Wow. “Akira” is an amazing film that is often considered to be ‘the anime movie’ and that phrase may well be true. The film is absolutely spell-binding as it’s a basically crossover between “Blade Runner” and “Mad Max”.

In 1988, World War III has begun and Tokyo is nuked; now in 2019 a rebuilt Tokyo is filled with biker gangs and a police force that is struggling to cope. A government experiment may now endanger the entire city though after a biker gang member is transformed into and overpowered telekinetic weapon of destruction and his friend and some other government experiments may be the only ones that can help thwart him.

The characters here do deliver a few goofy bits of dialog and that’s a bit of a shame but the characters are drawn so brilliantly here that at times you’ll be amazed you’re watching a cartoon. Anime/manga is not the most realistic art form but here the fluency of the movement and excellent use of shadows really brings the doodles to life (maybe “Pokémon” should take notes). Never before in a movie have I seen characters that at times look so stylised yet so lifelike as if they were right in front of you.

“Akira” features a highly detailed world that it does in the same vein as movies such as “Blade Runner” and “Metropolis” and the post-apocalyptic gangs are clearly taken from “Mad Max” so it definitely has good sources and that it builds upon by showing stuff you couldn’t do in a live-action film without using a computer. “Akira” is an intriguing look at the future and it is a slight shame that near the end the film does just descend into action (yet it’s still amazing to look at). The film has had a massive influence of cinema, almost as much as tv shows like “Star Trek” and movies like “2001: A Space Odyssey” and it deserves the praise it receives.