Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Leogos
Akira is absolute trash, the only reason why it is so hyped is because someone feels edgy and thinks they are cool for watching it, or pretend to have acquired taste.
This might have been a hit back in the day, but it was only due to being absolutely weird and having animation that no other animated film had and that's it.
If you watch it in modern day you realize that it just doesn't live up to any hype and is actually very very bad, characters are dull, there is no development, anime has no message, story doesn't make any sense, and nothing is connected.
Only good thing about this anime is Music and Animation.
Read at the sourceDeviantKuroi
Akira sucks. Overrated.
So many people saying "It's a great piece of art". OK, I didn't see it.
There's many anime movies and animes who work abstract concepts in the same way that akira's art pretend to do, and they did it so much better and with more (of any) sense. So it seems to me that is very, very overrated.
Art to me, like an old classic, it's not that special (There's other with more stetic)
Furthermore, I find the machism and sexist in the movie disgusting and repulsive. I know, I know, is an 80's film... But fuck, there's others anime and 80's film. And they aren't like that.
So in resume, not - in any case - that good as I thought by the amount of good reviews saying it's a wonder, a deception and a movie for dry and smelly machirulos.
Read at the sourcevenus-in-fleurs
'Pioneering', 'classic', 'groundbreaking', 'compelling', 'masterpiece' - all words which describe this film upon a quick Google search.
Really? Reeeeally?
I had very high hopes for Akira - as anyone would - after endless recommendations from friends and being touted as the most important anime film of all time. But after watching, I was incredibly disappointed. THIS is supposed to be the most influential anime film? THIS? Never in my life have I witnessed something so mediocre be so overrated.
Let us discuss the various aspects of the film
STORY~
The plot could have a lot of promise - a secret government project of scientists experimenting upon humans in order to give them telekinetic powers. However, it is executed horribly. Little is explained in detail, the narrative is basically a w…
Read at the sourceArtrill
[8.0/10]
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Over one Billion Yen. Ten million dollars. This was the price the industry paid to create timeless animation. This was the toll Katsuhiro Otomo paid to adapt almost two thousand pages of his magnum opus. One which he struggled to finish. Every page taking more time than the last. Each penstroke weighing heavier on his hand. All culminating in a dinner with Alejandro Jodorowsky, director of El Topo and The Holy Mountain, as he was coming off the heels of Sante Sangre. The dinner is what eventually made Otomo close the final chapter to Akira.
Yet this was two years after the release of the film. Two years after Kaneda's cardinal motorbike was brought to life. Screeching tires wer…
Read at the sourceAbsolute_Spider
Akira is a 1988 Japanese Animated film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo based on Otomo’s manga of the same name.
In the year 1988 a mysterious explosion destroys Tokyo while supposedly also causing World War III. 31 years later, in the year 2019, a new city, entitled Neo-Tokyo, is built which is in a state of constant chaos due to constant skirmishes between rival biker gangs as well as barrages of anti-government attacks carried out by various revolutionary groups. This is the stetting of Akira.
Within this setting the plot focuses on two major characters. Shotaro Kaneda, the arrogant leader of a biker gang, and his childhood friend/rival, Tetsuo Shima, who throughout the film develops strange psychic powers that are frighteningly powerful and prove to cause much destruction.
The first thin…
Read at the sourceJuGuL4ToR
Fact: The Wright brothers' airplane was the first ever man made, rideable, controllable, heavier - than - air machine. It revolutionized human civilization on the scales with which only a few discoveries/inventions are comparable.
Question: Was it a GOOD airplane?
No. It was a crapy piece of junk that could barely fly and couldn't make a turn.
Conclusion: not EVERY "first" is the GREATEST. As a matter of fact, not every first is even AMONG the greats.
Akira, in many aspects, did for anime what the Wright brothers' plane did for aeronautics. It revolutionized anime. It changed many viewers' perceptions and expectations of what can be done with this weird art form from the land of the rising sun. It proved that it can do a lot more than disproportionate girls with eyes the size of fl…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
What is the most famous anime of all time for casual viewers that aren't really huge otaku? If Akira isn't number 1, it is certainly in the top 3. When Akira was first released in the US, it quickly became a cult classic and a "movie that everyone has to see". I went to China and bought (for 1$ each) a massive criterion collection of classic films like Bicycle Thieves, La Dolce Vita, The 400 Blows, Ikiru, etc. Guess what came in that collection? fucking Akira! What is it that makes this film SO good? I will attempt to answer this in a few paragraphs.
Warning: review contains spoilers! Skip the plot section if you haven't seen Akira. Seriously though, how have you not seen Akira?
Plot: 8/10
One thing that needs to be said about the plot is that a LOT is left out from the original manga.…
Read at the sourceangelsreview
So I finally got a chance to sit down and watch it, namely the English dub. What do I think about it? It was pretty good for an anime that came out in the 1980’s and it holds up pretty well to this day. I was very surprised that the show was actually directed by the writer of Akira as well. Not many people can write a manga and get to direct it as well when it comes to movie. This means that the show would have come out how he wanted to and not changed around as it went from hand to hand. Just how close is this to the manga? Well as of now, I have not read the manga so I can’t answer that.
Some things do bother me with the story and mostly with the characters though it is more based on my preference of character then anything else. I just think that the biker gangs felt a bit forced. I ne…
Read at the sourceAnimeted_love7
Well this film was definitely an experience. It took me only a few minutes to realize the animation was superb. It really was a visual delight. The opening sequence was just the tip of the iceberg of what was in store for this one. I adore surreal movies and this bizarre ride of utterly beautiful and horrific imagery had me glued to my tv for just over two hours. The characters themselves are so-so in my opinion with the exception of Tetsuo who was at once creepy and lovely. I watched the film on adult swim also so I saw it with the new and improved dub. As I said, the stand out was Tetsuo, but I also really liked the Colonel. Surprisingly, I didn't so much like Johnny Yong Bosch's Kaneda. It was a lot of yelling and his character was very back and forth with his emotions. One minute he wa…
Read at the sourceGoodEnoughForMe
Oh Akira, where would anime be without you? Would Ghost in the Shell ever have come about without your cyberpunk aesthetics that influenced anime more than any other work, this side of Blade Runner? Would The Matrix have ever come about without either of those two works? The answer is probably no, and so I do have to offer some thanks to Akira for helping to inspire people from inside and outside Japan.
That said, I still think that Akira is largely a hodge-podge of crap.
The first few moments of Akira are breathtaking. We take in the lights, the sights and sounds of neo-Tokyo, a hauntingly familiar yet eerily distant dilapidated, frustrated city, rife with neon lights, traffic noise, and trash.
Sadly, it's all downhill from there.
See, Akira is a trilogy of 6 hours or so wrapped up in…
Read at the sourcexm0123
Akira is a film adapted from the manga series of the same name by Katsuhiro Otomo. The film was a huge success, even outside its native Japan, and is often heralded as one of the all-time greatest anime ever produced. I first saw this film in 2007, and I have no desire to see it again. I know "classic" anime and I tend to not mix very well, but I cannot understand why this film was and still is championed as a "great" example of anime. The only thing great about this film is how it teaches you what NOT to film in an action film.
Story:
It's the future in Tokyo, or Neo-Tokyo, and everything has gone to Hell. The streets are a warzone between gangs, the government, and everyone else. In between all of this are a number of children with psychic powers that enable them to do pretty much wha…
Read at the sourcekekekeKaj
Often hailed as a classic, I can kind of see where the praises are coming from: this kind of hard hitting, apocolyptic anime always seem to attract acclaim. But personally, I couldn't really get into it that much. Or perhaps it's because I just didn't get it.
My main problem with "Akira" is the vagueness of the story. I mean, I'm not the biggest fan of these abstract, philosophical stories to begin with, but "Akira" also suffers from a lack of completeness, which only exacerbated my confusion even more. I was watching it with a friend and he was having to constantly explain what to me what was happening using knowledge that he'd accumulated from reading the manga (and in fact he didn't fully understand everything either as he hasn't read all the manga). My own view on this is that an ani…
Read at the sourceArtimesGamer
I've been watching anime for years and I have to say Akira is one of the best pieces of work i have ever came a crossed. The animation and action sequences hold up very well in comparison to some of the animes coming out to date. The pacing is almost perfect and the art and music are simply a work of art you really feel like you're in that world. Classics are classics for a reason and Akira is a classic anime.
Caution there might be a few spoilers contained in this review.
The movie starts off with a large mysterious explosion which destroys Tokyo, the movie then begins 31 years later in Neo Tokyo. Akira for the first 20 minutes or so follows a punk high school bike gang and takes you through a bit of their daily routine so you can build a relationship and relate with their characters. R…
Read at the sourceJH
First off the story is taken from a well developed manga.. A six epic manga style story that can actually be considered an ominbus but still just a really big manga. xD
Start out with cool biker gang and leader on cool bike. But wait a minute .... who's that other biker gang coming to harass them. Just some random gang for action?! Important to the plot? Why heck no. Not in this movie. In fact, this biker gang that for some reason choose to dress like the Jokers from Batman Beyond come in and mess with our heroes and are never seen from again.
However in all this a strange boy walks out into the street. And he appears old. Real old. Heck maybe it will be explained later. Seems important to the plot to have a kid, who is like fifty walk out onto the middle of the street. And there are cop…
Read at the sourceZeroSumJ1
OK... I'm sure you can tell by the scores I gave this anime that I found this anime to be RIDICULOUSLY overrated. I've watched it maybe 5-7 times in my life. First time was just to watch what all the fuss was about, 2 through the last was "maybe I missed the reason why people thought this was so great." the very last time I saw it, I remember saying "Nope, I was right. Still weak."
When people say "arguably the greatest film of all time", I'll be first in line to be on the arguing side. The two main characters of the story are both whiney and lame. The ending was creepy and gross, and if this anime weren't drawn so damn beautifully then I would bet lots of money that it would lose a substantial portion of its fanbase.
It was the very first full length anime movie I ever saw. I was in my…
Read at the sourcerenjikuchiki1
Contrary to many opinions, this movie is quite bad. Firstly, the whole background story about Akira itself is never explained, which causes alot of confusion during the movie. Then there is the static characters which just drag down the plot line, because you have no idea why or how they are connected to it. The movie itself contains very little action until towards the end, but even then it gives little satisfaction. In many ways this is like dragon ball but on a much lower scale then even that. So, if you are looking for a good movie with psychological stuff in it, seek elsewhere, because this movie is just flat-out boring.
Read at the sourceSieg83
You must remember, this movie was made in 1988. If you're going to critique it accurately, you must take this into account. This anime led the way for the growing popularity of anime in the West, with Akira considered a forerunner of the second wave of anime fandom that began in the early 1990s. One of the reasons for the movie's success was the highly advanced quality of its animation. At the time, most anime was notorious for cutting production corners with limited motion, such as having only the characters' mouths move while their faces remained static. Akira broke from this trend with meticulously detailed scenes, exactingly lip-synched dialogue — a first for an anime production (voices were recorded before the animation was completed, rather than the opposite) — and super-…
Read at the sourceTsumayouji
This anime definitely deserves its spot among the classics. The details and politcs of the film coupled with its interesting characters and mind-boggling themes make it highly enjoyable to watch time and again. But be warned, this is most certainly NOT for everyone.
One thing that is sure to turn many viewers away, and that should be mentioned, is that this anime is rated as it is for a reason. If language, graphic violence, protrayl of drug use, and sexual stitautions bother you, then stay away. There is an attempted rape scene that I find to be difficult to sit through. The world in which this movie occurs is a very corrupt one on all fronts: morally, socially, politically, psychologically, and physically. It is very dark at points as such. However, they do not go over the top to make y…
Read at the sourceYandere
I first watched Akira a long time ago and the first time I watched it, I will admit, I was very confused and very creeped out at a lot of parts. I watched it again a few years later and this time I understood it much better and could actually sit through watching it without squirming and the overall concept of Akira is extremely fascinating, it really is a good movie with a lot of meaning in it, and it is extremely moving, as well. The storyline takes place in a place where most of would recognize and not totally feel out of place, but the overall feeling of the place is dangerous and reckless and not a place you would necessarily want to be, but a place you could definitely imagine yourself being. It starts off kind of normal and then suddenly takes a very odd turn in being very science-f…
Read at the sourcemoozooh
Akira is a very controversial piece of art—but a remarkable one regardless. It's not an easy watch by any means, nor it is an easy review subject: the ambition and influence exerted by the movie and its creators make grasping and appraising it in its entirety far from trivial. As virtually every other seminal work of art, Akira is nowhere near flawless, hence why many people don't even consider it a good movie—what with all the gratuitous bloodbath, plot holes, odd side-characters and whatnot—just read some other reviews here. A good bulk of the criticism is valid for sure. But what do we have beside it?
Allow me to get the bad out of the way: if there is a particular aspect where Akira is teetering on the edge of failure in my opinion, it's the fact that Katsuhiro Otomo chose to stuff an…
Read at the source