AbAbsolute_Spider
February 9, 2015
Recommended
Akira is a 1988 Japanese Animated film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo based on Otomo’s manga of the same name. In the year 1988 a mysterious explosion destroys Tokyo while supposedly also causing World War III. 31 years later, in the year 2019, a new city, entitled Neo-Tokyo, is built which is in a state of constant chaos due to constant skirmishes between rival biker gangs as well as barrages of anti-government attacks carried out by various revolutionary groups. This is the stetting of Akira. Within this setting the plot focuses on two major characters. Shotaro Kaneda, the arrogant leader of a biker gang, and his childhood friend/rival,Tetsuo Shima, who throughout the film develops strange psychic powers that are frighteningly powerful and prove to cause much destruction.
The first thing that most people will probably notice is the animation of this film because it is of an extremely high quality. Japanese animation, or anime as most people call it, is sometimes criticized for having “limited animation”. Japanese animators generally don’t aim for the same fluidity of motion that, say, American animators usually do. Plus they are often guilty of cutting corners by doing things such as giving characters static faces while they are talking. To be fair though the art in a lot of anime is usually a bit more detailed than what is usually seen in American animation. With that said however none of these criticisms can be applied to Akira because every scene has extremely detailed and fluid animation that, in my opinion at least, rivals that of Disney. If someone asked me to show him or her the animation of Akira I would show a river because that is how fluid it is.
One reason why the animation is especially impressive is due to the fact that a majority of the film takes place at night. Now this might not seem like a significant point to some so let me explain. Similar to those who work on shooting live action films, animators, while working on scenes that take place at night, have to deal with lighting, or at least with presenting the illusion of lighting. This is something that can lead to animation becoming more complicated since, not only do animators have to worry about drawing shadows in realistic ways, they also have to use more colors in order to make everything fit in with the supposed lighting in scenes. It is for this reason that many animators try to avoid doing scenes that take place at night. But rather than taking the easy way out the animators working on Akira toughed it out and made sure that every scene at night was colored in a way that gave the illusion of realistic lighting and the results are truly astounding. It is for this reason that I have the upmost respect for those who worked on animating this beast.
In fact it is because of the animation that I recommend watching this film with the Japanese voices, even if you prefer to watch anime with English dubbing. This is not because the English dubbings available are bad per say, it is just that Akira is a very special case. For almost all anime the animation is finished before all the dialogue is recorded. What this means is that the animation for the mouths in anime aren’t done in a way that follows the delivery given by the voice actors. Instead the animation is usually edited after the voices are recorded so that the mouths move within the time in which voices are heard. This means that mouths will just open and close during certain intervals. Because of this it generally isn’t that jarring to watch an anime with an English dubbing since the Japanese voices wouldn’t really fit the animation for the mouths either. With Akira however the Japanese voices were recorded beforehand so the animators were able to animate the mouths so that they follow the delivery of the Japanese voice actors. For that reason alone I believe that everyone should watch this film with the Japanese audio since it not only will fit the visuals, but it will also allow viewers to really appreciate the extra bit of effort that the animators put into the mouths.
And while I’m on the topic of audio let me just say that the soundtrack by Shoji Yamashiro is pretty amazing. Many of the tracks have a unique combination of techno, traditional Asian instruments, and distorted singing/chanting. This ultimately culminates to create music that is intense enough to accentuate a lot of the chaos that ends up happening on screen while also sounding very unique. Although it should be noted that there are one or two somber tracks that do help calm down the mood on the rare occasion that the film decides to take a breather.
While Akira might stand out from its peers because of the technical quality of its animation, the animation is not the only reason why the film is well known among otaku. The other, and possibly more significant, reason why Akira stands out from its fellow animated brethren is due to its level of violence. In the years that I have been watching animated works there are few non-exploitation anime and films in general that approach the sheer amount of violence that Akira showcases. At times it seems like the film can’t go five minutes without having some violent act taking place, weather it be an explosion, a bout between rival biker gangs, governmental forces gunning down rebellious citizens, or Testuo using his powers to plaster the ground with someone else’s guts. But while the violence might seem a bit gratuitous to some, I actually think it is an ultimately positive aspect of the film. Neo-Tokyo is supposed to be a chaotic and brutal city and if people weren’t getting beaten and murdered left and right then the city would hardly seem as brutal as it does within the film. Plus it also does good job of making the audience never get too comfortable during the intense action scenes since you are always aware that death is never far away from anyone who lives in Neo-Tokyo.
Even though Akira is a very unique and technically impressive film, is isn’t without some flaws. The film is a 2-hour adaptation of an over 2000-page manga and while the film does manage to condense the central plot into the allotted run time, this does seem to present a few issues. First of all, since the film has to cover a lot of material in a relatively short amount of time the pacing is really jacked up. I can really only think of two or three scenes in which the audience is really given a scene devoid of either really exciting action or plot exposition. Now while some might argue that this is a good thing since it means that the film never gets boring, it is also a factor that may serve to confuse some viewers.
Now while I am a firm believer that the majority of scenes in a film should serve to move the story along, at least when talking about plot-driven films, I do recognize the need for quiet time where not much is happening. While these scenes might seem boring and meaningless to some, I believe they can serve an important purpose within many films and stories. They give the audience a chance to take a breather so that they don’t get overwhelmed with plot details or action as well as giving them a chance to reflect on what has happened thus far. But in Akira it seems that almost every scene has characters either spouting plot exposition or participating in some really intense and really bloody violence. This means that the viewer can’t really take time to think about what they had just seen, since there aren’t any scenes that don’t serve to either put the characters in danger or move the plot along. This can be seen as an especially big problem for Akira since many may be tempted to step away from the plot to just admire the fluidity of the animation or the extremely beautiful and densely detailed backgrounds. This is probably one of the major reasons why I see a lot of people call the film confusing. It also doesn’t help that some of the dialogue is a bit more cryptic than it needs to be.
Also, the film doesn’t address some details with the amount of explanation that some may desire. For example, within the film there are a number of people who are fighting the government in a revolutionary movement. While the government of Neo-Tokyo is shown to be rather inept in a few scenes of the film, it is never really explained why people are so angry with the government. Many other details like this such as the affect that World War III on the world, the nature of Tetsuo’s powers, and where these angst-ridden teenagers go when they aren’t hanging out with each other go on unexplained. While I’m sure some won’t mind, I know I certainly didn’t when I watched this film for the first time, I recognize that some may get annoyed with the lack of explanation that the film gives pertaining to some details. While I would’ve hated it if this film were to be bogged down by too much exposition I feel that the film would have been improved if some of these topics were more thoroughly explored. At the very least it would have given the world of the film more depth. Plus it is not like Katsuhiro Otomo didn’t write this story without thinking a lot of this though. Having read it in its entirety, I can truthfully say that the manga did go more in depth with certain aspects of the plot, such as the anti-government movement that various characters are a part of. This leads me to believe that the reason why a lot of things in the film were left unexplained was more due to time constraints than lazy writing. Personally, even though I am usually a strong opponent of people splitting up stories into parts, I believe that the plot of Akira might have been better if it was split between two films. This would have allowed Otomo to provide the audience more calm and soothing scenes, while also providing time to add more depth to the world.
And for my last form of criticism I will just warn people that at a few moments during the third act of the film the dialogue devolves into characters just screaming each other’s names really loudly.
But while these things are certainly flaws, I can’t ignore that they somewhat serve as a double-edged sword. While the unrelenting pace and lack of explanation might serve to confuse and aggravate some viewers, I can’t deny that they also make the film seem even more chaotic. The most common tagline that I’ve seen in promotional material for Akira is “Neo-Tokyo is about to explode”. This tagline I feel perfectly encapsulates the feeling that the setting gives off. Saying that Neo-Tokyo is about to explode suggests that things are building up, that the city is practically bursting with problems and its soon gonna let it all out in a glorious explosion. In a sense the plot and pacing reflects this very chaotic feeling. Within the film the viewer is shown countless problems which are plaguing Neo-Tokyo. These include, but are not limited to, gang violence, poor education, trigger-happy government forces, trigger-happy revolutionary forces, as well as a government in which nothing ever gets done. While the scatterbrain way that the film decides to show the audience all these problems certainly do hurt the plot, at least in my opinion, I also feel they help the setting seem even more doomed. The kinetic pacing of the film as well as the sheer amount of the problems it shows suggests to the viewer that Neo-Tokyo is a city full of problems that no one really has time to solve. The fact that said problems aren’t really ever given full explanations ultimately hinders the audience’s ability to think up solutions to these problems thus they reach a sort of unsolvable status within the minds of viewers. This all ends up making Neo-Tokyo seem all the more ugly and all the more hopeless. In no way am I saying that these points make up for the ways that the flaws within the writing detract from the film’s quality. I’m just saying that it is flawed in a way that does help reinforce some ideas about the film’s setting. Neo-Tokyo was a city built to help Japanese citizens deal with the destruction of Tokyo. It is then is ironic that it seems to be a city constantly on the brink of destruction, at least as it exists within the year of 2019. But while it is a setting that is constantly in a state of turmoil, I am still able to find things to enjoy every time I visit.
While the screenplay might be badly written in terms of plot, it does a surprisingly good job with creating sympathy for the protagonists of the film. I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t too fond on a lot of the characters when I was first watching this film a few years ago. Kaneda, Testuo, and friends seemed like completely unlikeable violent and arrogant teenaged boys who liked to spend all their time hitting rival bikers with steel pipes. But as the film goes on and you learn more about these character’s pasts and their environment, you begin to feel bad for them. While you may be repulsed by their violent tendencies, you realize that these are kids who had to deal with living in the horrible dump that is Neo-Tokyo. Thus they had to deal with all the problems and oppression of the city has while growing up. Because of this, I at least, gained a strange understanding for the anti-authoritative attitude as well as a strange sort of sympathy for the characters. There are also a fair amount of scenes within the film that really show that these characters have a sense of camaraderie and that they actually do care about each other. This in turn makes it easier for the audience to care about them since most of the characters all seem to put at least some significance on each other’s lives. It is also easy to feel bad for these characters since they end up getting involved in a lot of conflicts that they don’t personally want to being in and then just end up suffering because of it. Kaneda gets involved with an anti-government group not because he actually believes in their cause. Rather he just joining them because the government has taken Tetsuo away from him and he believes that following the group will allow him to protect his friend. Similarly, Testuo never really chose to get psychic powers, he just sort of got them and because of that scientists take possession of him so that they can study him. Inevitably these powers end up causing harm to his mental state, his physical state, and the lives of those around him and in that sense his character is extremely tragic. By the last third of the film, despite the fact that I found both characters to be unlikeable at first, I had quite a bit of sympathy for both Kaneda and Testuo and was really rooting for both of them to reach a happy conclusion. This in the end makes it all the more sad when the tragic and self-destructive aspects of their friendship become more apparent. I must also admit that part of the reason that I was able to feel sympathetic towards these teenagers was partially due to the character design. There is just something about the art, probably the more roundish heads, which make the characters seem more juvenile and thus easier to feel sympathy towards, since you think, well they probably don’t know any better. While Akira’s violence might make it seem like it doesn’t value human life all that much, it’s characters do ultimately give the film a sad emotional core.
Now before I begin to wrap this review up I cannot forget to mention the significance of his film. Akira was the film that introduced a lot of Americans to Japanese anime and it is likely that if the film was never made and was never release on home video in America, the international anime fan community would never be as big as it is today. Plus, while Akira was certainly a landmark in terms of Japanese animation, one can see its influence on many American films such as Chronicle and The Matrix. Akira might not be quite great enough to be considered a masterpiece but it has certainly left an impression on culture, or at least the nerdy side of culture, which can still be felt today. Also I must say that the film has what might be the most epic and craziest climaxes that I have ever seen. In fact, I would say that the climax alone makes watching the film a worthwhile endeavor, at least if you aren’t particularly squeamish.
Akira is a film about a lot of things but above all it is a film about destruction. Within the film one can witness the destruction of many human lives, of body parts, of friendships, of cities, of governments, and of societies. Heck, some might even argue that while watching, you can see the film’s plot get destroyed before your very eyes. Yet it is ironic how a film about so much destruction was able to lead to the production of so much beautiful animation, to the creation of some very real and sympathetic characters, as well as, arguably, an entire international community of fans. Perhaps like the phoenix, Akira is a film that proves that new life and thoughts can be born out of death and destruction. Akira is not a perfect film. It’s writing is too flawed for me to give it that high of praise. What Akira really is though is a thrilling, destructive, bloody, and melancholic roller coaster ride and while it may be a ride that is held together by duck tape and staples, it is one that I thoroughly enjoy every time I experience it.
