Information Overload...

Rating: 10/10 (30 July 2002)

The first 15 minutes of Akira is a beutiful example of one of the main themes of the film. Information overload. Every single plot of the film is thrown into the mix with amazingly chaotic and hectic results which are absolutely spellbinding to look at. The film always captivates its audience, they never want to look away.
Perhaps this is because of the beautiful animation, or the original story. Essentially the film isn't perfect. The plot is rather complex, with so many characters and stories running around, it doesn't allow enough time to flesh out all the characters. And the story, while deep and interesting, doesn't really touch on all the issues as much as it should, leaving the film with a few loose ends. But then again one can't help but feel that this is intentional, as the fundamental theme of the film is information overload. The tag line says that Neo Tokyo is about to E.X.P.L.O.D.E. and one believes that!
It is by no means one of the greatest movies, but it is a great movie, and one of the best manga's out there. This film deserved to do well because of the obvious effort that went into its production, and that it opened up Anime to us westerners, and we couldn't be happier for it. We needed Akira. Without it there would be far less anime available to us today you can gaurantee it.