Marcus: Akira (1988)

          Say what you want about the Japanese, and I'll bet that part of what you say is that their culture is nothing short of weird. It's as if they as a people are a year away from worshiping Gary Busey as a deity. And yet all this eccentricity seems to filter off into some very useful and relevant by-products, namely, the uncanny ability to tell stories on an epic scale that rivals that of any other culture on the planet. Take a look at manga. Not all of it, for the love of God, not all of it, but a good portion of manga finds itself in that strange limbo between great visual and literary art (like Alan Moore's "Watchmen"). And not only does this manga prove itself as such, but it also is able to sustain itself for long, long, long periods of time without compromising quality. Keep in mind, most manga volumes are not like the comic books you get in America, with their flimsy bindings and thin... stuff. Each volume of Japanese manga tends to be the size of a novel in itself, and they can continue printing for years.

          So when it happens that a story should emerge that is borderline classic literary material, and happens to be over 2000 pages long, and is planned to be adapted into a movie that will compress the whole thing into a two-hour event, the rules of Hollywood dictate that such an undertaking would result in an unmitigated disaster. But keep in mind, this is Japan we're talking about. The rules of Hollywood don't apply here (until American studios get the rights to do a crappy remake, as is often the case) and the project is put in the very capable hands of the original manga author himself, one Katsuhiro Otomo. Throw all this together and you get "Akira," a film that not only brought an unprecedented level of artistry to the anime movies, but stands as a beacon of triumph amongst film in general.
          "Akira" has an animation style that would stand up with the best of the best even today. The environment, when it's not blowing up, is entirely immersive, and you can tell this isn't one of those budgeted projects that utilizes minimal action (Go, Speed Racer!). The character movement is fluid, and the mouths move in ways that enunciate real words.
          And if the artist's integrity weren't enough, you also have the story, which is just... just awesome. You have some 15-year old members of a bike gang, living in a post-apocalyptic Japanese city called Neo-Tokyo, a replacement for the real Tokyo, which was destroyed by a massive explosion 30 years before. One day, during a turf war, they get mixed up in a secret government project when one of the gang members, Tetsuo, gets injured and is taken away by the government to be put under observation. Tetsuo has awakened within him a mysterious power, which at first manifests itself as headaches and really nasty acid trips (aka images of his toys coming to life, growing larger than life size, and then sweating milk absolutely everywhere.) This power is similar to those held by a group of children, also under government protection. It turns out that one of these children, Akira, is the source of the explosion that destroyed Tokyo. I won't say anything else about the plot, but I will issue a warning. Don't eat any meat before watching the end of this movie. The last 20 minutes are gross to put it mildly and gargantuanly tumor-tastic to put it not so mildly. Let's just say that as Tetsuo's powers develop and mature, he's no longer able to keep them under control. They change him into what can only be described as a giant baby made of internal organs. I'd also advise you watch this only if you have a love of, or at least tolerance for explosions, seeing as there's about one every two minutes. Hell, the first scene is an entire city being leveled. But ultimately, "Akira" is a huge cinematic achievement, one that uses anime to thoroughly explore themes of the decay of civilization and simultaneously looking at the trauma that many of us experienced while going through puberty. Although it's fair to say most of us didn't explode into giant pudding-muscled monsters that had to be teleported into a different plane of existence.