Well I just watched this for the very 1st time and I can already tell that this is a film that needs to be watched more than once to be fully understood and appreciated. When you watch this you really have to make sure that you're completely focused on it. Honestly from the moment the plot starts to pick up I already felt like if you turned attention away for only a second, you would probably miss a crucial detail. I actually even found myself rewinding certain scenes just to be absolutely sure that I understood what just occurred. I never even read a plot synopsis before watching this, so a lot of the story's moments were unexpectedly quite shocking and disturbing. All I'd seen before was a clip of the opening showing the bike chase, so that probably left me expecting a completely different atmosphere and story. I will admit I was not wowed by the story to the point I wanted to jump out of my seat but the movie really left me in a deep state of thinking wondering how certain things were meant to be interpreted.

One aspect I find unique was that there really was no hero or villain at all. Every single character had a big focus on their flaws, with their strengths receiving less focus, most likely to hammer in the fact that not a single character is meant to be portrayed as hero. I thought the Colonel was going to be the main villain but honestly he just makes the most logical decisions given the circumstances. I found myself thinking there was a lack of exposition, I was wishing I knew more of the characters' pasts, near the end we see a whole bunch of flashbacks that I felt would've been placed better at an earlier time but meh that feels like nitpicking. Part of me felt like the story was a bit abridged but that's understandable since I read this was made while the manga was still ongoing but that doesn't soften the blows from the themes of rebellion, creation, destruction and power in this movie.

The quality of the animation blew me away, not reusing any character animations, having their lips actually match the words that they're saying. Japanese animation must have reached an all time high when this was released, if I hadn't known the year this was made I actually wouldn't believe it was a product of the 80s. If Akira was made today using same techniques as in 1988, it would probably be so immensely expensive that it would make any publisher studio shit their pants. My favorite parts would have to be watching Tetsuo mow down every single thing they threw at him, I honestly found it comically amusing, and the incredibly well animated chase scene at the start.

I imagine that back during the times this was made there weren't much dark, gritty, disturbing and grotesque moments in anime and that Akira most likely set the stage for the future animes that contain those aspects. It's easy to see how this influenced future cyberpunk animes such as, Ghost In the Shell and Cowboy Bebop. I wonder if Final Fantasy 7 had some inspiration from Akira? FF7's Jenova, Midgar and bike scene came to my mind as I watched. The entire time I was really reminded of Blade Runner, which ironically is another film that I found to be one of those that needs to be seen multiple times to be fully appreciated and understood.

I would've gone into major plot details but I'd rather leave that for when I at least have one re-watch. I might come back and edit in my thoughts on that. Oh and did anyone else have a difficult time telling the Colonel and Ryu apart?