Akira [DVD]

I am admittedly not a fan of anime and find a lot of it to be quite cringe worthy. However, there is something about Akira that I have always found fascinating. When I saw the bluray disc was sitting at £4.99, I decided to jump on it. Not only to refresh my memory but to show my kids that anime can be something other than mindless dumb cartoons like Attack on Titan (Yeah, I went there!).For those who don't know, Akira is an animated film from 1988. The story takes place in a dystopian 2019 in Neo Tokyo, a city built out of the ruins of Tokyo. A city decimated in the '80s after a huge blast engulfed the a vast majority of the area. We follow a group of teenagers from the violent streets through secret military bases and even into an Olympic stadium as they try to uncover and foil a government plot. A plot that involves creating telekinetic humans and one's inability to control their power. The film was written by Izo Hashimoto and director Katsuhiro Otomo. The production was handled by Ryohei Suzuki and Shunzo Kato.As a film, I found my latest viewing (the first in many years) to be utterly fascinating. It's the first time I have seen the movie since the VHS days and seeing it on bluray was just incredible. The illustrations and animation in the film is second to none. It's virtually impossible to deny the artists involved because the detail in the huge cityscapes, underground lairs and throughout all the action sequences is absolutely incredible. The use of cyberpunk styles was very tastefully done. I loved the use of neon and bright colours, it really makes the film image pop.The story isn't necessarily difficult to follow. It does start off a bit disjointed and a bit hard to differentiate certain characters. But after a good half hour, you sink into the excellent atmosphere of the film and that becomes less of an issue. I loved the fact that the script kept some of the plot points very vague. It doesn't outright explain to you what is going on, something that puts me off a lot of modern films. This means that they drip feed you a piece of plot every now and again, but it's up to you to piece it all together. They don't even explain the end with any great detail and I loved that. This major climax happens and it leaves you just sitting there thinking, "What in God's name did I just witness?" It's sort of similar to the space classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey in some regards. You see a particularly stunning and impressive set piece, but you're not entirely sure what it is going on. This might put off a lot of people who like their plot explained to them but it's works well for me.The music in the Akira is something that really stood out to me. It wasn't the usual over dramatic stuff we usually hear in this kind of film. Instead we had some form of chants and rhythmic beats that set quite an unsettling tone to the film. It's definitely one of the most underappreciated scores in film if you ask me. Every scene that used music, used it sparingly. But the music they used fit the scene perfectly. Looking it up on the internet, the music was composed and conducted by Shoji Yamashiro and was performed by the Geinoh Yamashirogumi collective. The style of music in the film is apparently a mix of traditional Indonesian gamelan music and elements of Japanese Noh music. I'm not familiar with these styles of music and that's probably what made it for me. It was different, it was unique and you don't hear that sort of thing in these sci-fi films. I loved it.I would assume that because I don't really like much in the way of modern anime, that my opinion on this film won't mean much to some. But for those out there who are like me and are quite the hit or miss with the style, I recommend checking this out. It's not only a gorgeous looking film, but the music is beautiful and the plot is quite unique. This by definition is a classic film and it's worth every penny. I wish I had bought it sooner.

I had heard of this film but up until now I had never watched it, as I had no idea what anime was all about (apart from fond memories of Laputa when I was small) so I always passed it by. How glad I am that I have finally gotten around to watching this amazing film.The film is set post WW3 in neo Tokyo. It is a place of grandeur and degeneration, in long shots we see the futuristic beauty of it all; colourful and sparkling with the feeling of unbounded possibility, but close up things aren't as rosy as we see decay in the vice of its inhabitants and in the dirt and graffiti which litter the streets. It is in this juxtaposition of these contrasting states as shown in the artwork of the setting that permeate to the very core of what the films storyline is about.On the surface it is all punks and futuristic motorbikes; the evils of authority. It is beautiful and gruesome all at the same time. Violent with hints of a darker depravity and it all comes together under a tale of an almost eternal repetition of decay, collapse, rebirth and growth. It is a story of cycles, of journeys journeyed without the questions of beginnings and endings.The soundtrack bubbles away in the background giving a nice techno industrial sound to the events which include gang wars, casual violence, futuristic bike battles, rebel explosions and government clean ups.Our main character is a boy named Tetsuo, a weakling coming to terms with the forced development of some pretty god like powers, powers which were also previously held in the narratives past by a character called Akira, whose strength led to the collapse of the city. The story comes down to control; who controls this power and what they will do if they can't control it.The animation is solid; being a good mix of detail and focus, which conveys well a gritty and violent world and its effects on the characters that live in it. This is an anime that lives and breathes its harsh, often brutal, realities and as such you will not be blinded by bold colours and strong contrasts because unlike a lot of animeAkira's pallet is darker, drawn more from the brown and grey range.The characters draw you in very well and make sure that you are actually emotionally invested in what happens to them by the end of the film, which actually gets more gruesome as we head towards the ending... or beginning.This anime is a must watch; it had action, violence, a brilliant cinematic style and plenty of philosophical muse points to keep you conversing into the early hours of the morning with whoever you choose to watch it with, even if you end up talking to yourself.