Oozing with metaphorical messages and warnings, as relevant today as when it was first released, this apocalyptic take on a future world takes place in 2019, some years after an Armageddon event in Tokyo. Often as confusing as hell, a little bit all over the place at times, if you manage to make it to the end you may need to pause for thought to consider what you have witnessed, which can only be a good thing with the shallowness in so much of what we're served up these days. Definitely worth a visit.

"Akira" made IMDb's Top 250 list way back in 1998 and hasn't been back since, although I see it now popping in and out of the rankings for the current year (2018). I'm not an anime fan, or even a fan of animated movies in general, though there are a handful that I've liked well enough. With this film, I'm left entirely in limbo. When something like this occurs, I'll check out the FAQ page for the movie here on IMDb and try to gain some understanding, along with a handful of the more accomplished reviews for the picture. It didn't surprise me that to get a better grip on the story, one would be well advised to read the two thousand plus manga treatment of Akira by the writer, and this film's director, Katsuhiro Ôtomo. I can guarantee that's not going to happen, so what I'm left with as regards the film is a lukewarm acceptance that it's been a very influential work in the genre, while leaving me entirely unimpressed. All I got out of it was an endless series of violence, destruction, explosions and fighting, and though I followed the characters of Kaneda and Tetsuo well enough, there wasn't the least bit of story line that had an appeal for this viewer. Nor were the characters even likeable to any degree, so that was another check in the minus column. So rather than bashing the film, I'll just consider my viewing another in a long list of movies I've watched to get a broader perspective of what's out there and know that I'm not missing anything. All films can't appeal to everyone.

On 16 July 1988, a nuclear blast levels Tokyo. Now it's 31 years later after the end of WWIII. Kaneda is a bike gang leader in a dystopian Tokyo. Kaneda's best friend Tetsuo runs into Takashi who escaped from a secret government laboratory. There is a dissident anti-government organization. Meanwhile military scientists is experimenting on supernatural powers.

While the style is ground breaking, I would have wanted a clearer story with a more prominent main character. The movie should really follow Tetsuo and let him discover the secrets for us. Instead we keep switching to the bad guys who tells us everything. It's a pretty good story with an impressive imaginative style.