I constantly run into the same issue with anime. I’ll find something with a cool aesthetic, but after about 15 minutes, I feel like I’ve had enough. I don’t know if it’s the writing or the cartoonish nature of it, but I find the overwhelming majority of it so boring and nonsensical. Akira is no exception.
I’ve always known of Akira as a highly regarded manga. When I saw that AMC had screenings of the 4k rerelease, I was quite excited to see it. I was unable to get tickets to an IMAX screening, so I saw it in Prime instead. Visually, I think it was amazing. Throughout the whole thing, I was impressed by how good the animation looked on the big screen. My favorite part starts when Tetsuo puts on the red cape. I’m not one for action sequences, but the animation really carried this sequence, and the cape is pure aura. However, after about 20 minutes I was over it and went back to waiting for the film to end.
I’ll be honest. I didn’t really get what they were going on about for most of this thing. I get the idea is that Tetsuo felt lesser than Kaneda all his life and then he gets this ultimate power which he abuses to his eventual demise, but the rest of it didn’t click for me. Maybe I’ll have to rewatch it or read the manga… is what I would say, except I already did!?
I didn’t realize that I had seen this movie before until I went to log it on Letterboxd and found an entry for it from 2022. Absolutely zero recollection of this. I then had a vague memory of reading the manga back in high school. I checked my log, and sure enough, I read it back in 2016. At this point, I think I can confidently say that Akira is not my cup of tea. I gave the manga a 7/10, so I must have enjoyed it, but the fact that I have the faintest memory of reading it must say something. My most vivid memory of Akira is not when I read or watched it, but when Supreme dropped the collab back in 2017. I won’t contest its iconic status. The animation is top-notch, and the fight scenes are great if you’re into that. But for me, the story does nothing. The only part of the experience I was able to enjoy was the animation, but besides that, absolutely forgettable.