
The ROSSMAN, Lost and
Confused
in the Jungle
Akira.
Supposedly the definitive Japanese animated movie. The
one that started the anime craze in America back in the late
'80s. The one that made thousands of animation fans yell out "What the fuck was that?!" in
unison. Akira.
Sooooooo,
what is Akira? Well, it's the 3rd anime I ever saw back
in '91. It's the movie that I used to confuse my friends who
took Psych 101 and thought that they fully understood the human
mind. It's also a 2 hour ride of incredible hand drawn animation
that leads us from violent bike chase, to violent infiltration
of a government hospital, to a violent march of madness into
the heart of darkness, to a violent and disturbing finale set
in an Olympic stadium and featuring a violent giant glob of
what used to be a human being who likes to suck people into
his chubby thighs. Akira is just plain sweet.
It all starts
off with some Japanese revolutionaries kidnapping some blue
prune boy from a government facility. Then there's some shooting
and dying. During this we meet some punk ass bikers who beat
the crap out of a rival biker gang who dress up like the Joker
from Batman. After some really cool racing and pounding
scenes the blue prune boy and one of the bikers meet face to
face... Violently. This sets everything in motion. There's lots
of talk about telekinesis, evolution, nuclear war, revolution
and of course a boy named Akira. He's the cause of everything
it seems. I won't tell you anymore of the plot though, but not
because I'm afraid I'll give something important away, but mostly
because I'm afraid I'll just confuse you more than you might
already be. The first few times I saw Akira I just checked
my mind at the door and enjoyed the ride. That's basically what
I do for work and pleasure alike. It may get me into a bit of
trouble on occasion, but the wacky adventures that I get to
live out because of this great ability more than make up for
it.
The new DVD
release of Akira by Pioneer is incredible! The video
quality is gorgeous and the audio tracks are superb. And I
never
use the word "superb" unless I have to. The English
dub isn't too bad either, as long as you can get over the fact
that Daisaku Kusama (from Giant Robo) is now Tetsuo's
voice. Although the story seems to be all over the place and
may feel a bit rushed, chalk this up to the movie only covering
about the first 1/3 of the entire manga. This is the only thing
that pissed me off about this flick... We never got to see that
big momma woman who helped Kei and Kaneda out with her mad gun
skillz or those little project children that worked for that
old spiritualist lady. They were shibby.
With my
telepathic powers from being Child # 29, I can foresee
that I will give Akira 3-1/3 out of 4-1/7 Power Stars of
Fortitude. After that all I can foresee is doom.
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