Meh...

Rating: 3/10 (29 April 2018)

It's not for me. I can see why this appeals to so many people, the animation is fantastic for an older film, but it doesn't appeal much to me. It's depressing and too dark, and the biggest gripe I had was the blink-and-you-miss it appearance of the title character. Sure they yammer about Akira the whole movie but you barely see him at all. If you're going to name the entire movie after a character, why make it one that only appears for what amounts to the last four minutes of the movie? In my opinion he may as well not have even been in the movie. While in the same vein, how about how Tetsuo's powers appear? So let me get this straight, he almost runs over a gargoyle-like psychic with a motorcycle, who blows up said motorcycle the moment before he gets hit to escape unscathed while leaving Tetsuo half dead in the road, and somewhere in the intermediary between those two events he gets powers. SOMEHOW. So in this universe the easiest way to get psychic powers is to lurk around government facilities and commit vehicular manslaughter?
I didn't like the characters much either. They were street thugs, I get it, but think about it. If they weren't jerks, Tetsuo wouldn't have been out wrecking stuff with the rest of the gang, and therefore wouldn't have almost killed the gargoyle, and no one would have died. Literally the only reason that anything happens is that Tetsuo and his friends are violent destructive heathens! Upon reflection I don't really find anything likeable in any of the main characters aside from the psychics. They were just fine in my opinion, although the voice actors were a little flat in my opinion.
That's not to say that it's a bad movie. Far from it, it is exceptionally well made. It does its job of being a dark, gritty anime, with no detail spared. The characters react as expected, given their characters, and they do feel believable. But the bleak downward spiral ending in Tokyo turning into a crater is just to dark for me to find any appeal in.. I honestly do see why people love this film, but I personally find it hard to find any appeal in.