Akira Review

Nothing before it moved like this. Otomo animated at a frame rate the industry did not use, recorded dialogue before production rather than dubbing after it, and put well over a hundred thousand cels into a city rendered with a density of signage, reflection, and background traffic that still reads as real. Kaneda's bike stop is the single most imitated shot in the medium. The other achievement is texture. Tetsuo's transformation is genuinely repulsive body horror animated with anatomical commitment, and the Neo-Tokyo of construction cranes, riot police, and cult processions communicates an entire political situation without exposition.

Geinoh Yamashirogumi's score, built on gamelan, Balinese vocal chant, and taiko rather than orchestra, is unlike anything else attached to a film of this scale. Compression is the cost. Six volumes of manga forced into two hours leaves the Colonel, Kei, and the espers underdeveloped and the ending abstract to the point of opacity. As a technical object it remains unmatched.