370. Akira; movie review

 

AKIRA

Cert 15

124 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong language, bloody violence, sexual violence

Today, I called Master W to glean his verdict on the re-release of Akira, the movie deemed responsible for the wave of anime hits from Japan.

We spoke about it for a while then I did a quick scan of my archive and discovered we had exactly the same chat about it in 2013!!

Not only had I forgotten watching it then but also two years previously!

The only element I missed in my review of the time was the fact that Otomo's movie is set in 2019 - a year before the Tokyo Olympics which appear unlikely to happen because of extraneous forces!

I wonder who the clairvoyant was.

Anyway, here is a tidy-up of my 2013 review. It says pretty much all I would have done in 2020.

I have marked it down a mark because I clearly found it unmemorable.

"Oh, manga and anime expert'', I texted Master W, "what do you know about Akira?"

 "I know it's massively popular and I quite enjoyed it. About a guy in the future...can't quite remember the storyline, though.'' 

Pah. My admiration for my son's knowledge of Japanese animation evaporated. 

He claims to have been a big fan in his university days but not knowing Akira intimately is, I suspect, akin to a self-proclaimed James Bond nut not being intimate with Ursula Andress's bikini. 

Wikipedia tells me what I already knew - that Akira is not only a cult classic but is widely thought to have been a landmark in this art which is very individual to Japan. 

Katsuhiro Otomo's movie has been re-released to mark its 25th anniversary and I was eager to find what had inspired such a following. 

But I suspect it would have had a much greater impact on me if I had seen it in 1988 (when I was 25). 

At my age, violent cartoons about biker gangs and psychic phenomena that threaten the world resonate rather less. 

The story, for what I could fathom, is set post world war III when lawlessness is rife in a dangerous suburb of Tokyo. 

Gangs on bikes fight for the right to be called top dog and one of them is led by a tough teenager called Kaneda (voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch). 

One night his less confident best pal, Tetsuo (Joshua Seth), crashes into a strange young boy and automatically inherits telekinetic powers. 

These, if they are used wrongly, could threaten earth's very existence and release the all-powerful Akira. And so follow huge battle scenes where blood spurts like paint being thrown on a canvas by an abstract artist and buildings tumble as if in the planet's biggest earthquake. 

I tried my absolute best to follow the intricacies of the plot but, if I am honest, I came up short. 

I suspect I needed to be a keener student of manga and its film version, anime.

However, I had to admire the scale and ferocity of it all. Thus, from the film-making perspective, I was glad I ticked it off. 

It is a genre in which I have dabbled before but  I am far from an expert and I suspect I never will be. However, I know its fans will lap this re-release up.

Reasons to watch: Anime classic

Reasons to avoid: Too complicated for a simple soul like me

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: Yes

Overall rating: 5/10

Did you know? The movie consists of 2,212 shots and 160,000 single pictures which are up to three times more than normal. It also used 327 different colours which is a record for animated films. Fifty of those colours were exclusively created for the film. The reason is that most of the movie takes place at night, traditionally avoided by animators because of the increased colour requirements.

The final word. Katsuhiro Otomo: "When I saw the first rush of the movie version of Akira I thought it would be a failure. I left the theatre very quickly and came back home to tell my wife that the movie was a failure. This was because I thought the first half was good but because the time and budget were limited, with so many cuts, the quality dropped as the story developed." Forbes

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