Akira was released in 1988. It is written and directed Katsuhiro Otomo. In it Tetsuo Shima (Nozomu Sasaki), a member of a biker gang in the futuristic city of Neo Tokyo, gains psychic powers in a freak accident and becomes caught up in a secret government program involving other psychics. Shōtarō Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata), Tetsuo's friend and the leader of the gang, sets out to find him. Meanwhile, a group of resistance fighters hope to capture Tetsuo and gain his powers for their own use.
If the films of Hayao Miyazaki are the preeminent example of subtle, restrained anime Katsuhiro Otomo's
Akira is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Adapting his own, at the time unfinished, 2000 page manga into a 2 hour movie Otomo's film moves at a relentless pace in order to include as many scenes and characters from the manga as possible. While Miyazaki's films are filled with serene scenes where little to nothing happens, Akira moves so breathlessly from one plot point to the next that you can barely keep up.
The main plot involves the growing rivalry between Tetsuo and Kaneda, the conflict between the government and the rebels, and the efforts of the other psychics, called espers, to contain Tetsuo's powers. Kei (Mami Koyama), a member of the resistance eventually develops physic abilities of her own and is able to combat Tetsuo. Her friend and companion, Ryu (Tetsusho Genda) is working for a member of the parliament named Nezu (Hiroshi Ōtake), who is actually corrupt. All of these subplots are a little underdeveloped and is hard to keep up with them. Akira, who is an actual speaking character from the manga, appears here only in flashback and as a disassembled body in test tubes. Many other characters including Lady Miyako, the leader of a cult who hope to better control the psychics powers, and Chiyoko, a member of the resistance and a friend of Kei, are marginalized or left out all together.
Akira paints a picture of an insane dystopian world where rioting and police violence seem to be a way of life. Yet amidst all this chaos, Neo Tokyo is filled with signs of corporate commerce. The lights and neon signs that fill the city suggest that consumerism is still rampant despite all the violence. The government, meanwhile, seems completely powerless. Yet there are still signs of hope in the end. The espers decide to sacrifice themselves to save Kaneda when he is endangered by Tetsuo's imminent self-destruction. They also suggest that Tetsuo may survive and transcend his current existence. At the end of the film, as Kaneda rides off into the ruins of the city with Kei and Kaisuke (Takeshi Kusao), and Colonel Shikishima (Tarō Ishida) watches the sun rise, we're left to wonder if the survivors can build a better tomorrow.
The animation in
Akira was really groundbreaking. It's completely hand-drawn and each frame was meticulously created by the animators. Neo-Tokyo is a neon saturated cyberpunk hellhole. At once dystopian and post-apocalyptic it provides a crucible for the diverse cast of characters to struggle through. There's depth and weight to the buildings, vehicles and people that make up the city. The scenes dealing with Tetsuo and the espers on the other hand, are distorted and dreamlike. It's like something out of the imagination of a six year old playing
Five Nights at Freddy's on acid. The soundtrack, by Tsutomu Ōhashi's musical collective Geinoh Yamashirogumi, is a mix of drums, synthesized instruments and human voices that creates a sense of dissonance and tension that really complements the films tone.
Akira is a furious, nitroglycerin fueled, nightmarish piece of animation. To quote Martin Scorsese (regarding Jean Luc Godard's
Breathless) "It was too cool. I liked it. I didn't know what the hell was happening in it." Recommended to anyone who can stomach a little insanity.
Score: 8/10
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