192: Akira

I don’t like anime. I just don’t. Maybe it’s that I’ll always associate animation with children’s entertainment, which has for the most part been lost on me since the age of 13.  I’m also not the biggest fan of sci-fi and fantasy, which seem to encompass the majority of genres which anime incorporates.  Obviously there are exceptions to these trends.  I have found much of the Pixar catalogue to be good or even great, and am a Star Wars fan, but typically I find the most personally rewarding film experiences are those based in reality.  Sci-fi and fantasy work for me only in the instances in which they create an entire world within which their story unfolds.  Thus films such as Blade Runner (1982) and the Lord of the Rings (2001; 2002; 2003) Trilogy seem real because they present an entire mythology, environment, and history in which the events that transpire are totally plausible.

I’m sure that for the legion of fans of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira (1988) this rings true.  A post-apocalyptic Tokyo is created in which the events that are presented do not seem inconceivable, and for that I give much credit to Otomo, who wrote the graphic novel on which the film is based.  But for me Akira felt like a primer in teenage demographic entertainment; a guided tour of anime lead by everyone whose ever tried to explain to me why it is so cool and eventually, dismissively decreed that I “just don’t get it.”  To be fair, they’re right. I don’t, and while the concepts presented in Akira might interest me were they to be presented in a live-action format, here I’m just lost amongst the stylistic flourishes of the film’s creators.  Yes, I can appreciate that animation is one of the most challenging professions in the film industry. Perhaps I do even over-romanticize film-in-camera, lighting decision, difficult secondary movement, message through editing filmmaking. I acknowledge that filmmakers employ animation to present images that could not be created through even the best makeup, production design, and old-school special effects, but those are the things I love. 

Animation is certainly preferrable to original Clash of the Titans (1981) -style hokey Claymation and remake Clash of the Titans (2010) -style CGI everything, but like Claymation and CGI animation can have the opposite effect of its intended use.  When these techniques are employed I’m less likely to suspend my disbelief.  I’m not anti-classic Disney, or anti Wallace and Gromit, or even anti CGI in every case, but when these elements replace the essence of narrative filmmaking, when they are prioritized over story, character, and decent writing they are put to use in vain.  The point of movies is to engage an audience in a story, and for me Akira failed at this basic level of narrative.  I didn’t care about the characters, or their struggles, or even the plight of their world.  This is also why Avatar (2009) sucked.  

Grade: 1 Hat Off