Akira

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Akira

R

1988

2h 4m

Sci-Fi

Anime

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

91%

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55 Reviews

90%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

In 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019, 31 years after nuking the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles against anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo's supernatural power suddenly manifest. A final battle is fought in Tokyo Olympiad exposing the experiment's secrets.

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Critics Consensus

Akira is strikingly bloody and violent, but its phenomenal animation and sheer kinetic energy helped set the standard for modern anime.

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Chris Stuckmann

ChrisStuckmann.com

01/25/2021

A

The opening motorbike chase is still thrilling, but the dedication to the backgrounds as well as crowds of people filling the screen, explosions happening in the distance, and a jaw-dropping sense of scope make Akira the classic that it is.

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

10/08/2020

4/5

Akira's strangeness is very startling and sometimes bewildering. But there is a thanatonic rapture to its vision of a whole world ending and being reborn as something else.

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David Jenkins

Little White Lies

07/18/2013

4/5

While its typically convoluted sci-fi plotting and sprawling ensemble of characters occasionally lead it to border on the incoherent, it's hard not to be in awe of the giant hand-drawn cityscapes that make up the backdrop for the eye-popping action.

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Joe Lipsett

Horror Queers Podcast

Sep 17

4/5

It's a classic for a reason! This seminal anime film is filled with incredible visuals, dense themes, and (it turns out) a bunch of content missing from the comics. It's exciting, but occasionally overwhelming.

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Howard Waldstein

CBR

07/18/2023

Akira is one of the great anime sci-fi classics and has been influential across various forms of media.

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Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

08/31/2022

B

Great to look at, but more exhausting than entertaining.

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Joshua

10/17/2022

Neo Tokyo really blew up

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retro b

@retrobite Feb 1

You start Akira expecting an epic and find yourself in a mirror of your own anguish. Tetsuo Shima is the failure of the man who, upon finding himself free from the chains of weakness, chooses the worst of enslavements: bad faith. Akira is also a critique of the state. Neo-Tokyo is Thomas Hobbes’s 'Leviathan' turned nightmare: a hierarchical structure where the army and scientists experiment on the bodies of the poor. The rebellion of the motorcycle gangs is the natural response to totalitarian control. A total delight in 2h and 4min

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Kevin P

Jan 19

An insanely influential and groundbreaking anime movie that has so many iconic moments that are exciting, tense, and breathtaking. The movie is filled with epic action sequences and dark bloody violence. The movie has amazing animation that is extremely fluid, detailed, and colorful with great dark shadows & lighting. The soundtrack is an awesome mix of futuristic techno and traditional Indonesian percussion music. The setting is an awesome cyberpunk city. There are some incredibly tense and downright brutal scenes. Tetsuo goes off the deep end as his psychic powers and insecurity grows. The climax has such horrifying body horror imagery and is animated with such fluid detail, with an ethereal bittersweet ending with a glimmer of hope/rebirth. Admittedly, the pacing gets clustered in the middle of the runtime. 2 of the 3 female characters also feel underdeveloped (especially Tetsuo's girlfriend). Despite this, it's still a fantastic movie with incredible artwork and vivid imagination.

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Jithin K

Jan 10

One of the best things about Akira is that it truly embodies "show, don't tell," without feeling like they don't speak enough in the movie. There's so much communicated visually here. It feels like a high-pitched cry about the way humans decide to govern the world. Watching on the big screen just convinced me that. What a first theater watch of the year for me!

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Adam

@idfc.bear Dec 15

Cyberpunk prophecy with psychic teens, biker gangs, and a city that explodes its own trauma. Loud and brilliant and still ahead of it's time.

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Jason H

Dec 8

It's visually impressive, but the story doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

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Katsuhiro Ohtomo

Director

Mitsuo Iwata

Shôtarô Kaneda

Nozomu Sasaki

Tetsuo Shima

Mami Koyama

Kei

Tessho Genda

Ryûsaku

Hiroshi Otake

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Akira: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

In 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019, 31 years after nuking the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles against anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo's supernatural power suddenly manifest. A final battle is fought in Tokyo Olympiad exposing the experiment's secrets.

Director: Katsuhiro Ohtomo
Producer: Shunzo Kato, Ryôhei Suzuki
Screenwriter: Izou Hashimoto, Katsuhiro Ohtomo
Distributor: Streamline Pictures
Production Co: Akira Committee Company, Ltd.
Rating: R (Graphic Violence|Brief Nudity)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Anime
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 1, 1988, Wide
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Mar 30, 2001
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 12, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $390.0K
Runtime: 2h 4m
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby Stereo
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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