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New Top 350 Entry: #83
It's East meets The Warriors with a dash of Chronicle with a pretty anime coat to cover it all. What could go wrong? Pretty much nothing, I couldn't find much to pick apart and complain about in this film- I was too drawn into the action, the art, and the overall story.
I made the mistake of believing that Akira was a racing movie, which turned me off to it for a while, in addition to the fact that it was an anime film, which I've only just begun to appreciate the style of. When I was younger, I found a huge distaste for anime, and wanted nothing to do with it, especially if it was bloody. Fortunately, things have changed, and I've developed somewhat of an appreciation for the genre, and I can say that Akira is one of the best anime films I've seen yet. Perhaps I benefitted from listening to the original Japanese audio, rather than going for an English dub. I think a lot of dubs are a bit mediocre, and honestly I feel they're made for lazy viewers (no offense to you if you watch it dubbed). The powerful Japanese voices conveyed a lot of the more dramatic moments to my emotions, and I feel that, had I watched the English dub, some of these moments may have been lost to me.
Being a Japanese anime, the ending escalated to nothing short of insane. There were some brief moments where I felt I didn't quite know what was going on, but I loved it anyway. That's the beauty of anime sometimes. You only need to get lost in the crazy story and the beautiful artwork to really enjoy it. Akira is also accompanied by a gorgeous soundtrack. With a futuristic motif that brilliantly sets the mood for the action and plot, the music was one of my favorite parts of the film, and deeply resonated within me to help me become more and more attached to the story.
After all the praise I had heard people direct towards me about Akira, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I really loved it. The story was unique, and helped pave the roads for a few sci-fi films from the late 20th and 21st centuries. The story was insane in its own right, and the animation was just gorgeous. With a new blu-ray restoration, Toho brought their classic anime film to new heights, and the superior quality made it look better than a lot of newer anime films. Akira is one of my favorite anime films I've seen thus far, and I can't wait to find out what else Japanese anime has in store for me. I've had a lot of fun with these films so far, and I'm not gonna stop now.