Akira

Okay so Akira... I'm gonna go ahead and say:

Honestly I don't really have much to say about this film because I don't really understand what I just spent over two hours watching. Actually, that's another thing! You would think that if they took the time to make a film that long, (because honestly the length of this film in it of itself is impressive on its own; how often do you see a two hour long animated film?), they would go to the trouble of making sure the plot actually makes sense. I feel like this film raised more questions than it could ever hope to answer:

Who are these people and if they act like children, why do they look so old?

What the hell was going on here?

I was informed that these monstrosities were apparently the "old children"
 appearing before Tetsuo. If for the rest of the film these "old children" kept
 trying to keep Tetsuo calm so his powers wouldn't evolve too quickly, why
 did they decide to terrify him on there first meeting?

Why did this have absolutely no effect on him?

What exactly happened at the end? Is everyone dead? Did this white sphere engulf
 the earth or just a small portion of Japan leaving everyone unaffected to wonder
what the bright light was? What Happened to those caught in it? Did they get sent to
the Tetsuo dimension or did they die? Did Tetsuo infact attain a higher level of being
and become a new dimension or is that just completely false? 

Why was Tetsuo's forehead so large? Did riding around on
bikes for so long push back his hairline?

If it was taking place in Japan why was there such a strong
reference to Canada in the film?

These are the real questions.

But in all seriousness: I don't know if this is a by product of their intended audience being children or
what but western style animation has a tendency to be much more straightforward and easier to follow. Where Japanese animation focuses on the journey, Western animation seems to focus more so on the destination. Disney and other american companies ingrain in you from the beginning the final goal and remind you of it every step of the way. Japanese films, at least those I have come to know focus on the journey and have a tendency to make their stories more open ended. The result is an opportunity to sit back and discover the way with the characters instead of mentally checking steps off a list as they happen.

Though this method is much more interesting, the unfortunate side affect is that the story is more confusing and therefore harder to follow. Akira, at least in my opinion is an excellent example of this; the kid gets super powers, which for western films would usually lead to one of two things: he either embraces them and becomes a loveable hero, or he uses them for personal gain and ends up a quote-unquote villain. But Tetsuo doesn't immediately strap on the cape and boots or go skulk in his evil lair, so we are left to watch curiously and see for ourselves which route he will take and who he will become.

I feel like Akira's intended for older, maturer audiences so can afford to be less clear because they can maybe bridge the gaps and make sense of what's going on. I on the other hand, am a child and thus couldn't really make heads or tails of what was going on in the film. This confusion stopped me from getting drawn in to the film and because of it I had a lot of trouble connecting with any of the characters. Often times someone would die or one character would reference another and I'd realize I had absolutely no idea who they were talking about. Yet despite this, there are two characters name's I had no problem remembering because they would conveniently remind me of them every five or so minutes.

If I walk away from this film having learned anything it's that I
will never forget these two's names as long as I live.

-Chloe