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The year is now 2018, 30 years since the eventful occurance in Tokyo. Now Neo-Tokyo has grown from the ashes of its predessor, spreading around the gaping crator like a viralent mould. It is a city in the wild grip of technology gone mad, of crime gone epedemic. Rioters march on the streets, and gangs of motorcyclists howl through the neon-lit highways, waging vicious battles. Where death and maiming are commonplace.
The leader of one such a gang is KANEDA, a pill-popping tearway who leads his gang of teenage troops into battle on his huge scarlet motorcycle. With him rides TETSUO, a companion since childhood when they first met at an orpahanage. But the friendship they have is a competitive and uneasy one. Tetsuo is willing to take any frightening risks in order to prove his worth to kaneda and the other bikers. He does such a thing when the troop wage there on going war with the rival Clown gang. The gang has one intention to kill all of the opposition, but tetsuo comes into contact with a strange young boy named Takashi who is a government test subject with unheard of powers. It is then that tetsuo begins to be awakened to the power, the power of akira. This is a power which exists in us all, but we have to be awakened to that power. He then goes on a rampage in order to find out who the test subjects are, they are called Takashi, Kyoko and Masaru. These children spend all there day being cared for and on the constant care of drugs. As usual to Tetsuo's surprise he meets kaneda who has full intentions on recuing him but tetsuo has other plans.
The friendship between kaneda and tetsuo has now reached a critical point as tetsuo kills one of the troop which brings in outside intervention, now the government want him back. Soon tetsuo discovers a place in tokyo were the boy named akira is, and goes on a misssion to find him, but unknowing to testuo, this akira is something completely different to what he expects to find. He arrives at the olympic stadium basement and all hell begins to break loose as the government under the colonel attempts to destroy tetsuo using their satellite weapon S.O.L. But also Kaneda joins in the fray and attempts to personnally kill Tetsuo, but unknowing to them all the 3 test subjects arrive and call for akira who takes testuo away in a light that destroys the entire city an lays many citizens to death, as he cannot control this power. But soon one day they hope to....
Drug crazed biker gangs battle for high-speed supremacy in the neonscape of a nightmarish tokyo.
This film represents an unparalleled technical effort in the world of japanese animation. A standard film runs at 25 frames per second, but most animatio is filmed in 'twos' or 'threes', that is, the cels are photographed twice or three times in succession, reducing both the frame rate and the amount of cels needed. Akira was totally filmed entirely in 'ones', requiring over 150,000 cels, and over 2000 background drawings.
Akiras soundtrack also represents an innovation, with the dialogue recorded first, Disney-style, and the animation constructed to the following speech. Most japanese animation is animated to script, and it is up to the voice actor to synchronise their lines with what is happening on screen. The powerful tribal music was the product of over 200 musicians.
