It's impossible for me to think of Akira without thinking of the huge buzz which swept fandom when it was released.  It took animation to a whole new level.  Suddenly it wasn't kids stuff anymore, and people in comics shops would talk for hours extolling the virtues of the film.  Or maybe that's just guys in comic shops for you ...

To the Western eye it was a monumental leap.  We'd been used to animation even when done well, being generally a Disney kind of thing.  But Akira opened the Western worlds mind for a taste of Anime.  It was beautifully drawn, with fluid, realistic animation.  And yet it was gritty and adult all in one.

Akira is based on a popular Japanese comic of the 1980s, and was directed by the same creator of the strip - so no Alan Moore distancing himself from the final product here. 

It's set in a future Japan where Tokyo was destroyed when a young boy called Akira gained god-like superpowers he could not control.  In the rebuilt city, scientists have tried to recreate, nurture and control similar mental powers in a number of test subjects.  When one of these, Takashi, escapes he infects a young biker called Tetsuo with similar powers.  Only the initially introverted Tetsuo finds he cannot control his powers, finding it too easy to kill when he lashes out.  Eventually his power ends up controlling him, and see him on the path to becoming another Akira, with devastating results ...

In a nutshell that's it - but there are all kinds of subplots going on, giving layers to the world of Akira.  Scientists who pursue knowledge reckless of the human cost, religious fanatics who see Akira as some vengeful God, freedom fighters trying to wreck the psionic project, a soldier trying to save a city he dislikes, and a corrupt politician stirring trouble.  Also this being Japan, of course there's a feeling that with tampering with nature, creating people like Akira and Tetsuo and their awesome power, you're playing with fire - a big issue for a country still coming to terms with the atomic bombing of two of it's cities, with themes about the unstoppable force of destruction coming out in Japanese stories like Akira and Godzilla.

Caught in the midst of all this is Tetsuos best friend and fellow biker, Kaneda.  It's like it's Star Trek's Where No Man Has Gone Before - there are a lot of parallels on how the subject of having "powers" would make you view those without them differently, and how if you could manefest your will, what a vengeful God you'd become.  Heck Kaneda is even seen packing a heavy duty energy weapon much like Kirk ...

Rewatching then - does it still have the power to awe?  Having got the new DVD I have to say the redub to English they've done in 2001 makes the story a lot clearer.  And the animation is still good, but alas it has lost some of it's power to amaze.

My wife summed it up when she watched some of it - it's like almost any Anime series you see now.  Akira was groundbreaking, and set a new benchmark.  But so much that's followed has followed that benchmark, and so it's lost it's power to dazzle.  Just a little bit ...