One of the greatest animated films ever made, but SEE IT SUBBED!

Rating: Null/10 (19 April 2000)

I'm really getting sick of this film being tossed off by critics as "visually impressive, but too confusing". Or by people who haven't seen referring to it as "that gory anime sci-fi movie". Nobody regards it as what it is: a modern masterpiece.
The first time I saw it, I had never seen anime before. This was a new experience and I loved it. It was dubbed, and it was edited for television, yet I was still awestruck by the entire film. I watched it 2 or 3 more times in this incarnation, but I couldn't understand a thing that went on, and forgot about it. About a year later I saw it subbed, and it was like a whole new movie: there was much more emotional depth, and the translation was better so I immediately understood the whole movie! I can't believe how badly the dubbed version butchers the experience...not as bad as what we did to "Nausicaa", but pretty close. In the dubbed version Kaneda sounds like a robot, and the Colonel is permanently growling. In the subbed version the Colonel emerges as probably my favorite character in the movie: the only voice of reason in a city run by corrupt politicians. The scene in which he is ordered to relinquish command, but instead orders his men to kill the messenger because "we're all going to die soon anyway" is very moving. I've now seen the film countless times in its subbed incarnation, and every time I am swept up in it, almost hynotized by the beautiful images before me.
My one and only complaint is the beginning, with the gang war: it's just too...generic. I've lent the film to friends who didn't watch past the first part, because they thought it was too much like "typical" anime, and I had to force them to watch the rest (of course they loved it). It just doesn't even hint at the beauty and epic sweep of the rest of the movie.
The film is also remarkable from a filmmaking perpective, and I don't just mean the animation. The use of dissolves followed by quick cuts are very inventive and effective, as are the various perfect transitions. And best of all the music adds to the film on many different levels. Image and sound play off each other to the point where I couldn't imagine the film without it. The flashback scenes all have an extremely washed-out color palette, where everything is brighter, perfectly evoking a more innocent time. And the film is packed with indelible images. My personal favorite is in the aftermath of Tetsuo's first major attack, when it's at dusk and pieces of the SOL are raining down on earth, Tetsuo's body sihouetted against the sky.
I will love this film forever, and though some people say it's a Blade Runner rip-off, I say Akira is better than Blade Runner in every way possible. Katushiro Otomo is one of the best and most innovative directors in the world, let alone animation directors. And he's not a one-movie fluke either...watch a fansub of Memories and be prepared to be wowed all over again. It may take a while, but one of these days people will wake up to Otomo's genious.