Synopsis:
The year is 2019; 30 years after a mysterious explosion consumed Tokyo, and started World War III. Neo-Tokyo, built on the ashes of Tokyo, is a dangerous city, filled with terrorists and gangs, government secrets, and buildings hidden deep underground. Neo-Tokyo has become a dark, harsh place.
The story revolves around two characters, Kaneda and Tetsuo. During a gang fight Tetsuo, a member of Kaneda’s bike gang, and Kaneda’s best friend, gets into an accident trying to avoid a mysterious child who, quite frankly, looks very strange. Seconds later the army arrives and takes both, Tetsuo and the kid. They run a series of tests on him, and find out that he has tremendous psychic powers. A while later Tetsuo’s psychic powers wake up telling him to seek a mysterious person called “Akira”. Tetsuo’s powers grow so powerful that he loses control over his mind and body and lashes out at the whole world. He begins a journey to find that one person that might explain to him what is happening, that one person that might cure his horrible headache, that one person called Akira.
Sound
Pioneer has totally re-mastered the sound in this classical, epic story. Akira now supports all high standards in sound quality. Good ol’ Akira now sports Dolby digital surround sound, even with the Japanese sounds.
Extras
The menus and features in the DVDs are awesome! The menu animation is quite stunning for a menu. The capsule feature is one of my favorites, and with the deluxe DVD you can watch interviews, concept art, and much more. The only thing that I didn’t like was the fact that the subtitles are yellow instead of white. It supposedly doesn’t strain your eyes as much, but I, personally, like the white. ^-^;
Lasting impression
Akira is one of the very few anime I can remember word for word, it just stuck in my head. I love the story line and ending, it has to be one of my favorite anime of all time. I watched Akira at least 8 times, and I will watch it again.
Final words
Seeing as how it was made in 1988, I think the animation is wonderful, but is still dated. The plot is amazing, although it does differ greatly from the manga. Seeing as how the special edition DVD is rather expensive, I think everyone should at least, own the VHS version of Akira.
Final Score: 8 out of 10
-Knuckles
