a great, but loose, adaptation of great manga

Rating: 10/10 (3 July 2006)

Katsuhiro Otomo wasn't even finished with his sprawling, 6-volume, 2,000 page epic Akira when he got together with a huge team of animators to make the film. The books were hugely ambitious, combining Buddhist-influenced ruminations on the evolution of intelligence (What if something like an amoeba were given the power of a human? What if a human were given power far beyond itself?) with a sci-fi/action plot taking place in a post- annihilation Tokyo, featuring everything from teenage motorcycle gangs, covert military psionics research, and something called "Akira". In the film, Akira is a perpetual mystery. Until fairly close to the end, we can only guess from the facial expressions of those in the know whenever the name is uttered. In the books, however, Akira appears by book 2 of 6 and features heavily in the rest of the story. This is the main difference between the books and the film: While the film builds to one massive climax, the books have several gigantic climaxes along the way and, therefore, quite a few more notable characters. Lady Miyako, for instance, is a huge character in the books, but only glimpsed twice in the film, and only from afar. Joker, the head of the rival Clowns biker gang, only features in the opening sequence of the film and has no lines, whereas in the books he remains important until the end as an actual character. Other such massive aspects of the books' plot, such as the Neo-Tokyo Empire and the covert American military operations to stop it, are completely left out of the film. But somehow, all this shedding of material that seems quite important in the books only distills Akira down to its essentials. It keeps the jaw-dropping action sequences and the philosophical weight while slimming down the narrative structure to something that feels like a much more natural fit for film. The core characters - Kaneda, Tetsuo, Kei - are still fleshed out extremely well. All in all, though the actual worlds of the books and the film are quite different, it would be impossible to say either world is better (though more hardcore fans will definitely pick the books since there is simply much more to sink your teeth into). So I recommend you watch this film, though not on an occasion where you just want something light and fluffy. It's dark, it's a bit gory, and most of all, it's extremely heavy. If you come away wanting more, then you should definitely check out the books.