The Essentials

Name: Akira
Genre: Science Fiction
Episodes: N/A
Released: July 6, 1988
Based On: Manga Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Produced By: Kodansha (among others)
US Distribution By: Orion Entertainment (1989), Pioneer/Geneon (2001)

Major Japanese Cast

Shotaro Kaneda: Mitsuo Iwata
Tetsuo Shima: Nozomu Sasaki
Kei: Mami Koyama
Ryu: Tessho Genda
Colonel Shikishima: Taro Ishida
Doctor Onishi: Mizuho Suzuki
Kaori: Yuriko Fuchizaki
Yamagata: Masaaki Okura
Kaisuke: Takeshi Kusao

Major English Cast

Shotaro Kaneda: Johnny Yong Bosch
Tetsuo Shima: Joshua Seth
Kei: Wendee Lee
Ryu: Robert Buchholz
Colonel Shikishima: Jamieson K. Price
Doctor Onishi: Simon Prescott
Kaori: Michelle Ruff
Yamagata: Michael Lindsay
Kaisuke: Matthew K. Miller

Scores

Animation: 10/10 (x 4 = 40 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 7/10 (x 4 = 28 pts)
Coherency/Story Arc: N/A
English Dubs: 10/10 (x 1 = 10 pts)
Gut Score: 7/10 (x 5 = 35 pts)

Total: 145/180 (80.6%)

Review

Akira is a movie set in Japan 31 years after World War III, which was started after a nuclear explosion occurred in Tokyo as a result of the government’s research into utilizing ESP got out of control. After being captured by the government, Tetsuo, a member of a biker gang in the new Neo-Tokyo is seen as having extreme ESP activity – activity which only rivals Akira, a past subject of the ESP experiment and the one which caused the destruction of Tokyo.

As Tetsuo’s gang leader and friend Kaneda tries to find Tetsuo, with the help of Kei, a member of a revolutionary movement, Tetsuo is being watched both by the government as by other children who have been experimented with in the ESP project. All of this seems to start making Tetsuo mad, as well as heightening his ESP activity to a near-uncontrollable level, and it will be up to Kaneda, the children of the ESP project, and the dead-at least in body Akira to save the city from the same fate that befell it 31 years in the past.

Ultimately, one of the themes that run through both the primary and sub-plots in the movie is the idea of humans attempting to control things which they ultimately just cannot control.

If I had to give only one compliment to Akira – it would be that it’s animation is fantastic, especially for a 1988 release. Of course, the quality of it’s animation is one thing that Akira is famous for. It’s also famous for being rather gruesome, and it is that.

If pools of blood coming out of people isn’t enough to make you want to stop eating for the day, the mutating of Tetsuo’s body at the end of the movie definitely will.

I think the one big weakness of the movie is that I think events kind of just happen and I don’t think it’s necessarily fully explained why, or at least not easily understood on the first viewing. For example, one of the lead government researchers enjoyed watching this energy type display thing that was monitoring Tetsuo’s ESP activity. It was made clear that it was significant, but I couldn’t necessarily tell what was good and what was bad, and could only go off of the researcher’s reactions of what he was seeing.

Also, why the revolutionary group was trying to kidnap one of the experimental ESP kids? I’m not sure that was fully explained either. Perhaps a plot by the council to get the colonel who was leading the experiments out of power? Finally, the ending was kind of like “ah! we’re all going to die!? oh. never mind” and thats basically it. It wasn’t necessarily a happy ending, but it wasn’t the end of the world, either.

This was a technically good movie – good animation, good dub, though the music could have been better I thought. However, I just thought there were too many other things wrong with it to be able to give this a really good score. I’d still recommend it though because, well, it’s Akira.

First Watched: August, 2006
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes