A Love Letter to Meticulous Art and Cyber-Dystopia

Rating: 10/10 (2 September 2016)

Akira, an animated film from 1988 directed by Katsuhiro Otomo and written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto. The film is based on Otomo's manga, focusing on the first half of the story with the latter pruned due to time constraints.
As it stands, Akira is the only movie I've seen, animated or otherwise, that I have confidently rated a perfect 10/10. The reason becomes clear upon viewing this film, so if you haven't do so yet I strongly urge you to do so. Three specific areas contributed to this rating. Story, Sound Design, Acting/Animation. A quick look on what the movie is about please look above. I'd love to write an essay on this movie, but 1000 words is my limit so I will try to fit everything in that constraint. This is less of a review, and more of a love letter.
Story and Structure
Akira focuses on a branching story line with it's major protagonists/antagonists being teenage biker Tetsuo Shima, the leader of his biker gang Shotaro Kaneda, and the multiple characters they meet throughout the movie. There are three major arcs that occur in this film. The exposition arc, which introduces us to Tetsuo and Kaneda as well as their brother-like relation ship. Tetsuo is the smallest of the gang, often looked down upon by the rest. Kaneda, as the leader holds much more bravado to the point where he seems almost unstoppable.
The second arc starts around the time Tetsuo encounters the psychic child and is promptly taken away be the secretive group that fosters the child and his two psychic counter-parts. It is at this time we start hearing about Akira, through visions and heavily clouded conversations. The transition between the first and second arc is just about seamless. No jarring transition or cuts, it is hinted by a change in atmosphere and a period of calm from the previous chaos and violence that the film gave us in the beginning. Through the duration of this arc we begin to see how the mysterious psychic prowess begins to manifest within Tetsuo, while we also follow Kaneda while he searches high and low through Neo-Tokyo for his beloved friend.
The final arc starts around the time Tetsuo makes his stand in the baby room, begins the realize the extent of his awakened psychic powers and begins his search for the fabled Akira. In this scene we are shown the tension that exists between Tetsuo and Kaneda ten-fold. Both characters had gone through their proverbial and sometimes literal hell to get to this point, the emotion in the scenery jars the viewer to accentuate this point. This is the beginning of the end.
I applaud Akira for it's well thought-out story line. There isn't a single wasted moment to be found in even the smallest of frames. Every second is used to it's full extent to give us background on characters, setting, time-period, and the struggles existent in the film. By the end of the film, all questions that needed answering were answered, those that needn't an answer were left ambiguous, but we were left with proper material to formulate our own. From what I've searched, there is no background lore to the Akira world, what we see is what get and we are forced to build the world as we along, which makes the discovery of new elements all the more rewarding. 9/10
Sound
Intense, foreboding, hopeful, but ultimately anguishing. The OST for this film is a movie in itself, a cinema of sound that adds five layers of depth to the animation it accompanied. Composed by Geinoh Yamashirogumi, the soundtrack is comprised of 10 tracks, some played multiple times throughout the film, in scenes where it mattered. A simple google search of "Akira Soundtrack" will locate the entire OST for you to listen and enjoy.
Let's go further beyond the music, to the actual sound design of the film. Both effects and voice acting were superb. I watched the sub version, as it should be viewed, and the voice actors did an amazing job bringing their animated characters to life. By the end of the film I connected with Tetsuo especially when he realized his error and begged for Kaneda to save him. I almost cried out in pain as Tetsuo became overran by a power he was not prepared to control.
The sounds of Neo-Tokyo took the movie over the top. From the soothing hum of engines and speed-bikes, to the hectic gunfire and manic shouts of revolution, whenever there was no dialogue, the movie was far from empty. If there were a version of Akira with no dialogue, only sound, I would gladly watch it. 10/10
Animation
Akira is a product of its time, there's no denying that. Though the great thing about art is the aspect of timelessness. The animation of Akira not only outdid itself in 1988 but it outdoes itself in 2016. Vibrancy, color, depth, and crisp animation in bounds. Huge hand-drawn scenery with detail included in even the darkest corners of the alleyways of Neo-Tokyo. If i had to sum the artwork provided in Akira in a single word it would be, Genius. More or less the movie is a direct animation from the Manga, so I've heard. I've never read the Manga, but obviously Katsuhiro Otomo is as much of an artist as Van Gogh.
The scenes of violence in resistance ridden Neo-Tokyo were so vivid and in your face, animated perfectly to give a visceral scene. And it all happens so fast it can at times get tiring, but still the movie demands your attention, and you have no choice but to comply. 9/10
Akira is a tragic love story. A story about the pursuit of power and the anguish that comes with it. A story about being lost, and the hope of being found once more.