Akira
Overview
Akira was what really started Anime in the U.S. It's what raised awareness, and a cult following for any japanese anime that followed it. Persay, One would expect high things out of Akira. However, I did not. I cannot recommend Akira to anyone who would not want to think about the meaning of a very strange ending. And it DOES have a very strange ending. This was a pioneer in many aspects, but not a very GOOD anime comparatively.
Storyline & Narrative
Set in (the now infamous) Neo-tokyo, this anime starts off about a bike gang lead by Kaneda, who stumble upon a government conspiracy. From this spawns the entire story of Akira. However, it later loses focus on the bike gang and onto "something else." This doesn't delve too deep either -_-; The ending doesn't really let you know what happened at all, and people wouls normally go through immense troubles to determine its clouded meaning.
Characters & Dynamics
Kaneda - Leader of a bike gang, he drives that infamous red bike that EVERYONE has seen ;)
Tetsuo - Kind of a younger brother figure to Kaneda, he belongs to Kaneda's bike gang, and always looks up to him.
Akira - Can't tell you about him, can I??
There are more characters, but these are the most significant roles in Akira. Don't look at the toys, or something may get spoiled. All in all these are very basic, one sided characters however.
Animation & Visual Direction
While this is old, I'll be honest, Akira is often BEAUTIFUL. The hand-painted backgrounds are often VERY detailed, although most don't notice it's grandeur. This also pioneered modern day cell-animation. The people look very old-school style, but that was of its time.
Voice Acting & Soundtrack
The voice acting in the Akira pioneer DVD is the best that i've seen thus far, for both english and japanese. However, that's not to say that it's PERFECT, as I still like the japanese sub better. Anyways, pioneer did an AWESOME job with this one
