Boy, it sure has been a while. More on that at a later date, though. I would just want to spread the word of a film I saw recently. The film in question Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 animated epic Akira. A cult sensation among anime, Akira is based on the manga of the same name (though differing quite heavily in plot) created by writer/driector Katsuhiro Otomo. Let’s begin, shall we? Akira take place 31 years after initiation of World War III in what is now know as Neo-Tokyo (I should note that according to most anime, adding ‘Neo’ to the beginning of any major city automatically makes that city futuristic). A group teenagers in a biker gang with our main characters - protagonist Shotaro Kaneda and Kaneda’s childhood friend Testuo Shima - are locked in a brawl with a rival biker gang. Suddenly, Testuo crashes; this is assumed to have been caused by a young, zombified-looking boy who seems to have the ability to destroy things by almost sheer will-power. After being taken to the hospital, Tetsuo begins having extreme hallucinations. Meanwhile, Kaneda begins fall for a woman, Kei, who is part an anti-government resistence force. The plot continues to evolve and grow more complex from there, building to a glorious climax. The doesn’t get overly-complex, and shouldn’t too hard if you were able to wrap your head around, say, Inception.
This story gets dark. It doesn’t pull any punches, but still manages to not throw any real unnecessary ones either. With exceptions in the very later portions of the film, gore is used to a largely realistic effect with one of the characters, Kei, reacting the way you would expect one human being to react when shooting a man in the face for the first time in her life. Akira contains a few depictions of real hardcore crime but nothing is overplayed and is always very subdued.
In fact, that’s a fairly good way to describe how things play out in this movie, ‘subdued.’ Most everything remains quiet allowing the viewer to take in more and actually feel the tension for themselves rather than be forced into it with music swells. The rarely - but always effectively - kicks in at key moments. I feel this film’s non-reliance on overbearing dramatic moments and loud action sequences makes it highly appealing to watch.
Another thing I found extraordinarily appealing was the art. The dark colours, tones, and even the way characters moved to a certain extent reminded me greatly of Secret of Nihm (which, let’s be honest, of all Don Bluth’s work, Nihm is even stronger than Dragon’s Lair). The lines felt organic and kinetic; when characters were moving, they were moving; when they were still, they looked still. Testuo’s hallucinations are a major highlight, too. These hallucinations were almost so realistic I could almost feel them.
I have speaking so highly of this film, what could possibly be bad? A couple of things actually...
For one, the dub I had was lackluster at best. I do suppose it’s worth mentioning I had the 2001 remastered edition with all new voice-work, which from what I have heard, isn’t nearly as good as the original ‘88 English. My recommendation is that you track down the Japanese voice-track and go with the subtitles (like I always say, ‘subs, not dubs’).
This is kind of a real jarring issue here: I’m wasn’t completely sure I should like our hero Kaneda. It’s easy to see he’s really a good and caring guy who’s also tough, but he cannot seem to drop his stock “tough-guy” persona, coming off as a bumbling idiot or just plain rude the majority of the time. Other characters - especially Kei, the love interest - are given little time to develop and their emotion become very ambiguous.
Other than that, I don’t suppose there’s too much to go on about when it comes to the negative aspects of this film.
So far, I’m really not sure I could pin down the theme of this film. Akira sure has a lot it could say about nuclear war, or the very nature of human life, or really any of that generic thematic element. Akira is definitely one I’ll go back to, and just maybe, I’ll discover something new every time.
Should you see this? Yes. Big problem? It is hard to find easily. The god many of us have sacrificed our souls to, Netflix, doesn’t even have this title available on DVD. Try video stores, try anime stores (if those exist), and try your internets.
For now, I give Akira 86/100 points
IMDb: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Metacritic: 76/100
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