Poifect

Rating: 10/10 (28 July 2006)

Akira blew my mind when I first saw it on BBC2 in 1994 and i rate it as one of the best films I have ever seen. From the first scene with the motorcycles whizzing through a neon jungle with the tail lights leaving trails across the screen and with a cool tech-no soundtrack blaring as young kids try to beat, maim and kill each other, to the explosive and catastrophic end which delivers pounds and pounds above and beyond anything you could expect from a films conclusion, Akira is a masterpiece.
What you get in between is great humour, both slapstick and dialogue based, tension, horror and a sense of being dragged into a bizarre world in which you could easily become overwhelmed and confused if it weren't grounded by easy to relate to characters.
The cast is huge and the story never sticks with anyone too long to let them hog it, but we are given 2 main ones to follow and relate to. kaneda is a happy go lucky hero type, a leader, the type everyone likes and wants to be around. In the film he seems to take every situation with a pinch of salt and is entertaining till the very end. The true star for me though is Tetsuo who brings all the tension, horror and gore to the film. He plays a sort of outsider lackey who's jealousy of kaneda and resentment of society proves catastrophic for the whole of Tokyo as he discovers powers within himself and becomes a sort of demented twisted superman (red cape n all).
Throw in to the mix a pulsing sound track, great and grizzly animation, lots of odd and exaggerated characters: power hungry politicians, crazy doctors, soothsayers, prematurely aging kids, psychics and a whole lot of unruly biker school kids - and it seems too much for one film , but it's not, it all comes out about perfect, the story is on point all the way and the end satisfies all expectations with a suitably ambiguous and philosophical end.