In 1988 something happened that was to change the term 'cartoon' for ever as far as im concerned, the Japanese cult hit Akira (directed by Katsuhiro Otomo). A film adaption of a Manga Comic of the same name, Akira made mass waves all over the world.
In continuing with continuity of this series of critical research essays/blog posts on the films I shall do as I did with Godzilla and start with the story.
Right, the story, ermm... the story is well hard to explain. So I shall let imdb do it for me.
"A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psionic psychopath that only two kids and a group of psionics can stop"
In a rather large nutshell that is basically it. This is by no means a classic Hollywood high concept film. As this film is based on a Manga (one that spans over 6 volumes) it is by no means going to be an easy and smooth translation to a two hour film. People who have already read the Manga will no doubt understand the story vastly more than others but doesn't stop this from being one heck of a film. The story revolves around a rebellious teenagers slow and rapid fall into psychological oblivion. With awesome cartoon bike chases to top it off. The story is hard to encapsulate is what I think im getting at here.
The film, in terms of visuals is a masterpiece. It is a lush and glorious depiction of a cyberpunk punk dystopian Neo-Tokyo. This fusion of psychedelic colours and bleak back drops consisted of over 150, 000 cels of animation, thats 3 times more than usual to me and you, equaling to alot of layers of awesome. The explosive 'Japanimation' is powerful enough to shudder even Disney's feathers as even to this day 20 years after its first release it is still considered to be a landmark in animation and even film, breaking previous anime trends such as cornet cutting (such as moving mouths and static faces). This visual approach to the film could be argued to be one of the reasons it is so damn popular. But there are obvious other reasons such as its stock fan base of loyal Manga readers who flocked to see their favourite Manga distilled into film(and it shows as it grossed over ¥6,346,343,871 in Japan, almost 50 million dollars, a number which is still probably rising in DVD sales). Also the films themes were popular of the time such as as it consisted of the destruction of Japan as well as its post-war revival (such as Godzilla).
Another reason for this films success would be the sound that accompanies it, it fuses together moderns synth sounds with classical Japanese instruments to create a delightfully futuristic sound. Also as the director often extracted the sound at key action orientated points in the film such as explosions to emphasis the emotion of the characters and then revving up the action again in the scenes after with a plethora of sounds and effects. Often attacking the viewers ears.
Artistically this is an amazing film. Critically and commercially with an averages score of 88% on RottenTomatoes its easy to say it was 10 million dollars well spent on a film. With its main criticism being that at times the story is too complex.
"Okay Alex, so its a good film, but how the hell is this changing world cinema??" Is what some people may say. Well let me tell you.
Akira is not just a landmark film cos its looks pretty. Its a land mark film because it is the one of most internationally successful and described as the "definitive anime film" as it is credited as being the first full length animated feature to play widely in cinemas out side of Japan. Injecting Manga into the western audiences as some would say. Before Akira cartoons were seen as childlike and well rather simple, but Akira opened their eyes with its apocalyptic tale of a teenager running amok in Tokyo who accidentally destroys it as well. In destroying neo-tokyo, Otomo lead the way for anime in the west.
Akira was followed by other works by Otomo such as Metropolis in 2001 and Steamboy in 2004. Although not as successful as Akira, they also effected cinema winning awards such as best Animation and builds on the foundations of Akira in catapulting Anime out of obscurity.
Akira had highlighted anime and created an interest in it which could be argued to be a reason for the ever growing popularity of the Studio Ghibli films post- Akira such as Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away which even won an Oscar for the best animated feature.
So as you can see Akira didnt just do wonders for anime film it also changed world cinema for what I hope is, forever. As I dread that Akira will fade back into the obscurity of its predecessors. But it doesn't seem like thats going to happen thanks to the Hollywood remaking machine 2 live action adaptions are to follow with one in the summer of 2009. Great.
- Alex x
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