AKIRA

Yes it's that time of year again and upon reviewing my previous post's I have found that I did no special for the Easter holidays. Now, I don't really have anything special planned for today, so I guess I will just review the movie I have for today and next week I'll do something special to commemorate the holiday. Today's review is the ever popular and revolutionary AKIRA.

Not surprising that the film has gained a cult following, by introducing contemporary American audiences to anime, it's groundbreaking animation and design, and it's bizarre story/characters. Many critics and fans alike praise the stunning visuals and incredibly violent action and energy, while others question it's ending and story. I think I find the middle ground in saying that admire it's design and animation, I like the main characters and the action and chase scenes are quite intense. But at the same time I do have some major problems with it.

The story anyway is pretty much a composition of Blade Runner, Tron and X-Men. (When you think about it, a lot of Anime productions are actually based on western sources.) Basically think of a Brave New World if it was flipped on it's head. This Neo-Japan is polluted, corrupt and degraded, the population riot and destroy themselves and crime is at an all time high what with an increase in motorcycle gangs and gang wars. Kaneda leads a gang as they merely loiter and ride around the city. His friend Tetsuo is caught in an accident and is examined by doctor's, who discover a hidden telepathic gene found only in a few humans. From there, Kan meet's a rebel named Kei who helps him rescue his friend, unaware that Tetsuo has grown a bit too dependent on his newly acquired power.

The world that Katsuhiro Otomo creates is vivid and so alive, yet is bleak and disgusting. The fact that humanity could fall so low in a matter of 31 years is somewhat depressing, but the struggle of the government isn't overlooked. That's one of the more intersting factors of this film, where most dystopian futures concentrate mainly on the public, this acknowledges the political aspect of the future. Kan is a likable character with some funny lines and cocky, yet brave attitude. He is definitely an ass for a majority of the film, but as we progress he is certainly developed, from saving his friends to taking on a twenty-story lump of flesh and machine that was once his closest friend. Kei is also interesting as rebel with nothing to loose. As a romantic interest, it's more one sided, as Kan is enamored with her on first glance, while she is more indifferent to him. And speaking of twenty-story monsters, the action in this movie is awesome. This is exactly what I think of when saying Telekinesis is the strongest power in fiction. The film also treats us with tantalizing chase sequences, as we see the damage the youth has the city and likewise on the youth. The film doesn't glorify the violence, it knows the blows hurt and the pain each character have inflicted upon themselves and others.

However, don't think that the film is flawless. There are three major problems I have with this film.

1. The telepathic test subjects are disgusting and annoying. OK, disgusting is a little harsh, but they're not really innocent looking when they look seventy. Also the English dub chose possibly the most irritating voices in America. Also they serve little else to the plot other than try to kill Tetsuo. This leads me onto the next point...
2. The ending. This really took me away from the movie as I literally had to sit back and say, 'What the hell'. It felt like the movie was trying to hard to be deep, when all it should have been trying to do is be a science-fiction, action/adventure. The film was trying to squeeze in it's final morals for the last ten minutes and, to be perfectly frank, it still confuses me.
3. Too much happening. What with all the action, motorbike chases, telepathy rampage and character development, it tried to squeeze in too many characters, ask moral questions about where humanity stands in contrast to these new mutations. I was unable to feel sorry for the deaths of many due to those characters not getting enough screen time. I believe they should have just cut out the whole surreal, mind trip that tried to make the film more adult. I wouldn't mind a more ambiguous ending, but for what we have, it's not the best Anime I have ever seen, but then I still have a lot more anime films to see.