Tetsuo, Kaneda, Tetsuo, Kaneda, Akira, -kira, -kira, -kira (web)

Rating: 10/10 (7 December 2011)

In fact, Akira was the thing of my twin brother and as it was his, it was crap. (I know how much we can be dumb when we are kids but that's what adulthood is about). Well, I watched him collect all the books and above all, I heard a lot the rhythmic score in our parent's car! I remember to watch a few minutes years ago but it was senseless with Tetsuo calling "Kaneda", Kaneda calling "Tetsuo" and that was all.
One week ago, I started to read the comic and it was hard to put it down: Contrary to traditional comics, the text is minimal so the pace is really dynamic and matches the story: as it deals with devastations, technology and mysticism, it's really Japanese at heart. The characters (Kaneda, Kei, Tetsuo, Kaori, the kids, the Colonel) are well studied and all the emotions are rich: humor, romance, courage, madness, faith, friendship... Otomo is a stunning artist too and the numerous devastations of Tokyo are among the best pages of comic ever. If there is a big slump between volumes 17 and 27, the last volumes are visually fascinating!
Now, comes the movie: actually, it's 20 years old but it's not very outdated. At its release, it surely rocked the animation because there weren't a lot of productions like this. As for the adaptation, it's a good thing that Otomo was at the helm: The movie looks like the comic and vice versa. The story has been drastically cut for the screen but the core is still here(in fact, it's indeed the big slump mentioned that has been left). In addition, a lot of ideas have been rewritten so it's nearly like a special edition.
Finally, the comic is so explosive that this animation is nonetheless less powerful. In other words, if you like the movie, read the comic because it's a thousand more epic and read "Domu" as well (it's a good prequel!).