Well, here I am. I'm about to embark on a mission that many take out of fear. They soil their pants at the mere thought of it. What exactly am I referring to? The legions of Akira zealots that will soon be sending me hate mail, that's what. I'm not going to talk about how it's an influential anime, nor will I discuss its implications on the Western society. All I'm going to be talking about is the movie. Needless to say, there is a lot of hype surrounding Akira. Does it meet that hype? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. It has its good points and it has its bad points. First, the good points.

For an anime made in the 1980s, Akira has some of the most impressive visuals I've ever seen in an anime. It truly is a masterpiece of cel animation. I could search and search the movie for faults and fine none, that is how good the visuals are. Animations, such as Kaneda's widely known red motorcycle, flow so smooth it's almost naturally. Movements are never choppy, and the special effects are done with a skill that I'm sure many animators these days don't have due to computers. The action sequences, though bloody, are as exciting as they come.

The story also kept me on the edge of my seat. I wanted to see what would happen to Tetsuo and Kaneda next. Where would their adventures lead them, and what exactly was this "Akira" that was mentioned throughout the movie. The dark and gritty, yet very detailed world was immersive, heightening my enjoyment time and time again.

Now for the bad things.

Honestly, I didn't care for any of the characters at all. They all seemed so fake to me, many of which seemed to serve no purpose in the movie other than to die in a stylish and bloody fashion. Many characters that became simple plot devices should have been developed and expanded on more. Also, the things some of them did were completely unbelievable. I'm referring to the parts where Kaneda jumps off of his motorcycle at almost 100mph and lands on his feet while running. In another sequence he jumped right into a flying machine that was moving towards him at an extremely high velocity. Things like this didn't really help my experience.

Another thing that I really disliked was the audio presentation of Akira, or perhaps the lack thereof. Thankfully, the voice acting was rather decent. The sound effects and music, on the other hand were just terrible. Silence is an effect that should only be used when the mood has already been set, or if used skillfully to actually set the mood. Absolute silence is used so frequently in the movie that I wondered if I was watching a silent film or one with sound. When music was played, it was usually just a man shouting or random drum beats. None of it seemed to fit in at all with the movie.

The conclusion to the movie is another thing that I had a problem with. Most of the movie had a pretty good pacing, though it was all a little quick for my tastes. The last part of the movie, however, seemed to turn everything into hyperdrive in an obvious attempt to wrap everything up as quickly as possible. Though just about all of the loose ends were tied up, it seemed like the creators were just pulling things out of thin air.

In the end, Akira is another victim of trying to stuff too much manga into too little time. It would have benefitted a lot more from, say, an OVA or television series. So does it meet the hype? I don't think it comes very close to the masterpiece that its fans have portrayed, but it's certainly a good way to spend two hours.