Akira (1988)

Although Japanese imports like Voltron and Speed Racer had becomes staples of Saturday morning cartoons in the United States, they were usually cleaned-up versions with English dubbing that was barely accurate at best.  Japan, unlike the United States, had a history of comics and cartoons for adults, but they were a tough sell in a country that automatically interpreted a cartoon as being for children.  

Then came Akira, a movie adaptation of a manga series that had been running since 1982.  It was one of the most expensive animation productions at the time in Japan, involving a number of different studios and animation houses to put it together.  The money was well-spent; despite having to squeeze six years of story into two hours (including an ending - the actual manga did not come to a conclusion until 1990) director Katsuhiro Otomo, who was also responsible for the manga, managed to produce an exciting, mostly coherent story out of what could easily have been a confusing mess.

In 1988 an event happens which destroys a large part of Tokyo, touching off a third world war.  31 years later Neo Tokyo has risen from its ashes.  Currently its own city state, it is wracked by student protests due to tax reforms that have increased unemployment, while a large part of the youth, rather than attending school, roam the streets.  Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwada) is the leader of a biker gang called the Capsules, who are currently at odds with a rival gang called the Clowns.  While chasing down their rivals his friend Tetsuo (Nozomu Sasaki) encounters a strange, psychic child named Takashi (Tatsuhiko Nakamuro).  Wounded and apparently affected by the child, Tetsuo is taken away by the Colonel (Taro Ishida) to be examined by Doctor Onishi (Mizuho Suzuki), who is looking into unlocking latent powers in human beings.

The experiments on Tetsuo work too well, resulting in powers similar to those of an early experimental child named Akira, who may have been responsible for the event in 1988.  As Neo Tokyo falls into further violence and the Colonel attempts to counter his removal from power with a military coup, Tetsuo lays waist to a large part of the city.  Kaneda and a revolutionary named Kei (Mami Koyama) try to stop him before it's too late. 

As the action takes place in 2019 the movie can seem a bit dated time wise, but as for the animation it still looks great.  There were some computer effects used to make the falling objects look more realistic and for the simulation of Tetsuo's and Akira's brainwaves, but largely this was drawn and hand animated.  Due to the the cinematic scope, and the success of the work done, Akira was revolutionary both in improving the quality of Japanese animation, but also helping to spark interest in anime in the United States, growing to the point to where anime and manga are now pretty much just another facet of our mainstream pop culture. 

There had been talk in the 1990s of doing a live version of this, but it was abandoned once the budget climbed above $300 million in just trying to figure out how to make it like the cartoon.  Most likely it would be cheaper now, but happily the copyright holders have just stuck to making sure the copies of the movie available are the highest quality.  Any attempt to make this into a live-action film would need a Hollywood budget, which sadly would result in a disappointing whitewashed form like Ghost in the Shell.  

That isn't to say the animated film isn't without faults.  I say it's mostly coherent, because it is a bit rushed toward the beginning, making the world a bit hard to get into.  A good portion of the plot is revealed all at once, but Akira becomes a lot easier to follow once things get flowing, and moves to a satisfying conclusion.  Because of trying to shove so much story in a small time frame there are some changes, largely to bit characters like Kaori (Yuriko Fuchizaki).  A sex slave in the manga, she is instead Tetsuo's high school girlfriend in the movie, but she plays so little a role in what happens that she could have been left out entirely.  Same with the revolutionary leader Ryu (Tessho Genda), who obviously has a father-daughter type relationship with Kei, as well as some funding from Neo Tokyo's government.  Little comes out of his duplicity or his or his relation to Kei, and even Kei's role seems heavily reduced in an effort to make Kaneda and Tetsuo the main focus. 

Tetsuo is obviously the biggest villain here, chafing at everything he has had to experience in his young life, but the Colonel is also fleshed out quite nicely and is not made just a snickering, murderous bad guy.  Though his methods are questionable, his devotion to Neo Tokyo is not, and he sees himself as the one saving it from the corruption of its Executive Council, and the experimentation with the three psychic children that have survived the initial trials as integral in making sure another Akira event doesn't happen.  

I have never been the biggest anime fan, but I can understand how Akira was the gateway for many into the genre, and it does make me intrigued to seek out more of the classic anime films that have come out in the last 30 years.  I still find it strange that after all this time American and European animation studios haven't caught on that there is a market for fully animated cinematic films that are not strictly aimed at children; Soul is one of the few recent ones, and even it made a lot of concessions to make sure it didn't run up against too much trouble.  It would be a great way to get some of the more outrageous original ideas on screen without having to worry about the budget for a live-action film and, with the way millions of Americans of all ages consume even some of the strangest examples of anime, it's not like there isn't a market for this.  

Akira (1988)

Time: 124 minutes

Starring: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Taro Ishida

Director: Katsuhiro Otomo