PP Movie Review: Akira 1988

This movie review brought to you by Moonlight Mango and the Passenger Princess. She’s been binging classic movies all summer, so we wanted to learn more about a cult classic from rose colored shades…

(Toho, 1987)

This past week I got a chance to watch the classic 1988 sci-fi anime film Akira and I will be sharing my opinions with this review. But before we get into my thoughts, let me summarize what the film is about. Akira is based on the 1982 manga of the same name created by the film’s director Katsuhiro Otomo. The story takes place in 2019 Neo-Tokyo where delinquent biker Tetsuo Shima is discovered to have powerful telekinetic abilities after he collides his motorcycle into a younger esper who was kidnapped from a government lab. Once the military took the two kids into custody, the scientist discovers that Tetsuo’s abilities are similar to another child esper named Akira who destroyed Tokyo in 1988. It didn’t take them long to realize that Tokyo could once again face the same destructive fate, but this time at the hands of Tetsuo. Once Tetsuo begins his rampage on Neo-Tokyo, his best friend Kaneda Shotaro takes the lead in trying to stop him. After watching this film twice, I decided to give it a final rating of 7/10 and will explain why with my thoughts below.

I first heard about Akira through a clip posted to TikTok where Tetsuo first loses control of his mind when he says “Leave me alone!” and visions of Akira start to flash in his head along with the sounds of the psychic children calling Akira's name. Now that I have more context from that clip, it’s more disturbing than it is funny. Right after this scene we see the grotesque hallucination of Tetsuo spilling his organs. Another disturbing scene was at the end of the film when Tetsuo’s body continuously grows into large, overflowing amounts of flesh that take the shape of a baby. I’ve seen other late 80’s anime that had a lot of gore, but by far this one was the most graphic for me. I feel like I saw more guts than blood. Between the disturbing graphics, nonstop carnage and the psychic children resembling zombies, the film started to feel somewhat like a horror movie. But it was more gross than it was horrifying, so I get why Akira wasn’t placed in the horror category.

But of course there were things that were more aesthetically pleasing, starting off with the film’s poster. Before I watched the movie or read the plot summary, I found the artwork intriguing. It made me think, “Maybe this is the part where he finishes fighting off bad guys and walks to his bike so he can ride off into the sunset”. At least I was somewhat correct about the last part. Another part was where six minutes into the movie you see Kaneda and one of the Clown gang members speed past each other in opposite directions. First the rival gang member loses control and falls off his bike. However, Kaneda was able to stop his bike with a smooth slide, creating the dope shot you can see above. This iconic scene has been referenced in many different anime, cartoons and music videos since the release of this movie. It was very impressive how a young teenage Kaneda was able to handle his motorcycle like an older pro. Even though Kaneda implied that the bike was stolen, in that scene he proved how the bike was made just for him. Tetsuo was so impressed with the bike that it was stolen again by him later in the movie. I think he wanted to look as cool as Kaneda did. The ages of the boys weren’t specified in the film, but their teacher stated that they were all under 15. I guess at that age, boys do take interest in motorcycles and cars and feel the need to imitate the people who inspired them to take on those interests. And of course other boys the same age as them will share that common fascination, leading to them forming clubs or gangs like they did in this film. Similar to how adults will join bike and car clubs since that helps them bond and form connections with other people.  

Otomo, Katsuhiro 

Next I want to discuss who Kaneda is as a person. In my opinion, Kaneda was always a true friend to Tetsuo. Even though Tetsuo hated being bossed around, Kaneda always looked out for him. When they first met as younger boys at the children’s home they stayed in and Tetsuo was being bullied, Kaneda was there to comfort him. From there on he became a big brother figure to Tetsuo. Right after the crash that awakened Tetsuo’s psychic abilities, Kaneda spoke up for him when the military was about to send Tetsuo away to the research facility. Kaneda basically said they didn’t have the right to kidnap a minor and subject him to scientific experimentation. Even if he didn’t exactly know what was going to happen once Tetsuo got to the research facility, to me that scene implied that Kaneda knew they were up to no good. Kaneda and his biker gang may have been going down the wrong path with bad decisions they’ve always made, but Kaneda was still able to make the right decision by trying to stop his best friend from destroying Neo-Tokyo. Even after Tetsuo let his power get to his head, killing Yamagata, and attempting to kill Kaneda, Kaneda still tried to save him. His good heart was the reason why he never stopped protecting Tetsuo. 

To be honest, it was hard to follow the plot the first time I watched it all the way through because some important details weren’t explained clearly. I got a better understanding of the story after rewatching it and reviewing breakdown videos and article summaries. What I was able to realize on my own was that all the kids with psychic abilities didn’t have a real childhood. They were all taken advantage of by the scientists, cultists and politicians who wanted the kids’ power for their own personal gain. It didn’t matter to the adults if their desire cost the children their lives, hence what happened to Akira and Tetsuo. While everyone else will only remember the destruction Tetsuo caused, he will still be remembered as the human he was by Kaneda. Overall I think Akira was a good film. I felt that the story was sad but yet still important to follow. The film had an impressive animation style that stands out from other late 80’s anime. Aside from the blood and guts, I enjoyed the action and motorcycle sequences. I don’t see this film as being one of my favorite retro anime films as of yet, but I would still recommend it to someone who enjoys the dystopian genre, great action and being able to find the deeper meaning within the story.