Reviews: Akira (1988) Movie Review
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Our review of Akira (1988) dives into the story, the scares, and whether it truly delivers the horror fans crave.
Katsuhiro Otomo‘s Akira (1988) helped to create a huge following of anime fans over in the US, myself included. Akira was a hard and edgy brand of cartoon with excessive violence in some scenes. What an eye opening experience. Akira had an estimated 1,100,000,000 budget that helped to solidify an international liking to the entire anime genre.
Akira is about a biker boy named Tetsuo who, under the experimentation of scientists in a Neo-Tokyo era, is a rampaging monster of a psychic psychopath. He creates all kinds of destruction and it is up to his close friend Kaneda and a group of psychics to stop him.
Akira was a life changing experience for me. The visual grit, violence, and brutality were amazing. The voice acting was done well and very realistic. The soundtrack is stunning and very memorable, especially the ending theme and Kaneda’s theme.
Now we come to the animation and visuals. The art design and animation does hold up well even to this day, but the animation is not absolutely perfect, you can spot some issues. That being said, they are overlooked when compared to how many superb scenes Akira has. The city features a neon-lit Neo-Tokyo with landscapes that are visually appealing. The color design of every piece of scenery warrant why Akira is considered a great anime starting place and a timeless classic. Akira features 160,000 cells of visual goodness.
Watch Akira, do yourself the a favor.
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Akira Rating Scores
- Our Score: 8/10
- Overall Score: 7.98/10
- IMDB: 8.0/10
- MetaCritic: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 9.1/10
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