I long ago lost count of how many times I’ve watched Akira, but my admiration of it has only grown with each viewing. I understand the many lukewarm reviews on this webpage from those blaring the “Overhyped!” and “Nonsensical!” alarms, and I particularly sympathize with fellow manga fans who find the adaptation lacking, but I also believe that all of these detractors simply don’t get it. Akira is a superb piece of art that, despite its failure to tell a coherent story to first-time viewers, stands tall as a lasting pinnacle of aesthetic and philosophy in the anime medium.
I concede, I concede. Who watches Akira for the first time and doesn’t exclaim “What the fuck was that?” Nevertheless, is it necessarily a bad product if it takes multiple viewings and serious focus to completely follow? Of course, it isn’t so much that the plot is too high-minded for the casual audience but that the many facets of the plot have been congested into a feature-length film. Is the result bad story-telling? Maybe, from a technical perspective. But it’s there; every beat, every character motivation, everything. The first-time viewer just inevitably loses it all in the spectacle—and Akira is a spectacle.
Just take a look at those backdrops. Look at the detail of every insignificant frame. Watch the face of the guy sitting in a restaurant who gets slammed by a crashing motorcycle; take a look at the towering urban sprawl above Kaneda and Kei’s first conversation; make sure to catch Tetsuo’s first telekinetic slaughter of the nursery guards; watch every protrusion of flesh on the cosmic baby as they gurgle and spurt. A “fever dream masterpiece,” indeed. Akira’s unique style is evident from the first time you see Kaneda’s jacket and motorcycle. That character design, plus the Neo-Tokyo cityscapes, plus the absurd brutality, make the Akira aesthetic what it is. We’ve all seen it imitated across all entertainment mediums. Even those who cry “Overhyped!” about the plot certainly won’t feel the same about the design and animation.
Everyone appreciates how difficult a task it was for Otomo to condense six volumes into the two-hour run-time, but the greater task that he accomplished was condensing human nature into the run-time. Let’s see what we have here… a hedonist populace desperately trying to distract themselves from their empty lives with crime and radicalism, and a government split by perpetually-outraged councilmen conniving for political power. Further, a militarist crank has been striving to manipulate divine power for his own nationalist purposes. The results of all this human conceit play out in all their destructive glory. “The Fatal Conceit,” to quote a great man. Fine-tuning the natural order of things has always been an abject failure, and yet a persistently popular pursuit of elected government. Street gangs and anarchist revolutionaries have long been understood to be perverse compensation for loneliness and purposelessness, but are persistently romanticized. Akira portrays the contemporary, sci-fi appearance of an eternal human nature.
As far as the supernatural element goes, Otomo takes a pantheistic angle—as might be expected of the Japanese artist. As an interpretable product, however, there is no clear explanation for the divine events occurring in the Akira universe. The closest we get is a dull exposition by the nursery girl through her possession of Kei, haranguing Kaneda about life energy’s role in evolution. Of course, these are merely the intimations of an underdeveloped cripple who has been cooped up and drugged up in a perverse nursery-for-the-telekenetically-inclined. It seems to me that the ridiculous-looking cult of Akira is more accurate than most in worshipping Akira as a messiah. Cataclysm does come, and divinity is achieved—though not quite in the way the cultists were hoping for. Does morality play a role in any of this transcendence? Perhaps, perhaps not—Akira has no room for moralizing after spending every scene depicting the tragedy of human nature and the awesome power of the universe.
So what is Akira the film? An enduring aesthetic, a glorious spectacle, and a brilliant study of human nature. Even when the first-time viewer shuts off the movie with a blank stare and a gaping mouth, there should be no trouble in them re-watching as almost every frame of the movie is endlessly fascinating. So go on ahead, re-watch! I wrote this review not only to oppose the harsher critics but because I didn’t feel anyone on this webpage truly articulated what makes Akira a great piece of art. Its magnificent analysis of humanity's eternal failings goes unappreciated if not unrecognized by even the biggest fans.
