One of the most famous, but not one of the best animes

Rating: 6/10 (10 November 2005)

In 1988 Tokyo was hit by a huge explosion. In 2019 the town is full of street gangs and criminals. One night the police shoots a man who was carrying a green child with telekinetic powers. By accident, a young boy named Tetsuo comes in contact with the child and they both get kidnapped by the army and put in a laboratory. Tetsuo's older friend Kaneda starts looking for him and meets a girl, Kei, who tells him about the "higher" power, called Akira. Tetsuo develops telekinetic powers himself and escapes from the lab...
In one way, I owe a lot of respect to "Akira". Thanks to the talented director Katsuhiro Otomo ( "Steamboy" ) this film became the first worldwide influential anime, and without it the road for future anime projects may have never been started. In other words, without "Akira" they may have never been "Inuyasha", "Shin Seiki Evangelion", "Sailor Moon", "Hellsing"...All in all, it's a good sci-fi film, but not for everyone's taste. Namely, while on one hand the dark tone and imaginative scenes seem impressive, on the other the story looks confusing and the characters pale.
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Some of the scenes look great even today. Like when Kei is walking on ( polluted ) water. Or when Tetsuo is using his telekinetic powers to bend laser beams shot towards him. Or when a whole building sinks in smoke. And it may just be that the finale where Tetsuo transforms into a giant organic monster even inspired "Princess Mononoke's" sequence with the white pig cowered with red leaches. The dark poetry is powerful, but it cannot hide the obvious flaws, like the stiff and cold composition of the plot. In the end, some part even look like disgusting trash. That's why the dark, but beautiful animes like "Shin Seiki Evangelion" still hold on better after frequent viewings.
Grade: 6/10