On the surface, Neo Tokyo is twitching -- itching to turn the page and enter another chapter in the nation's history. The year is 2019, and following the Third World War, half the city is decimated and slumbers comfortably in dark ruin, while the other half exhibits much of the restless glow and fervent energy modern day Tokyo has always bred. For teen ruffian Kaneda and his biker gang cohorts, there is little to no delineation between these two worlds of Old City decay and New City neon sex. For fans of the anime film Akira (1988), this setting is all too familiar -- as are the hopeless characters who wander its darkest alleys.
Neo Tokyo is kind of like a wasteland that doesn't know it's already dead. It's denizens, as a result, are pitifully desensitized to the misery and corruption permeating the air.
In Akira, viewers engage the full-frontal impetuousness of this future city: a fearless biker gang rips through the nighttime streets; anti-government demonstrators herald a new era revolution; and politically conscious military seeks funding for human experimentation.
Neo Tokyo is "a garbage heap made up of a bunch of hedonistic fools," as one man says. Is it worth saving?
Arriving on Blu-ray Disc for the first time for UK anime fans, Akira is the legendary feature animation (directed by Katsuhiro Otomo) whose cyberpunk grit is palpable.
Distributed by Manga Entertainment, Akira hits home video this week (27th) as a single-disc DVD re-release (GBP 11.00), Blu-ray Disc release (GBP 17.93), and Collector's Edition Blu-ray release (GBP 17.93). The Collector's Edition (Blu-ray + DVD) will also include a new 40-page booklet exclusive to the UK market and be housed in a steel folding case. North American anime fans might recall a similar packaging endeavor by the then-named and now-defunct Pioneer Entertainment, whose 2001 re-issue included a limited edition metal tin. Akira was released to Blu-ray in North America by the also now-defunct Honneamise media extension (February 2009).
For UK otaku interested in preserving an anime classic with panache, Manga Ent.'s release of Akira may go a long way toward reliving the terror of Neo Tokyo in style. As the story goes, Kaneda's best friend Tetsuo gets tangled up one night when, in pursuit of a rival gang member, he crashes headlong into a "number." Part of the government's experimental pursuit for power, the numbers are little children with immense telekinetic and precognitive abilities.
Tetsuo, it turns out, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And so with his buddies looking on in worry, a limp and unconscious Tetsuo is air-lifted to places unknown by mysterious black helicopters.
As Akira continues, Tetsuo becomes the latest subject of one scientist's obsession with knowledge, one bitter colonel's desperate proof of concept, and one city's festering wound that refuses to heal over. The boy has been maligned his entire life and craves power; but once Tetsuo finally gains access to such power, he's not of sound mind to control it.
Meanwhile, Kaneda, rolling into the picture with his trademark red leather jacket and matching motorbike, has to figure out a way to save Tetuso's sorry hide (and if he's lucky, Neo Tokyo as well).