Cover Art

Credits

Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo Voices: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Tetsusho Genda Screenplay: Katsuhiro Ôtomo Country: Japan

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If you are still reading I guess you are not convinced, so read on.

This film is based on the 2000 odd page manga by director and writer, Katsuhiro Otomo. Obviously the 2 hour film is a somewhat condensed version of Otomo's original tale.

31 years after an apparent nuclear blast that rocked Tokyo in 2019, the world is a completely different place. A revolution sits on the verge of starting, with terrorism rife in the city. While battling their enemies The Clowns, motorcycle gang The Capsules encounter a strange child that seemingly causes gang member Tetsuo's bike to blow up.

Government agents arrive and collect the child and Tetsuo, whom upon investigation, they discover has the same psychic wavelength as the powerful child Akira, who destroyed Tokyo many years before. The army orders Tetsuo killed, but he escapes, and over a short period his psychic powers become greater, and even a trio of children, one of whom Tetsuo encountered earlier,  who have psychic powers cannot control him.

He eventually becomes as dangerous as the child from 30 years before and must be stopped, and many are employed, including his friend and fellow gang member Kaneda, to take him down.

Really there is no synopsis I can offer that will show the excitement of this film without being a massive spoiler-fest, so rest assured, much more happens than what those previous paragraphs suggest. This film has layers of political shenanigans and relationship issues that cannot be discusses in such a brief forum as a review. Akira is a deep story that needs to be experienced more than once to be fully appreciated.

Akira has so many staples of dystopian future sci-fi, it is almost like a checklist: crazy religions, rebel forces, psychic powers, nuclear war, fascistic police forces, drugs, cool vehicles… I could go on, but at no time does any of it ever feel overcrowded.

The detail of this anime is outstanding. Everything from tread of boot soles to the light trail effects of motorbike tail lights are here but that is not just how this film shows its maturity. The film has a spectacular cinematic quality to it: scenes such as a bandage blowing in the wind may seem like nothing but a segue in a regular movie, but in animation represents many hours of work, and this adds so much to the film.