AKIRA A Film Review by Jon Turner Posted 5/14/00
Rating: ***1/2 out of *****
Review: Many, many fans of Japanese animation, consider AKIRA, an animated adaption of the comic-book of the same title, at the time, to be one of the finest animated films to come from the land of the Rising Sun. Strangely, however, it took me more than two viewings for me to get the message surrounding this movie.
The story of how I saw the film begins in the summer of 1995, when I was 13 years old. At the time, I was very interested in products that had come from Japan. I had owned a couple of videogame soundtracks, and was very fond of Kitaro. I was interested what Japnaese film scores was like. That was when I brought the soundtrack album to AKIRA. It was arguably one of the most impressive soundtracks I have ever heard. Its mixture of synthesizer samples, vocal chanting, and percussive instruments made it an experience unlike any I've heard. I was interested in seeing the film.
A few days later, I rented the movie from Palmer Video (This was a bad mistake on my part, as my parents, at the time, did NOT permit me to watch movies restricted for a mature audience, unless I had their approval. In addition, the video cover had NO warning that it was NOT FOR KIDS.) I had no idea how extremely dark (and violent) AKIRA was, nor was I really much of an Anime fan (The only Anime I had seen, up until watching AKIRA, were THE BRAVE FROG, and WINDARIA. Okay, I also saw THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE as well, and I guess LITTLE NEMO: ADVENTURES IN SLUMBERLAND can be counted as some other examples. I had also seen SECRET OF THE SEAL, SWAN LAKE, PUSS ‘N BOOTS, SECRET OF THE SEAL, and THE WIZARD OF OZ. Years later, after AKIRA, around 1998, I saw the FINAL FANTASY Anime, and after that, the fabulous ***** KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, and I had become somewhat involved in this totally different genre of animation since then. I know this seems like a bore, but I thought that you probably might wanna know that about me).
So why was I both baffled and sick to my stomach after watching AKIRA?
Well, for starters, the storyline is SO complicated, I literally had to check every source available to understand it. However, from a visit to the AKIRA ONLY website online, I was able to read (and download here) the storyline for AKIRA. It takes a strong mind to truly understand what is going on if you don't have a clue what the storyline is, or even read the comic book which this film is based on. In addition, AKIRA is jampacked – and I really do mean JAMPACKED – with an extreme amount of violence (as you will probably tell from reading the synopsis of the film)
So, if you're one of those people who saw the film and was baffled by the storyline, feel free to read on. If you are not, be careful, because the following *does* contain some spoilers (a thing I tend to give with my reviews). Don't say I didn't warn you…
That said, this is how the story goes, as written by Matthew Zell for the 1989 Capricorn Anime Guide (Note that I've downloaded this article from the AKIRA ONLY website, made a few changes, and added in some extra comments, for a more entertaining, or perhaps gruesome, reading experience.):
The film opens with a helicopter shot of Tokyo, on July 16, 1988. Flash forward to 2019, after World War III (something I hope we never have), where Tokyo had been completely destroyed. Neo-Tokyo is constructed around the remains of Tokyo – a crater which was caused by (presumably) the dropping of a destructive bomb.
Next, we meet the story's protagonist, Kaneda, and his friends, a bunch of juvenile delinquents. They are bikers locked in a violent battle between a rival group of bikers, called the clowns. As they ride off into the night to continue their battle (one of the most exciting scenes in the film), a man holding what looks like a 100-year-old child attempts, unsuccessfully, to elude the police. When the man is shot and killed, the child, named Takashi, screams and shatters the buildings around him. The child escapes in the confusion while Kay and Ryu, the dead man's friends, watch in amazement. The Colonel sets out with Masaru, another of these strange children, to find Takashi. While rioting crowds are subdued by the police with tear gas, Kaneda's rumble continues. Tetsuo takes the lead and, after disposing of his opponents, nearly has a collision with Takashi. Tetsuo's bike suddenly explodes. First Kaneda, then the Colonel arrive. Takashi and Tetsuo are taken while the rest of the bikers are arrested.
While Kaneda and his friends are being processed, he notices Kay's picture in a book of wanted criminals. After his interview, Kaneda spots Kay, who has yet to be processed, in the hallway. He manages to convince the officer to let him take her with him. Kaneda is beginnning to introduce himself when Kay spots Ryu, who has also been arrested. She eludes Kaneda so she can help her friend escape.
While analyzing him, the army doctors discover that Tetsuo's mind is psychically active. The Colonel orders Tetsuo to be held and taught to develop his power.
We then discover that Kaneda and his friends are now attending some sort of juvenile school. In this sequence, we see a teacher punching each of the bikers as he yells `Shut up!' at each of them. Afterwords, the bikers shout some really PROFANE insults towards the teacher, which I won't even bother to go into detail about. (Upon viewing this sequence to my mother, along with the scene where the doctors are examining Tetsuo, she found it to be really disturbing. I can't say I blame her.) After that, Kaneda and his friends are joined by their girlfriends. Tetsuo's girlfriend, Kaori, asks where her boyfriend is, but Kaneda can only tell her that the army took him.
Later that night, Tetsuo escapes and meets Kaori, and they talk about going someplace far away. Apparently, Tetsuo has had enough of the torture he's going through at the hospital, and so, next day, he and Kaori steal Kaneda's bike and go for a ride. They are spotted by the Clowns and pursued. Tetsuo and Kaori are both caught and tortured (This sequence involves Kaori getting her front shirt ripped off where we see her front breasts. Why did they have to include this brief, but short, sexual attack in this scene? It's pointless, and it doesn't really do much of anything to tell the story, much less explain what's going on.) but fortunately, Kaneda and his friends show up before anything happens. They capture one of the bikers, and Tetsuo beats him to death. Kaneda tries to stop his friend before he kills the guy. Tetsuo whirls on him and demands to know why Kaneda didn't help him escape from the hospital. It is here that we start to see a change in Tetsuo, as he screams out at Kaneda and his friends, `You think I'm a loser! It's not my fault I was smaller! Well there will come a day when I'll show all of you! Don't you forget it!' Suddenly, upon hearing a voice say `Akira!', Tetsuo suffers from a strange fit, and as a result we see some more grotesque images here; one of which involves bloody guts of some sort spilling out of Tetsuo's chest(!). During all this, Tetsuo says, in bitter agony, `I'VE GOT AKIRA!!!'. The army shows up and carries him off again.
Later Kaneda sees Ryu and Kay after they have performed an act of terrorism. He follows and helps Kay elude her army pursuers.
While Tetsuo suffers nightmares in the hospital, yet another one of these strange children meets the Colonel. The girl, Kyoko, says she had a dream in which she forsaw that Akira will awaken very soon. This prompts the general to pay a visit to Akira, who is frozen at 5 degrees Kelvin.
Kay takes Kaneda back to her hideout. Kaneda is still going through his `come-on' lines. Ryu arrives and locks Kaneda up, believing him to be an army spy. They go into one of the other rooms where Ryu receives forged ID cards which will allow them to pass the hospital security. They are planning to break into the hospital and kidnap another of the children. Meanwhile, Kaneda is caught while trying to escape and Ryu accuses him of spying on their meeting.
Ryu meets with his boss, who is a member of the ruling council. While they discuss the planned attack, they observe a group of young people involved in a religious ceremony worshipping Akira.
Later, at the council meeting, the Colonel meets with the other members, a bunch of petty politicians, who tell him that he is spending too much money. They have funded the Akira Project for four years and there have been no Results. The Colonel tells them that he is already at his minimum expenditure and warns of the dire consequences if they cut any further. The council ignores him, and he storms out.
While Kaneda, Kay, and her group infitrate the hospital, Tetsuo's head begins throbbing again. He is assaulted by a series of illusions created by the Children for the purpose of heightening his emotional distress and thereby bringing forth his psychic powers. (This sequence, which is probably the most bizarre, involves cuddly stuffed animals - a teddy bear, a rag doll, and a plush car - come to life and eventually mutate into larger versions, and what follows after that… I wouldn't dare mention it.) During this nightmarish sequence, Tetsuo cuts his foot and the gruesomeness of the scene breaks the children's concentration. Tetsuo, who at this point has gone crazy, wants to find the Children. Suddenly, he knows how to find them. While Tetsuo makes his way to Room A, Kay and her friends are attacked in the sewers. With help, she and Kaneda steal one of the floating platforms and set off the find the children.
Tetsuo battles his way to Room A, while Kyoko tells Kaneda, through Kay, the location of Room A. Takashi and Masaru engage Tetsuo in an indecisive psychic combat when the Colonel appears. Tetsuo's head begins pounding again, and the doctor tells him that if he would just cooperate, they could fix it. Tetsuo doesn't believe him. Kyoko tells Tetsuo that the most powerful of them, Akira, had the same problem, but he found peace at last. Tetsuo demands to know where Akira is, and begins tearing the place apart to find him. Kaneda arrives and tells Tetsuo that he's come to rescue him (`Well, don't just stand there like a dunce! Hurry, come on, we've gotta get outta here!'). Tetsuo, resentful of Kaneda's usually bad treatment (and they're supposed to be best friends!), laughs at him (His laughter, at this point, is evil and crazy. It must probably be a part of the `powers' that he has acquired from his time at the hospital) and tells Kaneda, `I don't think I'll be needing your help anymore, if that's all right with you! As a matter of fact, you might be needing MY help! When ya need a hand, just CALL, old buddy!' He then confronts Kyoko and pulls Akira's location, under the Olympic Stadium, from her mind. He then teleports himself out of the hospital. (`Is this another one of my powers?' Tetsuo asks, laughing hysterically, as he flies out the window.)
The Colonel sets out to deal with the menace when he is confronted by a government agent. He informs the Colonel that the council had decided to strip him of command and have him arrested. The Colonel resists and realizes he will have to subdue the government so that he can deal with the crisis.
Tetsuo finds his way back to the usual hangout and asks the bartender for `capsules', whatever that is. He then kills the bartender since he has no money to pay for the drugs. We don't actually see this happen, but we see the results of it after Kaneda's friends, Yamagata and Kai, arrive at the bar, and discover the destruction that Tetsuo caused. The drugs have had almost no effect on him. Yamagata makes the mistake of offending Tetsuo, and crushed by a refrigerator (and presumably killed by Tetsuo afterwards).
Imprisoned in the Hospital's detention area, Kay tries to explain to Kaneda what little she knows of Akira and his awesome power. Kyoko unlocks the cell door and the pair escape. (It also here that we get to see Kaneda quetsioning Kay about her relationship with Ryo, and, like most of the characters in this film, she shows a surly attitude about it. Not that I blame her, though….)
Kaneda runs into Kai, who tells him what Tetsuo has done. Kaneda takes Yamagata's bike and smashes it, vowing revenge (He also says the B word as he does so). Takashi shows up and kidnaps Kay. Kyoko warns Kaneda that the consequences will be dire if Tetsuo isn't stopped. Says Kaneda as he is about to ride off on his bike to confront Tetsuo: `I don't wanna keep the (No, I'm not gonna say it) waiting!'
Meanwhile, Ryo's boss is trying to make his escape before the army can find him. Ryu shows up and the panic-crazed councilman guns him down. (We later see the councilman die from choking on some pills that he takes while trying to escape down an alley.)
Tetsuo makes his way to the stadium, demolishing everything in its path. Not even the tanks from the army can stop him – the first one that fires ends up creating a crater in the ground. The doctor, who monitors Tetsuo's psychic output, realizes that Tetsuo has become as powerful as Akira himself. Tetsuo arrives at Akira's cryogenic chamber and is confronted by Kay, who is being controlled by the three Children. She tells him that the power they have must never be used, or a catastrophe will result. Tetsuo, who finds all this to be `utter stupidity!' attacks, and he and Kay have a terrible fight. Tetsuo prevails, only to discover that all that remains of Akira are some containers filled with a print of his nervous system.
Kaneda arrives, and they have a very nasty confrontation (via laser guns), which culminates with Tetsuo's left arm completely amputated. (The results of this on the screen are REALLY bloody - I literally looked away from the screen during this part!) Later on, some sort of satellite from outer space transports Tetsuo up and we see him get a bionic mechanical arm as a replacement. Later, Tetsuo sets himself up with the containers in the Olympic Stadium. Kaori enters looking for Tetsuo, and finds him writhing in pain. As Tetsuo begins to loose control of his new arm (This is yet another nightmarishly gruesome scene: wires from Tetsuo's arm stretch out and literally begin to crawl across the ground.), the Colonel arrives. He tells Tetsuo that his only hope for freedom from the intense pain is to return to the hospital. Tetsuo refuses and attacks first the Colonel, then Kaneda when he arrives.
Then comes the moment where Tetsuo completely loses all control of his powers and they go completely arwy, setting up yet another gory scene: Tetsuo's body literally mutates into a very gory, very large, and very grotesque mess. His voice, no longer sounding human, calls out for help to his friends, who of course, can do nothing to help him. In trying to reach out to Kaori, she gets caught in his horribly mutated body and gets crushed to death. `KAORI'S PAIN IS INSIDE ME!!!' he screams. Kaneda also gets caught, and he tries to get him to stop, but Tetsuo is beyond controlling himself: `MY BODY WON'T LISTEN TO POWERS!! KANEDA… ESCAPE!!!!' And he throws Kaneda out of the mess that his body has become.
(Out of the many scenes in AKIRA, this one is the most horrifying – and sickening – of them all. However, there is a point that this scene is trying to make: we are not only horrified -and filled with pain- at Tetsuo's transformation, first on the inside, then the outside as well, but we also feel sorry for him – after all, this wasn't his fault. Come to think of it, I can relate to this kind of struggle, as I had a decision I had to make on whether or not I was going to be a part of the real world, or stay forever enclosed in my nutshell.)
During all this, the three Children appear and kneel before what remains of Akira, calling for his help. Suddenly, the bottles containing Akira burst open and Akira regenerates himself. (I was really quite surprised, and shocked to discover that he is a `kid' like the Children. I thought he'd be something terrifying. But then, we already have enough terrifying scenes like this.) His full power bursts forth, recreating the phenomenon that demolished Tokyo 38 years ago, giving Tetsuo the only peace he can ever know.
Kyoko teleports the Colonel to safety, but Kaneda is caught in the explosion. The Children sacrifice themselves to save him, as well as the whole world and all of Neo-Tokyo. Inside the explosion, Kaneda experiences several flashes of Tetsuo's life: Riding down the highway in Kaneda's wake, the strange experiment that gave four ordinary children psychic ablities, and the first time he met Kaneda. This sequence culminates not only with Neo-Tokyo being destroyed (well, not totally), but with Kaneda finding himself on a mound of rubble in the middle of the wreckage, making peace with what remains of Tetsuo – a bright dot of light – and reuniting with Kay and Kai. We also see that the colonel has survived the terrible apocalypse, having taken cover (along with Kay and Kai) underneath the tunnel. The apocaylpse is over, and as the sun comes out through the clouds, Kaneda and his friends return to Neo-Tokyo.
We are then, at this point, supposed to realize that this is not an end, but a beginning, as we hear the Children's voices: `Someday, we will be. It has already begun….'
In a place that is no place (where we get some visuals that will leave one's mouth hanging wide open), a voice is heard: `I am Tetsuo.…'
If the above has you baffled, and sick, I apologize, but that's what happens throughout AKIRA. What happens in the film is not terribly well explained, and it will take only a strong mind (and stomach) to sit through two hours of confusion and violence. It was not until recently, when I viewed the film again at the age of 18, on May 13, 2000, that I managed to acquire both and sit through this film. This time around, though, I wasn't as disturbed as I was when I first viewed it five years ago. I guess it takes time in order to do certain things that you weren't able to do back then.
What struck me most about the film was the way it was trying to convey a message, in spite of its gritty atmosphere. Director Katsuhiro Ohtomo, who wrote the original comic book, attempts to show us that humanity can be used for both good and evil purposes. But does he succeed in conveying what he wants us to feel, or does he just deliver eyepopping visuals with an unclear story? I'm feeling like he succeeded in doing both. While the storyline does have a point, and the characters somewhat interesting (Like most Japanese animated films, the characters here are not all bad or all good, but, well, human. The only real villain could be the powers that cause Tetsuo to go mad, since it results with his presumed death at the end.), it is somewhat difficult to follow along. People who have never read the original comic (me included) may be baffled by some of the parts of the film that are a little more unclear. (The ending and the concept involving Akira had me CONFUSED, if you want an example.) I guess part of the problem has to be that Ohtomo was trying to squeeze 1256 pages of his graphic novel into a 124 minute movie. This causes the overall result of the film's storyline to be a cacophony of confusion, despite supporting a strong message and complicated characters.
Incidentally, the critics found the storyline to be too confusing as well. However, they also found the animation to be an impressive achievement. There's no doubt about it that the animation is nothing short of spectacular. Most of the animated films from Japan I had seen before AKIRA had beautiful colors, but there were not anywhere as fast - or grisly - as this. The action scenes are very breathtaking and masterfully executed. In fact, I recently found out from my cousin that the animators doubled the frame rate per second of most animated films to make such scenes possible. It really shows here. Unfortunately, when the film begins to get violent – and bloody – we get to see plenty of it, and it almost makes us difficult for us to remember that this is just a cartoon. That is what occasionally makes watching AKIRA a painful task.
The result of the spectacular visuals is the time and effort (and money) spent on the making of AKIRA. Katsuhiro Ohtomo and his animation staff spent ¥1.1 billion to make AKIRA, which, at the time, was quite a lot of money considering how much it usually costs to produce an animated film in Japan. (However, some other Japanese animated films such as WINGS OF HONNEAMISE and PRINCESS MONONOKE have cost a lot more than this.) The work made into making AKIRA was worth it, because the film was a big box office hit in Japan. Unfortunately, I have no data on how much it grossed in that country.
AKIRA was dubbed into English by Streamline Pictures (a company which got a really bad name with its English dubs on Japanese animated films) and released in the US around 1990. The film grossed only $439,162 in its limited US release, but it managed to become a best-seller on video. Strangely, the English dub affected my entertainment value of the film a little the second time I saw it (even though I got used to it by the last half hour of the film). The problem isn't the translation from Japanese to English (It is a difficult language to translate; believe me, I wasn't so successful on some attempts to translate some CDs I imported from Japan), but by the acting. The actors, which the exception of some, sound like they don't have experience on matching their words in synch wth the lip movement. In addition, it almost sounds like they aren't very experienced at acting. I don't usually have a problem with most dubs, unlike most Anime fans, but surprisingly this one bothered me a little bit more than most. However, like I said before, I got accustomed to it as the film reach its last couple of minutes.
To sum it up, AKIRA is ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR CHILDREN. It's dark plot and very grisly visuals will scare them away and undoubtedly give them nightmares for weeks. The target audience for AKIRA is one that can stand to overlook its violent images and see a gem beneath the grit. But is it really necessary to successfully achieve such feelings? I personally don't like movies with violence, but because I'm older, I at least was able to handle the grisly images better than I did when I was 15. However, I have failed to understand just why violent movies appeal to such a wide audience. Still, the animation was dazzling enough for me to give it a passing grade, as you can probably judge from the rating above.
Footnote: The web address to the excellent film site on AKIRA is http://www.goline.com/phil/akirarave/. It not only provides a good synopsis on the story, but it also explains a whole lot more about the film. Be sure to go there if you're really interested.
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