Entertaining and genre-defining techno-punk anime

Rating: 8/10 (17 February 2020)

In a corrupt Neo-Tokyo, a rebellious biker tries to help his friend who has been drawn into experiments designed to mobilise the powers of the reality through the human mind (or something to that effect). 'Akira' was one of the first international anime hits and did much to establish the genre outside Japan. The story is complex and somewhat fanciful, and the aesthetic, characters, and 'acting' are fairly typical but the imagery is outstanding. I am not a big fan of 'science fiction' anime (as opposed to, for example, the fantasy films from Studio Ghibli, which I love), but I enjoyed 'Akira'. Note: I watched the English-dubbed version on the 2013 Funmation 25th Anniversary DVD