Nowadays many people don’t see the appeal of the title because it’s pretty much a product of its time, and I’m not saying that the movie is obsolete or that it didn’t age very well, but its aesthetics and themes were reflecting the time when it came out and thus, when people watch it nowadays they don’t see its appeal, all they see is a well animated movie with weird mouth motions, mediocre voice acting, and a clearly fragmented plot which is also hard to follow.
That does not take away its historical importance though, which is why even if a new adaptation comes out and turns out to be a longer and closer adaptation of the manga, it won’t take away the value of this movie. It is safe to say that, back when it came out, Akira was the best animated movie ever produced in Japan, it was dealing with issues from its time that resonated with the people from that period, it had a very focused atmosphere, it served as a great summary of the manga, it was the title that showed the west what kind of animation Japan was able to produced and it even started the dark sci-fi era of anime.
The thing is, said impact wasn’t instantaneous, it took some years for Akira to become such a point of reference when it comes to anime, since not many people watched it when it came out and with how expensive it was to be made, it ended up causing the bankruptcy of its studio, which ended up becoming part of another bigger one.
As a sci-fi piece made between the ‘60s and the late '80s, Akira has all the themes you could expect from it, a gang of bikers become allies of a revolutionary army which opposes an oppressive government which abuses its authority through its military forces which in turn makes experiments on people in order to turn them into super soldiers with psychic powers to use against other countries in a post-World War III scenario, with some ideas about trans humanism as basis.
The post-apocalyptic setting is well presented, is a rotten and decadent society were morals seem to not matter, violence, drugs, profanity, gang wars and more are things present in everyday life in front of anyone in the streets, politicians spends a lot of time discussing what to do and how to take action in order to not affect its public image instead of actually doing something while the police and military forces submit people and do whatever they want with them, making them desperate. Since they can’t trust the authorities nor the political party which serves as an opposition, they result in becoming part of a religious cult in seek of a possible savior, which supposedly will appear in the form of Akira, the character who gives the movie its title, despite being a plot device who only appears for a couple of minutes, before everything blows to pieces and the whole place falls under unprecedented chaos.
This is the major issue of the film, as interesting as the themes are and as well as the setting is presented, the same can’t be said about both of what should be its most important aspects, plot and characters. This is the result of cramming a whole seinen manga composed of chapters which has 40 to 80 pages each, the pacing is a complete mess. And it’s not as if the duration of the movie is too short, quite the opposite actually, with two hours of total screen time, it should have been a proper adaptation, and although lots of important scenes from the manga are present, even the finale which at the time wasn’t even made, the events depicted in the movie takes place one after another with seemingly no connection whatsoever and too fast to the point nothing feels believable. Heck, there’s even a coup d’état which happens in an instant, that’s just dumb.
Stuff happens for the sake of happening and makes you question how can everything happens with such ease, how are the antagonist forces so incompetent, and how is any of this stuff even possible to begin with. And it’s not like the movie have that much happening all the time, there’s quite the downtime where it could explain properly what is happening, why is it happening, and how is it happening, but instead wastes time in dialogues which don’t flesh out the characters nor do they give dynamic and interesting character interactions, thus they don’t serve a purpose in the film.
Even the metaphysical aspect of the movie is not properly explained, Kei gives a very pretentious monologue to Kaneda full of information about it, but when she finally was about to wrap up things and make a point, a freaking flying vehicle comes out of nowhere and chases them until its pilot is knocked out, whenever the movie is about to explain itself, an action scene happens and takes the whole screen time thus making it seem like senseless violence, very graphic violence, I must point out, which does not bother me but can turn off some viewers.
And I just have to point out the plot armor present throughout the whole thing, every random officer gets blown up to pieces in a matter of seconds but Kaneda survives whatever happens with so much ease to the point it becomes ridiculous.
The inconsistent pacing affects even the characters, there’s not much time invested in them thus they are not properly characterized nor explored, they are closer to plot devices than actual people, they have a specific objective (but not a clear goal), and they are proactive and constantly do stuff in order to make them happen, but that’s pretty much it, you know nothing about them and will even have a hard time remembering about them or their names.
The only character who is somewhat explored is Tetsuo, the main antagonist of the flick, he has some sort of inferiority complex, he’s a victim of his rotten society, and there’s a decent attempt at showing the psychological pressure he’s under during the whole thing, result of being manipulated by other psychic kids at first, and of him being consumed by his own powers later on, while his design and attitude change a lot during the movie, making him easily the most memorable character of the bunch. Even so, all of that is presented in a rather rushed way, thus is not very convincing nor does it make much sense. Also is very hard to feel sympathetic for a guy who’s killing people left and right in gory ways while laughing about it before turning into a grotesque monster.
There’s also Akira, the character title, but as I said before, there’s nothing to write about this child, he appears for just a bunch of minutes, makes a giant ball of energy, says something incomprehensible and then disappears while taking away consequences, leaving the spectators confused of what even happened.
Thus, the themes are deep and important, the setting is well presented, the characters are proactive and move the story forward, but when it comes to proper writing and characterization, this flick is mostly a complete mess and all of that ends up being just background decoration for all the very well animated spectacular action and very graphic violence, which is why some people, myself included, refers to this adaptation as just a “cool” summary and not much more.
Speaking of that, if there’s something about the movie that still holds up even today is the visual department, multiple layers of animation, extremely detailed drawings, especially when it comes to backgrounds and machinery, as well as all the graphic content, high frame rate, and even the unprecedented lip sync in japanese animation, which I’m not even sure if it even happened again ever since. All of which being completely hand drawn. It’s still not a flawless aspect since the mouth motions seems weird by now and the characters look all so similar to the point it even becomes confusing and makes you think certain characters are doing the exact opposite of what they want because you mixed them up in your head due to how similar they look to another completely different character. Gender or age don’t matter, every character has the exact same face, although with noticeable differences such as wrinkles and such.
As for the sound department, is also polarizing, the sound effects are superb for its time, and the soundtrack is unique and haunting even to this day, it really sets the mood, fits the setting, gives an eerie atmosphere and get stuck in your head for how unorthodox it is, while also not being weird just for the sake of it, the complete pieces (not fully used in the movie) are complex pieces of work worth listening outside of the flick in which they are used. Unlike other soundtracks which loses appeal when you take them out of its source, this one remains mind blowing and becomes even better when you do that.
The problem with the sound is the voice acting, which is decent at times and plain terrible at others, and I’m talking about the original japanese dub by the way, not the often criticized english dub made at a time when voice acting was kind of a joke of a work no one really cared about. Even in the original dub, the actors sound weird half the time, it kind of fits the atmosphere but that does not take away that it’s still weak as a whole.
So the movie is a well animated summary which remains impactful and very important but only on a superficial level and not so much on a critical level, but what about its source material?
First of all, unlike the movie, every character has a distinctive look which sets them apart from the rest, and the backgrounds and graphic violence are even better than in the anime adaptation, is actually impressive how, with how good the movie looks, the manga manages to be even better, when it comes to drawings, Akira still remains a landmark in the medium.
As for the rest, the pacing is much more appropriate which instantly makes both plot and characters to be way better than they are in the anime. Here you have a clear idea of the context of everything, it is clear what’s happening, why is it happening, and how is happening, everyone’s objective is much more clearer, and their train of thoughts and action makes much more sense, also the downtime serves to expand the scenario and introduce a few more characters that will reappear and have a somewhat important role later on.
Also, Akira appears much sooner in the story, and although he still remains nothing but a plot device with no personality, his apparition and the big event concerning him at the medium of the story makes a big change in the plot, which leads to the conflict expanding in scale to the whole world, more politicians and military forces from the whole world taking part of it, with interesting events happening as a result. Also this leads to more, longer and more epic and brutal confrontations which are also way better shown than in the movie and despite being chaotic on a superficial level, it never feels random or hard to understand, while always depicting the horrors of the whole thing and the casualties it causes.
Another positive thing is having an actual backstory of when, why, and how everything began, as well as a much clearer approach to its metaphysical aspects and ideas about trans humanism and the search for a higher level of human evolution. Also, there are better pseudo-scientific explanations with more properly explained somewhat complicated terminology when talking about weapons, machinery and the energy used in the story, as well as the effects it causes and the scale it has.
As for the characters, they begin as the same archetypes they are in the movie, although with a stronger presence and more personality, and they actually develop throughout the whole manga, due to the major crisis which happens in the middle of the story, their ideals are challenged, they change sides or mix their objectives with new points of view while they form new alliances and they develop different interactions with different characters. In particular, the romantic aspect of the piece, which was very rushed and unconvincing in the movie, has much more time to actually develop in a better way here.
Also, lots of side characters which barely appear in the movie, if they even do, have far more presence and personality while are also proactive and have a personal goal, with a clear conclusion for each one. They also has at least a couple of interesting scenes, dialogues, courses of action, or interactions with the main characters and are not just background decoration or inexistent like in the movie.
With that said, they are not that great either since they still are closer to plot devices with not that much information about them being shown that actual people, with the obvious exception being Tetsuo, the main antagonist. He was the best character in the movie so here he shines even more, his inferiority complex is better explained, he has an actual sad background which left mental scars on him, he goes through a much bigger and way better shown psychological pressure and transformation, as well as a physical deformation much more anticipated than in the movie, it is also even more grotesque, and even more shown. His design also changes during the whole manga, just like in the movie, and he also has much more looked into interactions with both Kaneda and Kaori. He’s still a total threat who does horrible things and pays for them, but now you can feel some sympathy towards him.
But, despite being definitely better than the movie, the manga is not a masterpiece either since it still has some issues, such as:
-There’s still a lot of plot armor in it, Kaneda still survives a lot of things he totally should not. In fact it’s even worse than the movie in this aspect.
-Action scenes are still very unbelievable at times. How are Kaneda and Kei able to take out military soldiers with such ease at their young age is still beyond my comprehension, they also seem to always be able to infiltrate military facilities with relative ease and escape from them without much problem.
-Power scaling. As explained as the energy may be, it still feels like magic most of the time. Also Tetsuo escalates in power to the point it becomes just too much, and Akira is even way stronger because he does not even suffers mentally from using his powers, as Tetsuo does. It becomes quite ridiculous how they are unable to kill the main characters despite how ridiculously powerful they are. Yes, Tetsuo usually goes through a mental breakdown when facing Kaneda, while the latter tends to take him by surprise, and although all that is properly explained, it still feels very convenient for the good guys at times, which means, it worsens the plot armor.
-The previous point leads to another problem which is the finale, although also much better explained than the movie’s (although that isn’t saying much), it still feels kind of like a lazy copout, and although the story reach a satisfactory ending, you feel like there is still room for stuff to happen and things to be covered and shown.
Those issues are still not enough to stain the manga that much, and is still a more polished version of the movie, and a must read piece within the medium to the most part. As for the movie, despite being just a rushed summary, it is still worth watching despite being a product of its time, because it is not outdated nor obsolete. Even if a new anime is produced, covers the whole manga to the end and somehow manages to have a production half as memorable as the one in the movie, it won’t take away its historical importance and cultural impact.
Movie 6/10
Manga 8/10
Recommendations
-Terra e…, the first Choujin Locke, the first Gall Force, Windaria, anime movies from the ‘80s which were also focusing on some aspects present in this movie such as psychic powers, post-apocalyptic settings, military forces confronted, the search for a higher step in human evolution, young ones being affected by the war caused by the governments and its effects, and usually tragic finales.
-Tetsuo the Iron Man, a live action japanese film which also shows a man going crazy due to a physical transformation caused by his contact with technology.
-Shin Godzilla, a live action japanese film which also shows a big threat in the middle of a city and people suffering for it while politicians and militaries take a long time in take action due to bureaucracy and protocols.
-Galerians, a PSX survival horror game very similar to Akira in themes and aesthetics.
