This was made in 1988?

Rating: 10/10 (17 April 2007)

AKIRA is set in Neo-Tokyo, post World War III, about a biker gang leader named Kaneda, whose friend Tetsuo is kidnapped by an organisation ran by the government to be experimented on in a secret project also ran by the government. But luckily, Kaneda and his buddies journey through Neo-Tokyo to save Tetsuo. Meanwhile, all goes wrong when Tetsuo discovers that he's got the telekinetic powers of Akira after being experimented on and goes on a violent rampage with his powers causing chaos in Neo-Tokyo. Can Kaneda and his buddies stop Tetsuo or will Neo-Tokyo or even the world be destroyed?
In my opinion, AKIRA is the best of all ultra-violent anime; the action scenes are filled with blood, explosions, lasers, bullets, motorcycle gangs and even more, the animation is superb, all hand-drawn and no CGI. The scenery is very BLADE RUNNER-like and can even make you feel like your in the film itself (even though it's a cartoon). And how can I not forget the music? Instead of using synthesisers and other electronic items to give you the futuristic feel, it uses authentic tribal music and it works perfectly (it also uses the organ near the end which also fits perfectly).
However, it is important that if you're going to watch AKIRA, watch the 'Special Edition' version, which contains the newer and better English dubbing, rather than the original English dub because the original English dub hasn't got as-good voice-acting and the dialogue isn't good. Or you can watch AKIRA with subtitles in it's original audio language, which is in Japanese.
And like they say, no AKIRA equals no MATRIX.