Amazon.com Essentials:
Artist-writer Katsuhiro Ôtomo began telling the story of Akira as a comic book series in 1982 but took a break from 1986 to 1988 to write, direct, supervise, and design this animated film version. Set in 2019, the film richly imagines the new metropolis of Neo-Tokyo, which is designed from huge buildings down to the smallest details of passing vehicles or police uniforms. Two disaffected orphan teenagers--slight, resentful Tetsuo and confident, breezy Kanada--run with a biker gang, but trouble grows when Tetsuo start to resent the way Kanada always has to rescue him. Meanwhile, a group of scientists, military men, and politicians wonder what to do with a collection of withered children who possess enormous psychic powers, especially the mysterious, rarely seen Akira, whose awakening might well have caused the end of the old world. Tetsuo is visited by the children, who trigger the growth of psychic and physical powers that might make him a superman or a supermonster. As befits a distillation of 1,318 pages of the story so far, Akira is overstuffed with character, incident, and detail. However, it piles up astonishing set pieces: the chases and shootouts (amazingly kinetic, amazingly bloody) benefit from minute cartoon detail that extends to the surprised or shocked faces of the tiniest extra; the Tetsuo monster alternately looks like a billion-gallon scrotal sac or a Tex Avery mutation of the monster from The Quatermass Experiment; and the finale--which combines flashbacks to more innocent days with a destruction of Neo City and the creation of a new universe--is one of the most mind-bending in all sci-fi cinema. --Kim Newman
Amazon.com video review:
After Tokyo was destroyed in a mysterious blast in 1988, the elaborate city of Neo-Tokyo was built on its ruins. By 2019, Neo-Tokyo has been divided between a powerful and wealthy upper class and the violent punks and motorcycle gangs who haunt its slums. When the members of one gang attempt to strike back at the arrogant lords of the city, they unleash a wider and more destructive conflict than they anticipated. Neo-Tokyo is destroyed in another conflagration, but a new city will arise on its ruins, like a phoenix from its ashes.
It's not always easy to tell the thuggish characters in Akira apart, but the emphasis is on expertly cut motorcycle chases and violent gun battles, rather than nuanced performances. The striking, dystopic designs reflect the influence of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, an interesting example of cultural cross-pollination. Akira defines anime for many Americans and is the object of an extremely loyal cult following. Uninitiated viewers may find the two-hour length of this animated epic a bit daunting and choose to watch it in sections. --Charles Solomon
Amazon.com video review:
After Tokyo was destroyed in a mysterious blast in 1988, the elaborate city of Neo-Tokyo was built on its ruins. By 2019, Neo-Tokyo has been divided between a powerful and wealthy upper class and the violent punks and motorcycle gangs who haunt its slums. When the members of one gang attempt to strike back at the arrogant lords of the city, they unleash a wider and more destructive conflict than they anticipated. Neo-Tokyo is destroyed in another conflagration, but a new city will arise on its ruins, like a phoenix from its ashes.
It's not always easy to tell the thuggish characters in Akira apart, but the emphasis is on expertly cut motorcycle chases and violent gun battles, rather than nuanced performances. The striking, dystopic designs reflect the influence of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, an interesting example of cultural cross-pollination. Akira defines anime for many Americans and is the object of an extremely loyal cult following. Uninitiated viewers may find the two-hour length of this animated epic a bit daunting and choose to watch it in sections. --Charles Solomon
