In almost two decades past, the Japanese animated movie titled "Akira" is still a classic. Akira was released in Japan on July 18th, 1988 and would be released to the United States a year later. However, I would not see the movie until I was well into my tenth grade highschool year. As a child, I was very much into Japanese anime or Japanimation but there were hardly any places that sold anime. There was this comic book shop in town that had anime but most of it was "hentai" which is animated porn.
So, I couldn’t rent most of the anime selections until I was eighteen years of age. My best friend who was into his senior year started getting into anime. The first anime that he bought was Akira. He didn’t like it much and he sold it to me for ten dollars. I gladly accepted. At the beginning, I wasn’t able to appreciate Akira much. But once you get older to be in your early to mid-twenties, you grow and develop on an intellectual level.
Akira has an interesting basis with a plotline revolving a turn of events that lead to the damnation of Neo Tokyo. The themes reflect upon post-World War II which is similar to the live action Japanese movie known as Battle Royale. There is the dark side of youth culture with deliquency and constant rebellion against authority. In Battle Royale, the Battle Royale Act is initiated.
In the case of Akira, there are plenty of civil unrest. Street gangs in particularly biker gangs run rampant throughout Neo Tokyo causing anarchy while warring with each other; the two main characters Kaneda and Tetsuo Shima are part of one biker gang that have been warring against another gang called the Clowns. Asides the rioting between rival gangs, there are constant riots between anti-government protestors and the military/police forces. There are mass acts of terrorism against the city of Neo Tokyo. Then there is another faction, the cult of Akira.
Katsuhiro Otomo has done a good job giving a very structured storyline that would surely be disjointed with all the chaos taking place within Akira. You have the biker gangs, juvenile deliquency, protesting, rioting, terrorists, and cult activity all nicely packaged into this great anime. To top that off, you have the Supreme Executive Council filled with corrupt bureaucrats who just want to get rich while they leave Neo Tokyo to despair. In a sense, it mirrors the current administration of the United States implemented by George W. Bush.
Otomo has turned the main story of Akira into three separate stories revolving around three characters as their storylines merge together at the climatic end of the movie. Shotaro Kaneda the leader of the biker gang meets up with the only surviving member of this terrorist cell named Kei. Tetsuo is coping with the fact where he has developed telepathy and is bent on discovering what Akira is at the same time driving a wedge in his friendship with Kaneda especially when it comes to Kaneda’s bike. And there’s Colonel Shikishima the head of the military and police who happens to be the only honest member of the SEC, his storyline is trying to maintain control and deal with his corrupt counterparts.
Overall, it has a pretty deep storyline. The SEC is pretty similar to Kaufman’s administration in George Romero’s "Land of the Dead" movie. If anybody has seen both Akira and Land of the Dead should understand the similarities.
It’s a good movie but not one to show to little kids because of the profanity and constant violence taking place. Akira definitely does a good job building up the excitement and hits the climax at the right point.
I do not have the 2001 version of Akira but I do have the 1989 dubbed version. In the 1989 version, Cam Clarke under the pseudonym of Jimmy Flinders voices Kaneda. Anybody familiar with Clarke’s voice work should remember him as the voice of Liquid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. The 2001 version has former Power Ranger actor Johnny Young Bosch doing the voice of Kaneda.
For anybody that appreciates Akira should also watch Otomo’s other work known as "Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade".
July of next year will mark the twentieth anniversary of Akira’s original release in 1988. Almost twenty years have passed and Akira remains a classic. It’s a great movie which something for everybody. Anybody majoring in history, mythology, politics, and/or theology can definitely appreciate the themes and implications.
For anybody that loves anime, one should watch Akira. I still have my copy of Akira on VHS and definitely will not part with it.