The brilliant thing about watching films is that you get all sorts of experiences. Woah, look there’s motorbike gangs!!! Supernatural weird pasty old looking government experiment children? BRO! Government corruption?!?! Military coups!!! Atomic weapons!!! Protests from disgruntles citizens!!! Giant mutant teddy bears?!? A weird 2001 style conscious from the beyond!! All of these were my reactions to one steam punk 1980’s anime film called Akira, which is getting a re-release in cinemas.

So where do we even begin in this plot summary? The year is 2019, 30 years after Tokyo was blown up in world war three, and Neo Tokyo is big and booming, however it’s strife with inequality and corruption. In amongst protests, there are delinquent youths in motorcycle gangs. One of these is ran by Caneda. When they go to take on another biker gang, his friend and fellow orphan Tetsuo ends up in an encounter with a government experiment child who has some form of tele-kinetic ability. Tetsuo is taken away by the government and experimented upon. Soon realising his psychic powers, he basically goes crazy like Mewtwo in Pokemon (I know, anime isn’t my usual jam) and wants to find Akira, a mystery being who could cause chaos on this world. Can his old friend Caneda stop him? We shall see.

In amongst this there are stories of corruption, politics, romance and rebellion. This is almost where Akira starts to struggle. It’s based on a 2000 page manga (comic), so can’t really fit all of this into a 2 hour movie. I struggled to keep up with all of the characters and moving parts at times. Maybe on a second watch I’d appreciate them more, but really some of the scenes and themes just didn’t need to be there.

But the scenes that were there were fantastic. Each one provided high octane action with very little time to breathe. Neo Tokyo was big and sprawling. The use of lighting was absolutely incredible. There was a clear definition between the have and have nots. It really portrayed this dystopian look and feel. The soundtrack was such an odd marimba theme, unlike any other soundtrack I’d heard before, adding to this almost rock like atmosphere.

The set pieces were huge and great and at times disgusting. The small attentions to detail were really admirable. This film was as well animated as anything else you would have seen. The use of light was a particularly noticeable aspect which was pleasuring. It was wonderful, bloody and dark, yet with enough hope to keep you watching. An important piece for it’s genre and proof that animation doesn’t just need to be for children, I found this a fun Sunday afternoon watch.