Probably the most iconic animated movie ever. I dont particular like animated movies but this just is impossible to skip, the lightning, the setting, the hybrid story of the manga AKIRA is just super well done. The music is just out of this world, it represents the felling that you would experience if you were on the movie. Classic is just the word that comes to my mind, is a movie that should be passed from generations to generationsa. The songs just get stuck in yout mind. And if i ever get stuck on an apocalipse i will listen to the soundtrack(and some john murphy songs in 28 days later and and sunshine that are on my top ever movies)and enjoy every second of existence. This soundtrack is incredible.

Garnering a title such as that automatically inserts high expectations upon everyone. Well, from what I just witnessed, it pretty much floored me. Two school drop outs, Kaneda and Tetsuo, discover that the government are creating weaponised telekinetic humans where the latter becomes experimented on himself. It soon comes into motion that they've unleashed a power of cataclysmic proportions that cannot be stopped. Thirty years since its release, three decades since it took the world by storm and popularised anime in western culture. It is, without a doubt, an incredibly entertaining cyberpunk showstopper. For director Otomo to perfectly balance the political agendas of anarchy, capitalism and revolutions with existential themes of religion and creationism, is pure genius. To blend these ancient and modern ideologies and amalgamate them to populate a futuristic dystopian environment, again, is pure genius. Not only does he stop there. Intricately adding exhilarating action sequences bolstered by characters teeming with excitable personalities to create what I can simply describe as anime's greatest blockbuster. Wow. It hasn't aged at all. The animation is gorgeous, Neo-Tokyo looked awe-inspiring and the inventive imagery was stunning. Tetsuo's nightmarish fantasies surprisingly stunned me, the ominous images of giant toys have mentally scarred me. The visceral violence, the excessive use of gore and the usage of profanity enhances the overall edginess. Way ahead of its time, that's for sure. Yet beneath the visual splendour lies a melancholic story of a friendship being tarnished by corruption. You feel for both Tetsuo and Kaneda, two central characters that are exquisitely developed. The third act involving Akira did escalate to absurd levels of craziness, which detracted from the realism of the story. Also some of the scene transitions were abruptly cut. However, very small nitpicks. Akira may not be the best anime feature film I've seen, but it certainly has justified its status as the most influential.

It's not for me. I can see why this appeals to so many people, the animation is fantastic for an older film, but it doesn't appeal much to me. It's depressing and too dark, and the biggest gripe I had was the blink-and-you-miss it appearance of the title character. Sure they yammer about Akira the whole movie but you barely see him at all. If you're going to name the entire movie after a character, why make it one that only appears for what amounts to the last four minutes of the movie? In my opinion he may as well not have even been in the movie. While in the same vein, how about how Tetsuo's powers appear? So let me get this straight, he almost runs over a gargoyle-like psychic with a motorcycle, who blows up said motorcycle the moment before he gets hit to escape unscathed while leaving Tetsuo half dead in the road, and somewhere in the intermediary between those two events he gets powers. SOMEHOW. So in this universe the easiest way to get psychic powers is to lurk around government facilities and commit vehicular manslaughter?I didn't like the characters much either. They were street thugs, I get it, but think about it. If they weren't jerks, Tetsuo wouldn't have been out wrecking stuff with the rest of the gang, and therefore wouldn't have almost killed the gargoyle, and no one would have died. Literally the only reason that anything happens is that Tetsuo and his friends are violent destructive heathens! Upon reflection I don't really find anything likeable in any of the main characters aside from the psychics. They were just fine in my opinion, although the voice actors were a little flat in my opinion.That's not to say that it's a bad movie. Far from it, it is exceptionally well made. It does its job of being a dark, gritty anime, with no detail spared. The characters react as expected, given their characters, and they do feel believable. But the bleak downward spiral ending in Tokyo turning into a crater is just to dark for me to find any appeal in.. I honestly do see why people love this film, but I personally find it hard to find any appeal in.

Akira is a great film that balances gore, sci-fi action, horror and disturbing images. And thats all you need to know. And then there is neo tokyo the amazing city filled with life and all of the action. And Keneda (The main leader of a biker gang) has to take on something ( no spoilers ) but i cant say any more you have to watch it because it is amazing.