a film about energy

Rating: Null/10 (29 April 2002)

Akira is without a doubt one of the animation classics. Similar to Fantasia in its uniqueness and originality, but of course not in its content matter. Every scene has such an attention to kinetic detail that is lacking in modern anime. Capes folding after human jerks and movements, hair blowing in the breeze, just as many smoke effects as there are explosions, rocks crumbling. Akira is also a study on the mind, almost any physic power that you can think of is found in here.
What is even better about Akira is that it is a character drama where no character is really the main character, some are just more focused on than others. Instead of having good and evil characters, the personalities of the characters unabashedly play off each other and cancel each other out. The characters do what they feel they have to do and more often than not these are the characters which survive to the end. There is also a great scope to the story of Akira. Tetsuo is either the chosen one to fulfil the prophecies of the Akira cult or just a teenager on the loose, we see both possibilities with just as much probability through the use of many different perspectives. The movie creates a feeling for what is happening to Neo Tokyo just as much as it does its main characters. The riots and military actions are just as interesting as the rivalry between Kaneda and Tetsuo. Because it is such a well put together film, it is very easy to rewatch. In fact while the film is only two hours long (of course that's long for an animation film) it feels like the longest movie ever produced when you sit through it for the first time. One of the final good points of this film is the music and sound effects. The music is just awesome, has a great tonal quality to it as well as good composition. There is great fore-shadowing and sound effects. The director knows just what to show you to make the scene work. Seriously, this is one of the best directed films ever. If you think it is violent, there are plenty of places where the violence is taken away from the center of attention to drive the point home. Akira is a film that takes all the explosions and unabashed emotions and creates an aura of beauty around it.