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Citrus pays tribute to one of the greatest (and important) animated films of all time.


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Okay, I'm about to make a statement that some of you may find a bit overreaching, as well as setting me up to oversell this movie to those who haven't seen the movie I'm about to gush over. But it's a statement I'm confident in, based on all the knowledge I have accrued while obsessing over this film, the statements and speculation of what we would call experts in the field, and pure fanboyism.

 

So, basically, and I'm trying to say this with the smallest amount of hyperbole possible, if it wasn't for Akira, anime would not be as popular in American geek culture as it is.

 

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Sounds legit.

 

Back in the late eighties/early nineties, when anime was just starting to jump the Pacific and get some attention in the U.S., it was Katsuhiro Otomo's animated adaptation of his popular manga that broke the mold and amazed (and sometimes traumatized) the geeks who heard about it from a friend's friend and watched it on VHS or in arthouse theaters (if you were lucky enough). Between its strange and dark ideas and themes, its ultra-violence, and its main cast of rebellious youth on the streets of a cyberpunk dystopia, it was a story designed to tap right into the minds of teenagers. You felt like you were an adult while watching it out of sight of your parents, and it was this edginess and all around "dafuq-did-I-just-watch" appeal that made for a perfect introduction to the medium. At least the more mature, less kid friendly stuff that went beyond Speed Racer or Robotech.

 

It was a hit in its native country that went on to influence many of the anime producers after it, but some would say its most important legacy is the effect it had on the geek underground culture here in America, where it quickly earned its status as a cult classic, paving the way for the future cult success of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell (which was directly influenced by Akira), which led to everything else.

 

And people who aren't even particularly fans of anime have a reason to thank this movie. Everyone, from Christopher Nolan to the Wachowskis (they're openly huge nerds for the anime and manga) to James Cameron to Pixar owe many ideas and visuals to this landmark movie, with some movies, like last year's incredibly awesome Chronicle, playing like straight up homages to Akira and its now ubiquitous ideas.

 

It often places near the top of Best Animated Films of All Time lists, and currently sits on Empire's list of 500 Greatest Movies Ever Made.

 

So yeah, it's kind of a big deal, and if you haven't seen it yet, do so immediately. Now. Stop reading this and through whatever means necessary watch it or plan to watch it as soon as possible.

 

Still need convincing? Read on...

 

So what is this movie even about?

 

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Neo-Tokyo: making Detroit look like Ponyville since 1988.

 

On July 16th, 1988, a powerful explosion of unknown origin destroys Tokyo in a matter of seconds, setting of a devastating World War III. By 2019, the mega-city Neo-Tokyo has risen out of Tokyo Bay. At first, the city was a beacon of hope and progress for Japan, but years of anti-government protest, gang violence, and a general decay of humanity have turned the metropolis into a neon nightmare.

Trying to survive all this is The Capsules, a gang of juvenile delinquent biker thugs led by the headlong Shōtarō Kaneda. Unable to care less about the sociopolitical shitstorm enveloping the city or the crummy school district they've been stuck in, they spend their nights riding their motorcycles with reckless abandon, abusing capsules, the city's most popular street drugs (no, I don't know why they named themselves after the drug they're using), and battling their rivals, The Clowns.

 

But this carefree life of debauchery comes to an end when Capsule biker Tetsuo Shima is injured when his bike explodes upon impact with a strange child with otherworldly abilities. He is soon taken into custody by the local military and vanishes without a trace, much to the confusion and anger of his fellow bikers.

 

Looking to rescue his childhood friend, Kaneda soon comes upon a much deeper conspiracy: the mutant who caused Tetsuo to crash was a test subject that escaped a government project that's been going on since before the war. Its continuing goal is to unlock the next step in humanity's evolution, which, what else, means psychic powers. The scientists in charge of the project believe that Tetsuo's encounter unlocked some sort of innate power within him, and he is kept in a secret government facility for further study. Kaneda, who characteristically doesn't care about any of that, just wants to bust out his friend, even if that means teaming up with Kei, a teenager associated with the terrorist movement to overthrow Neo-Tokyo's government.

 

But everything takes a turn for the worst when Kaneda sets out to rescue Tetsuo and realizes that he may be too far gone. You see, after years of being pushed around by his peers, disrespected by every authority figure in his life, stuck in a dystopian hellhole that offers no ray of hope for a less sucky life, and having to always rely on his much stronger and liked friend Kaneda, Tetsuo has developed...

 

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...issues. And now with the seeming power of a god (one character describes it as giving an amoeba the world-alerting power of a human) , Tetsuo is able to wreak vengeance on anyone who didn't do his breathtaking inferiority complex favors. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all of humanity.

 

And thus, what began as Kaneda's mission to rescue his friend becomes one to kill him before he starts not only the chaos that has threatened to tear Neo-Tokyo apart, but a possibly cataclysmic event that could spell doom for humanity.

 

And at the center of it all lies a secret that's been buried for decades, a horrifying, incomprehensible power that controls the course of human evolution, and one that will lead both to our salvation and our utter annihilation.

 

A power known only as Akira.

 

Okay, so what's so awesome about it?

 

"What isn't awesome about it" would be the easier answer, mate.

 

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Your mind is that dude's face, and the movie is the foot.

 

Well first off, there's the story I just masterfully described. It's jam packed to the brim with ideas and themes that by themselves could sustain an entire sci-fi story. Chaos and anarchy's role in humanity's development, the corruption of absolute power, the System driving the urban-poor into criminality, brothers becoming bitter enemies, technology and science accelerating to a point that we are not prepared to face the consequences of, mental insanity, religion, and the unending and cathartic cycle of creation, evolution, and destruction throughout history are all present, and while some of these themes get more screentime then others, they all have enough of a presence in the story to make you think.

 

Katsuhiro Otomo wrote the story as a portrait of a country struggling to regain its humanity and honor after suffering a devastating event (much like Japan after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), but it's also works as a universal, surprisingly human story despite its abstract leanings. The main villain, Tetsuo, isn't just some power-hungry dictator, at least at first. For the first half of the movie, he's just a lonely, confused kid, and you sympathize with his frustration at not being able to change his situation and his growing mental instability as the government pokes and prods his mind.

 

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That awkward moment when you're targeted by a space laser while giving your big villain rant.

 

So when he finally goes mad with power, it's a lot more interesting to see this psychic god flinging helicopters and tanks across the city after you had just gotten to know him as a weak teenager taking crap from everybody. And his relationship with Kaneda is what makes the climax (you know, besides the explosions and mentally scarring body horror). You can really feel his anger both when he realizes that he now has to fight and probably end the closest thing he ever had to a family and at himself for not being able to save his friend from becoming a monster. For him, it isn't about saving the world or anything; it's about being responsible for taking out his friend.

 

One of the other more interesting characters is the colonel in charge of the military research project that unleashes Tetsuo's powers. At first, the movie appears to be setting him up as the generic, stoic military bad guy who the teenagers have to defeat with rebellion and attitude, but he's revealed to be an honorable solider who's sometimes morally ambiguous actions are all attempts to save the people of the city from the "hedonistic fools" who run it. Also, he has an awesome haircut.

 

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Bringing a gun to a psychic head-exploding fight...

 

On a side not, while she doesn't get nearly as much material as in the manga (more on that later), Kei, the young terrorist that ends up helping Kaneda, is still pretty cool. I greatly appreciate the fact that the movie doesn't overtly have her and Kaneda end up together. It's hinted at in the end, but otherwise, they never share any romantic moments outside of a developing friendship, which is probably for the best, seeing as how they're busy enough as it is with averting the apocalypse and everything.

 

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They're kinda busy with some other stuff right now.

 

But as awesome as the storytelling is, the visuals alone are worth it. Akira was the most expensive anime at the time, and it shows: its visual complexity and detail remain the gold standard by which other animes are judged. The amount of effort put into making each hand-painted second as layered and well crafted as humanly possible is ridiculous, with even the shortest shots working as individual, specially crafted pieces of art. And it's all in service to one of the coolest looking cyberpunk stories ever.

 

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More effort was put into making this image then most people will probably ever put into their whole life.

 

Speaking of amazing design, I can't believe I've gone this long without mentioning Kaneda's bike, the most iconic element of the entire film.

 

I mean...just look at it.

 

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LOOK AT IT!!!

 

Ahem. Anyway, the whole deal looks even better in motion, hence why I'm trying to use as many gifs as possible. Back when most animes were made as cheaply and quickly as possibly, Akira was one of the few that went above and beyond and featured animation that gave Disney a run for its money. Everything from the dust kicked up by the motorcycles to clothing and bandages blowing in the wind to the blood spurting out of some poor shmuck's head as it explodes comes to life with the same amount of detail put into rendering the images. There's also a lot of great emotion infused into the characters, from Tetsuo's emotional, teary breakdown to a character's visible horror at having to shoot someone for the first time. Also, lip-synching!

 

Basically, the whole thing is eye candy crack. Here's a video that explains it better than I ever could.

 

 

Also, it has a crap ton of action scenes if you're into that kind of stuff. It begins with a break-neck, 100 mph gang battle on the streets of the city, and that sense of kinetic energy carries throughout the entire movie, all the way to the third act that consists of super-duper space lasers, showdowns between a lone psychic wunderkind and the army, and of the biggest WTF endings ever.

 

Seriously, that frigging ending. You're going to poop yourself. Guaranteed.

 

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You should have seen the other guy. Wait, no, this is much worst.

 

Aw man, am I not doing this movie justice. I haven't even mentioned the Oscar-caliber sound design, the totally unique musical score, or the great performances by the japanese voice cast and the English dub (the newer one, not the old one where everyone sounds like a forty year old from Brooklyn)There's just so much awesome-ness here that it's hard to create fully-formed sentences that properly describe why Akira is so good.

 

But it's not perfect, mind you. This movie is based on a 2,000 page comic book that wasn't even completed when it went into production. Even with all the second half of the story jettisoned (minus some of the weirder elements that made it into the movie), there's not nearly enough time to give every plot line and character their due. In fact, many characters in the movie who seem minor or secondary end up being much more important in the manga. And while the movie takes the proper amount of time to let important character moments to sink in, it does fell somewhat rushed at times, particularly in the third act.

 

And it's not all gonna make sense on the first viewing. In fact, some of it may seem nonsensical and weird to the point of self-parody.

 

But much like 2001: A Space Odyssey, it's a movie that you have to engage in and think about, maybe watch once or twice more to fully "get it". But unlike 2001, this one has explosions to keep you company in the meantime. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that this might be the most destructive movie ever made, animated or otherwise. That space laser I mentioned levels buildings in a burst of flame before crashing down through the atmosphere, entire battalions are crushed by psychic energy, there's at least one explosion of every variety somewhere in this movie, and an entire city is disintegrated within the opening minute of the film.

 

So yeah, there's a lot of that.

 

In conclusion...

 

Like I said, I've done a terrible job doing this movie justice, but if you take one thing from all of this, it's that you should totally watch this movie, not just because of its importance to pop culture and the art of animation worldwide, but because it's just a damn good movie. Anime fan or not, you owe it to yourself to find out why everyone (me included) won't shut up about Akira.

 

As of this writing, today marks the 25th anniversary of this (literally) groundbreaking movie. To be able to stand the test of time for this long is an achievement in and of itself. It's a beloved masterpiece now, and will continue to be so in the far future.

 

Here's to Akira, arguably the greatest anime ever made.

 

 

Kaneda sends his regards.

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Wow, that was an amazing write up on an amazing anime.  :)

 

And the images all appeared for me.  I wonder why HR couldn't see them?  :/

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Wow, that was an amazing write up on an amazing anime.  :)

 

And the images all appeared for me.  I wonder why HR couldn't see them?  :/

 

I went back and fixed them. Turns out I'm a noob with Imgur.

 

Thanks for the comment.

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