Premise: In a futuristic Tokyo, a teen in a biker gang discovers that he has dangerous psychic powers, and the government is determined to stop him.
I approach anime much the same way that I do reality TV: I know there's good stuff out there, but I'm not motivated to sift through the bad stuff to find it. The closest I ever was to being into anime was loving Dragon Ball Z around middle school. That faded over time. I do like a lot of things about anime though. It's a cool art style. I appreciate how often it uses animation for adult stories. There's often the same relationship between manga and anime that there is between comic books and the comic movies. There's a much deeper world that I'm only getting a hint of.
From what I understand, Akira is one of the most internationally influential anime films of all time. Until the last few years, it was arguably the biggest non-Miyazaki breakout in the U.S. It's not hard to see why. This is the exact kind of movie 12-year-old me wishes he knew about. It's big, loud, and bloody. I'm not sure I understand much of anything about the plot, but I picked up on enough of it to think "that's cool" a lot. Anime is a genre I'm hesitant to critique too much for fear of being "well, actually"-ed by the hardcore fans. So, I'll leave this saying that I mostly liked Akira. The story is a little too insane for me to latch all the way onto. It's a good time though.
Side Thought: I'm the last person to recognize this, but it was trippy seeing this movie reference the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I spent a decent portion of the movie wondering if that was changed retroactively or if this was a major factor in Tokyo's bid for those Olympics. It's a weird coincidence. That's for sure. I really don't like all these futuristic movies, made in my lifetime, that I've already caught up to.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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