often as confusing as hell, a little bit all over the place at times, if you manage to make it to the end you may need to pause for thought to consider what you have witnessed, which can only be a good thing with the shallowness in so much of what we're served up these days. Definitely worth a visit.

I was probably around 8, when I first saw Akira. It was my step dad who asked me if I was interested in watching this Japanese cartoon. I expected something like, my favorite children movies like The Lion King or The Land before Time.

Akira however, was something else. At the time I was to young to understand English, since it was a second language for me. But I remember what kind of an affect it had on me. It was brutal, it was hard, it was edgy. The drums and Neo Tokyo lights flew through my little body as butter, as I witnessed death, gore and sadistic killings. Something my pure and innocent eyes had never seen before. And yet I was strangely excited. I was never tough as a kid. I was a afraid of the dark and often had nightmares about all kinds of things. But Akira, despite it's mature nature, just had me in awe. When I finally re-saw it many years later, when I was an old teenager, I was still in awe.

Akira is simply a wonderful and entertaining sci-fi movie. It was what introduced me to anime, and innovation in a hole new way. If you want to start watching anime or see, what all the fuss is about, then Akira is a good place to start. Even though it's over 17 years old today, it is still a fantastic and visually stunning animation. Even if you don't appreciate animation you owe it to yourself, to check it out. It has spectacular action, motorcycle-chase-sequences, mad scientists and tons of blood and shooting.

8/10

Without a doubt the necessary injection of Manga culture Western audiences needed. Personal objections (or should I say appraisals) aside, Akira deconstructs the form of narrative and character development that we had all become accustomed to through Hollywood and produces a reasonably honest translation of Katsuhiro Otomo's Manga epic, with mass deletions of unnecessary characters and plot avenues. The story is complex enough to keep western audiences attention, yet simple enough to digest whilst taking in the wonderfull animation and excellent soundtrack (a collection of traditional Japanese instruments and modern day synthesised electronica that allow for elements of cinema to establish themselves for the audience) The conflict between the two main characters, Tetsuo and Kaneda is ultimately superceded by the films namesake, the mystery of the boy Akira, and as with very few films Hollywood produces it leaves it's more labour intensive thinking until the end. A delight to follow, with periods of intense action and thought provoking predictions of a neo society, one would like to think of the film as the pipe dream of one who predicted such tragic events as of September 11. Akira, whilst violent for the medium, is a lush metropolis of gang warfare, a psuedo examination into the possible, and a fantasy tale of elements long lost in modern cinema. A cool, entertaining piece littered with cult visions and awesome bikes.

In 1988 Tokyo is destroyed in a nuclear style blast. 30 years later the city has been rebuilt but has become troubled by youth and biker gangs. An encounter with a powerful child leaves one of a gang, Tetsuo, injured and captured by the army. They find his mind has powers that can be developed – however the lessons of the mysterious Akira are still fresh in their minds and the army know they must control his development. Meanwhile Tetsuo's friend, Kaneda, fights corrupt politicians, a powerful military and the power of the opened human brain to get his friend back.

When I went to see this film at a big cinema chain that I won't name, it had been over 10 years since I'd last seen the movie and could remember very little of it. The screening was cancelled because the emergency lights couldn't be shut off (d'oh) but we were all offered free tickets for later. Coming back to it I hoped it would be worth the bother and, on the whole, it was. This type of film is usually all visual flair and some messed up plot about demons etc. Akira is almost that but rises about the average by being cleverer than that and by being one of the first of it's type.

The animation is excellent – breathtaking cityscapes and futuristic effects. The violence is graphic but is nothing compared to modern Japanese standards. It doesn't take away from the film and it all looks great. The use of sound (or rather silence) is also effective with powerful silences at key moments really adding to the film.

The plot goes a bit nuts at times and ends up with the body horror of many films of the genre. However at it's core it is looking at the idea of humans using their full brain power and possible next steps for evolution. That doesn't mean it doesn't drag at all and several bits do go on too long – the ending in particular never seems to reach a closing point! I felt it could easily have taken 20 minutes less and still done the same job.

The only problem I had with the version I saw was the hammy American voice work. It really made it feel clichéd. However overall the film looks good and has some great action. It may not be a classic film and the genre is a bit of an acquired taste but this is a solid film that (partly due to it's age) transcends many of the clichés the genre later acquired.