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For an anime that came out in the early 2000's, this is more in the mold of ultra nihilistic 80's/early 90's shock anime like MD Geist and Genocyber. Unlike those, though, it doesn't ever conjure that "fun," free wheeling and frenetic aura that make those films, while not great, watchable in a certain mindset. A lot is made of this adapting Go Nagai's "style;" no, not at all. The animation is crude and slapdash compared to the original Devilman OVA's; It definitely looks and feels like a deadly serious sequel to Apocalypse Zero with its straight up ugly character designs and ugly ways of having ... said character designs dismembered, disemboweled, etc. So what we have here is a serious story that at the same time is incredibly stupid and pointlessly brutal. I gave it a chance because I actually like the Devilman manga and aspects of the simplified OVA's. It's trash.

I almost feel bad that, upon re-assessment, I found the classic "Akira" to be so flawed. The source material for the first anime I ever saw, I remembered pouring through these volumes the first time Dark Horse re-released them in their giant phone books. While my maturation of taste has definitely not rendered "Akira" unreadable by any means, I can't help but feel that there is just so much potential for this to be something that it ultimately failed to be.

Let's get started with the good:

The art for this entire series is impeccable. The character designs are spot-on, but what most impresses me are the ... background renderings. Painstaking detail is put into every last crack, stain, dent, shattered window, decimated tenement, obliterated office tower, speck of rubble of this world which starts as a mere dystopia before turning full on post-apocalyptic. I cannot imagine this scale of desolation or destruction rendered in live action. The framing of every shot is well-done and concise, and the action is always understandable and fluid. From a visual perspective, this is still a landmark of manga.

Now the not-so-good:

The story is a sci-fi story, extremely graphic in content, which also touches on common adolescent fiction or adult themes. At times, it's not too unlike a Japanese sci-fi S.E. Hinton. It straddles cyber-punk by virtue of its cast of drug-addled biker malcontents, but where it fails that level of "hard" sci-fi is also a major downfall of the narrative. Make no mistake, it's definitely about psychic powers. But the way these powers are explained and how they manifest honestly just seems more like "magic." Otomo was clearly not a science buff. "Energy" is supposed to explain away a lot of things, like why a human with psychic powers can fly into space and start carving up the moon.

The extent of Akira and Tetsuo's powers is absurd and never explained well at all. This would be fine if there was some metaphysical subtext that made this seem like a surreal exposition or magical realism, but there isn't. It becomes page after page after page of psychic blasts and things falling around people and that's all it feels like. Re-reading the books, I gave up about halfway through 5. I'd just had enough. It stops telling any sort of meaningful story and almost becomes a Shonen. The point of the story stops being about government intrigue or youth rebellion and shifts to "Tetsuo is really powerful, look at this powerful display of power, man, the good guys better get him."

Further, while the character designs themselves were good, their story arcs and character development left a lot to be desired.

Let's start with main character Kaneda. He is a bad ass biker boy who tries to feel your tits and steals your gun and doesn't get killed because he's a bad ass, end of story, and oh yeah, he can't stop finding reasons why "this time Tetsuo's gone too far," hilariously even well after Tetsuo has obliterated the entire city.

Kei, his sidepiece; She's a nonentity. Like, literally, at one point. She lacks so much characterization that the little psychic kids possess her body in a last ditch effort to do battle with Tetsuo. Unlike Kaneda, she is presumably intelligent and cunning enough to be a pivotal member of some underground terrorist cell (whose aims are never really explained, by the way). Despite this, she ends up helpless and useless in just about every key moment of the story. Brash biker badass powers mean more than all the womanly cunning you can muster in Neo Tokyo.

Tetsuo: Your basic school shooter type. He's actually the only character anyone would bother remembering from this book, because there are moments early on when his instability and anger are actually kinda scary. His psychic powers are grotesque and so follows his own mind. In the real origin story of Kaori, who in the film is a meaningless plot device, she is the lone survivor of a drug orgy he conducts, a scene that is honestly really chilling. At the same time, you find him somewhat sympathetic, so obviously unable to control his power. Once again, the Shonenesque final chapters of the saga squander this on psychic blasts and whatnot.

The rest of the cast are the typical ensemble of people who exist to help these main characters get through the story. They have flashes of being interesting; Ryu and the Biker Clown alone have more dynamic story lines, downfalls and revelations than any of the aforementioned. But the story isn't about them. The story is using them for things. Not much more.

So I just trashed the all-immortal "Akira." Why a rating of 7? Because of the ambition, no matter how misguided, and the detail of the artwork. With proper writing (which is actually hinted at early on in the series, like say, the first couple books), "Akira" could have had a story up to par with its amazing visuals. As it stands, it's just a kinetic jumble of great imagery that doesn't withstand much scrutiny as a whole.

If all someone expects from anime's art is fan service, no, this isn't your anime. No giant sweat drops. No exaggerated faces. No women written by guys who evidently have never talked to them in their life. No big jock heroes to live through vicariously in the glow of your TV screen.

The point of art is not to escape, it's to experience. And when it comes to experience, this is maybe one of the few anime not called "Patlabor 2," "Ghost in the Shell" or "Jin Roh" that do indeed immerse you in a world that is altogether mysterious, but very familiar to anyone who ... interacts in adult society. In other words, the characters act like actual people; Anyone more than a casual fan of anime should know this is a rarity.

The art and direction is modeled after no less than Tarkovsky, and it takes quite a few motifs from "Stalker," but whereas that story evoked remote desolation, this one is about societal decay and the fate of our collective species. The plot develops a rich ensemble of characters that resemble actual humans (I can't stress enough how rare this is with anime) whose fates you actually feel for.

I don't want to say anything else about the story. It's a beautifully depicted surrealist masterpiece on the surface, but the writing of these all too real characters is what makes this a truly unparalleled work of art.

In sum, this is for anyone who is seeking a sci-fi work that doesn't insult their intelligence or sense of humanity; a diamond in the rough.