Akira

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2011)

I had heard about this from many sources, saying it was the greatest Japanese Anime film in the Manga category, it features alongside other Animes I have seen, such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, in the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it had to be worth it. Basically thirty one years ago an atom bomb exploded and vapourised Tokyo, leading to World War III, now in the future, 2019, the city has been rebuilt on the artificial Tokyo Bay, where terrorism and violence is gripping everyone. In amongst the this are The Capsules biker gang leader Shotaro Kaneda (Johnny Yong Bosch) and his friend Tetsuo Shima (Joshua Seth) who go against rival gang The Clowns. Near the end of a chase, Tetsuo ends up crashing his motorcycle, after almost hitting a child that will be mentioned later, and captured by armed soldiers, while Kaneda are the gang are taken for questioning. The Colonel - Col. Shikishima (Jamieson Price) and The Doctor - Doctor Onishi (Simon Prescott/Isaacson) of a secret government project discover Tetsuo has mental powers similar to the little boy who caused the explosion that destroyed the city, Akira, so naturally they decide to keep him in captivity and will kill him if his powers get out of control. But Tetsuo escapes the facility and meets up with girlfriend Kaori (Michelle Ruff), and after Kaneda joins them and stops an assault by The Clowns, Tetsuo experiences a painful headache. Taken away again by a government van, he goes to military hospital, where he is attempted to be killed by The Espers, Masaru (?), Takashi (Cody MacKenzie) and Kiyoko (Sandy Fox), of course with his power growing this only makes it worsen. After going on a rampage, Tetsuo stops off at a cryogenic storage facility below Neo-Tokyo's new Olympic Stadium, and that's how he finds out about Akira and the powers he had. Kaneda and Kei (Wendee Lee) meanwhile are determined to stop Tetsuo from becoming more powerful that he may lose his mind completely and destroy the city, Kaneda's right-hand Yamagata 'Yama' (Michael Lindsay) gets killed, and Kaneda is now out for revenge on Tetsuo. He meanwhile has returned to the Akira cryogenic chamber, where the Colonel is waiting to try and stop him, Kaneda soon arriving as well, but any attacks on Tetsuo fail, apart from removing his right arm. At the Stadium Tetsuo grows himself a new arm from non-organic components, like machinery, and Kaori arrives to see the power he now possesses, and that is when they go out of control and he starts growing. Continuing to grow into a large blob creature, and killing Kaori inside, the Colonel tries to make go back to the lab, but he just attacks, but Kaneda arrives, with the Espers protection, to stop him. In the end though, the explosion does happen, and all the Espers can do is teleport the Colonel and Kaneda to safety, with flashes of Tetsuo's memory showing, and they return to see most of the city destroyed in the glistening sunrise. Also starring Mike Reynolds/Ray Michaels as Mr. Nezu and Matthew 'Masamune' Mercer/Miller as Kaisuke 'Kai'. I have to say firstly, I had almost no idea what was going on throughout, the story was confusing and complicated, but I think this is one of the only times where I can forgive that, because it is so good. I recognised the most fantastic sequence, where Tetsuo becomes a mechanical blob monster, because it was spoofed in the "Trapper Keeper" episode of South Park, but there are so many great moments that will blow your mind. Director and creator of the comic strip Katsuhiro Ã”tomo went over budget creating many night sequences with fantastically vast looking cityscapes, with marvellous use of colours, great camera-work, wonderfully disturbing material and design ahead of its time, this is an amazing animated science-fiction action fantasy. It was number 16 on The 100 Greatest Cartoons. Very good!