The Sci-Fi Anime That Changed Everything Should Be Required Viewing

Akira takes place in Neo-Tokyo during the far future year of 2019, ravaged by gangs the government is struggling to control what remains of humanity, resorting to authoritarian methods and clandestine experiments. Pockets of resistance fighters are striking back, and the groups collide when Shotaro Kaneda and his best friend, Tetsuo Shima, lead their gang into combat and accidentally get wrapped up in a government plot centered on psychic powers.

Tetsuo is captured and experimented on, unleashing his latent psychic abilities that have the power to destroy what remains of Neo-Tokyo. 30 years earlier, Akira, with similar powers, destroyed Tokyo, prompting the resistance and the escaped psychics to try and prevent history from repeating.

The basic plot sounds similar to countless other sci-fi properties, but where Akira excels is that not only is that half the story, but it does so with a sense of style and gorgeous animation that pushes the boundaries of the entire medium. The film is bloody and violent, and it never lets up the gas with enough happening that it would cover an entire season if this were a series and not a two-hour movie. Listing off the sci-fi properties not influenced by this classic would take less time than those who pay tribute to it.

I’ve been watching classic anime, from Battle of the Planets to Golgo 13: The Professional, Macross, and Mobile Suit Gundam, which makes the silky smooth kinetic animation of Akira stand out as the history-making achievement that it was. Even if you’ve never seen the movie before, you’ll recognize moments, camera shots, and the iconic “Akira slide.” Kaneda’s slide on his motorcycle to stop and turn around has been used in countless anime, cartoons, and live-action films, becoming an instant part of pop culture.

The arrival of Akira launched a new wave of cyberpunk, from Ghost in the Shell to Cowboy Bebop, and was cited by the Wachowskis as an influence for The Matrix. Anime was already starting to break through in the West, but after the blockbuster success of Akira, which in 1989 made over $2 million in the United States, the floodgates were opened. Within a few years, we received Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2, and countless others that ushered in a new age of anime.

As with many other seminal classics of the era, there have been talks of a live-action adaptation, but this one time, I hope it never happens. Taika Watiti was attached to direct in 2017, with a release date planned for 2021, but Thor: Love and Thunder took the director’s attention. Since then, Warner Bros has shelved the project, and we only hope it stays that way.

REVIEW SCORE

Akira is a seminal classic of not only anime but cinema, and over 30 years later, it still holds up. If you have never seen an anime before, start with this one, if you’ve seen hundreds of anime but missed out on this classic, go back right now, fire it up on Hulu or Crunchyroll. Few films change history, and even fewer anime films can make that claim, but this is one time when all of the hype is justified.