Different, detailed; but a masterpiece? Not really.

Rating: 5/10 (24 April 2001)

I've been a big fan of science fiction and fantasy in both literature and cinema for at least 25 years. I love the cutting edge, yet until the year 2000, I had never seen any anime. My anime-loving friends urged me to introduce myself to the genre with either "Akira" or "Princess Mononoke" or even "My Friend Totoro". Since my friends only had "Akira" on video, I chose that. I watched this in November 2000, so please forgive me for forgetting the character names.
Right away, my viewing frame of mind fell once the English soundtrack came squealing its way through my sound system. What is it about US distributors of Asian movies? Why do they think we want to hear grown women talking in baby imitations? I'd much rather read subtitles and hear the original soundtrack than these peevish, cartoony caricatures.
When my friends had hyped the incredibly detailed, fluid animation style that put American animation to shame, I looked forward to seeing it. In fact, every review here seems to glorify the skill and talent of the animators. Although the frames did contain a lot of detailed artistry and a large number of independently animated objects, the movement was jerky as all hell. It was very easy to see where the frames were linked. It was like playing an action game on a PC when it gets overloaded trying to keep up with the game. Disney may be pablum for the masses, but its theatrical releases certainly are a hundred times more smoothly animated than "Akira".
I had to put the "viewing experience" aside and concentrate on the plot, theme, and characters. I've done it enough times in the age of VHS rentals, so it was no problem here. I found that the character development for everyone except the protagonist was weak and shallow. I never could understand any motivation for the erratic behavior of the friend. Now, this is more like an American movie than some cutting-edge Asian import.
The plot.. well, very poorly explained, especially the last 20 minutes. I think I understood the ending of "2001" better the first time I saw it. I don't want to spoil anything, but there is no explanation for what happens at the end of this movie. Those of you who have seen it will understand... bigger and bigger and bigger... why? Just to be grotesque?
Finally, the theme made sense to me. Our world faces great danger from our misunderstanding of technology and humanity's preoccupation with it. We will be our own downfall if we are not careful. Good message, I get it.
So, overall, I gave it 4/10. I thought it was sloppy in direction and the story was utterly lacking in interest. Those of you here (and on the video jacket) who compared this film favorably with "Blade Runner" are, in my opinion, not paying very much attention to "Blade Runner". That is a hugely superior film to this.
Finally, as to "My Friend Totoro", I saw it too. It had the same problems with animation jerkiness as this does. Is "Princess Mononoke" going to let me down too? I'm going to watch the SUBTITLED version of that anime just to get away from those baby voices.