One of the greatest films ever.

Rating: Null/10 (6 April 2007)

Akira, is not only a great example of what good Anime can be, but is also a great film. I would stack it against live action sci-fi epics like Star Wars and Blade Runner. While I personally think Ghost in the Shell was better animated, Akira's fury and brutality make it a film which you cannot simply watch on a superficial level. I read a review which said Akira was "ugly.' Yeah, it is ugly. It's meant to be ugly. The beauty of the animation is how gritty it is. How it takes the Utopian vision of the future depicted by numerous bad sci-fi movies and sprays graffiti on it's pristine walls. The essence of Akira is the ugly side of teen culture and supposedly "enlightned" social philosophy.
Akira is not the first or last film to make us squirm for a reason. A Clockwork Orange used violent and sexually charged images to show the possible future of suburban youth. Schindler's List made us cringe at the graphic depictions of Auschwitz, so that we would remember what happened there.
Akira's plot centers around young Tetsuo, a street punk who plays second banana to his bike gang's leader, childhood friend Kaneda. Tetsuo is subjected to military experiments which unleash his dormant psionic abilities, and also cause him to grow increasingly paranoid and angry. Tetsuo becomes determined to discover who "Akira" is and why some of the other test subjects seem to believe Tetsuo is Akira reincarnated. As Tetsuo's power grows he becomes increasingly powerful, leading him to a violent confrontation with both Kaneda and the military.
In the end, the message of Akira is that humankind must be aware of the dark side of progress. The power of Akira is within everyone but is dangerous when misused. Much like the atom bomb, which the film makes reference to, this power can destroy cities and end millions of lives if it ends up in the wrong hands. Considering what our nuclear weapons did to Japan in the 1940's, and considering Japan's commitment to not manufacture weapons of war, the anti-nuke statement of the film is apparent and is one which it begs us not to ignore.