Akira review
By Joel Humphries · Watched 09.06.26
★★★★½ 4.5 / 5
Spoiler-free review
Akira is nearly 40 years old and still looks absolutely gorgeous, especially restored in 4K on a theater screen. The animation, colors, motorcycles and movement through Neo-Tokyo remain spectacular, while Kaneda, Tetsuo, government experiments, psychic children and political unrest still build toward some properly apocalyptic chaos. I did not return looking for a grand new interpretation; I went because a classic this visually extraordinary deserves to be seen as large and clearly as possible. It did not disappoint. If a 4K theatrical rerelease comes near you, take the opportunity. This is exactly what the big screen can still give you that home cannot.
Full review — contains spoilers
I saw Akira again in its 4k rerelease because if somebody is going to give me an opportunity to see Akira in 4K on a big screen, I'm going to take it. This movie came out in 1988 and still looks absolutely gorgeous. The animation, the colors, Neo-Tokyo, the motorcycles, the movement through the city, all of it still looks fantastic almost 40 years later. Whatever else you think about Akira, visually this thing has aged incredibly well.
I'm not going to spend a bunch of time trying to explain the plot because there's a lot going on here. Basically, you're following Kaneda and his motorcycle gang through Neo-Tokyo when his friend Tetsuo gets caught up in a government experiment and starts developing psychic abilities. Things get increasingly out of control from there, and before you're done you've got military experiments, psychic children, political unrest, government conspiracies and some pretty massive apocalyptic shit.
I don't really have some new grand take on Akira after seeing it again. I wasn't going back because I suddenly had some different interpretation of the movie that I needed to work through. I went because it's Akira, it's a classic for a reason, and I wanted to see what it looked like in 4K on a theater screen.
It didn't disappoint, it looked absolutely fantastic.
The writing and visuals are still a treat, and I'm glad I went back. If Akira comes back to a theater near you in 4K and you've never seen it that way, take the opportunity. This is exactly the kind of movie where seeing it on a huge screen actually gives you something you aren't getting at home.