AKIRA

Genre: Foreign/Anime

Release Date: 1988

Runtime: 124 minutes

For those of you who want more Japanese people screaming japanese as buildings are destroyed and the general populous of Tokyo is maimed, Akira is the film for you.  Don't worry about the political correctness of that statement, I took a class on the Asian-American experience in college so we're good to go.  

But seriously, if you enjoy anime, sci-fi, fantasy, or any sort of futuristic action thrillers (Can you say Total Recall?), this is probably a good choice.  If you're curious about anime this movie is especially worthwhile because it is one of the first and probably one of the most famous anime flicks around (We're talking an onto the scene catapult here).  While some people dislike anime because it's generally viewed as the stuff of Saturday morning television (Pokemon) and late night college stoner television (Cowboy Bebop, Drangonball Z, Gundam Wing), the movie actually brings up some worthwhile stuff.  Also, some people get turned off by the whole subtitles thing, not to worry, if you obtain the special edition it is dubbed (so you can watched horribly mismatched speech with wide open anime mouths - once again, ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE - actually that's not even the case it's fairly realistic as far as speaking animation goes).  So the main point here is, it's a legitimate future type action flick with really cool animation, available to you in English.

So to give some pretext for the movie without trying to reveal any of the plot, the movie begins in a Neo-Tokyo set in 2019,  30 years after world war 3.  The movie deals with what happens when a power so great man cannot harness it is unleashed.

Now, given my semester of Intro to Japanese Culture (B+ baby), I'm going to go ahead and consider myself an expert on modern Japanese anime films and their cultural context.  The coolest theme I thought the movie had going for it was the idea of what will happen when man discovers power greater than his own, and how it will be handled.  It's an interesting concept, and certainly very thought provoking.  As far as the technology of warfare goes, the recurring sci-fi theme is that of either general world peace or the more popular mutually assured destruction.  And none have had a more immediate experience with the horrifyingly apocalyptic direction of warfare technology than the Japanese.  You talk about devastating, the atom bomb made the end of the world/humanity a very real scenario for the Japanese.  Which gave them the tools for a movie set in a hedonistic post world war 3, a corrupt society with little direction and lots of technology.  And it turns out they make good storytellers when it comes to sci-fi's ominous prediction for the future of man.

Besides the heavy themes addressed by the movie, it's also easy to sit back and watch - the artists depictions of Neo-Tokyo are incredibly detailed, and the animation style is an interesting and very open ended approach that leads to some very cool shots and some pretty epic scenes.  The music soundtrack is pretty remarkable and well fitting, keeping the pace going for the ever snowballing plot.  Even the characters are well placed:  The young gang of teenagers with their sweet high speed motorcycles aptly characterize a society headed towards almost certain disaster.  One thing is for sure: it's definitely a very cool movie to watch if you enjoy animated films.  It's certainly refreshing after numerous computer made pixar films (Granted, Wall-E was the bomb).

No film is perfect, however, there's really not that much in the way of character development.  One might argue that there doesn't have to be; typically with anime the role of a character is signified by the way he or she is depicted in the illustration.  For example, older looking characters are typically always wiser, more muscular characters are battle ready leaders, etc.  But the movie does trade time to develop characters for more action and plot development.  You may find yourself getting tired watching more and more shooting and generally excessive violence.  

However, I did think that on the whole it was a pretty cool flick.  In it's own right, and for it's class, it's one of the best.  But this movie is probably not for those who appreciate, say, a drama with an intricate web of character personalities and interactions.  It all depends on what you are looking for.  Which is hopefully why you're reading this; to find out.  As far as the ending goes, it's open to interpretation - you'll probably either love it or hate it, that's all I care to venture there.

I give it a $9.50.  I would've seen this guy when it came out.  But I'm kind of a nerd, so who knows.