Akira is one of the great anime sci-fi classics and has been influential across various forms of media.

| Jul 18, 2023

Great to look at, but more exhausting than entertaining.

| Original Score: B | Aug 31, 2022

Such an extraordinary achievement demands to be seen and seen again for re-evaluation into its deeper relevance—and to be appreciated as a landmark not just of anime but of international cinema.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 19, 2022

AKIRA is an audiovisual masterpiece that still blows me away after all these years. For two hours, the film takes us into a completely disrupted world in which destruction and ambivalence are omnipresent. A film you will never forget.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Apr 25, 2022

The opening motorbike chase is still thrilling, but the dedication to the backgrounds as well as crowds of people filling the screen, explosions happening in the distance, and a jaw-dropping sense of scope make Akira the classic that it is.

| Original Score: A | Jan 25, 2021

Akira's strangeness is very startling and sometimes bewildering. But there is a thanatonic rapture to its vision of a whole world ending and being reborn as something else.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 8, 2020

I've seen the movie four times, and this go-around my jaw was lower on the floor than ever before, somehow.

| Aug 4, 2020

It's dark and violent but, because it is so creative, it is a really fun experience. It's like Inception but way more trippy!

| Original Score: 9.5/10 | Jan 19, 2019

It continues to show the best of the genre, almost 30 years later. It would be sacrilegious to give a different rating from PERFECT to AKIRA. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 20, 2017

Handsome and preposterously ambitious, and even its worst narrative missteps are a factor of that ambition.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 4, 2015

While its typically convoluted sci-fi plotting and sprawling ensemble of characters occasionally lead it to border on the incoherent, it's hard not to be in awe of the giant hand-drawn cityscapes that make up the backdrop for the eye-popping action.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 18, 2013

Pounding away, it becomes monotonous.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 10, 2013

[Akira] is a blast and a half, a twisted dystopian parable of violence and rock and roll, Japanese-style. It's Disney on PCP, mean, rotten, psychotic, but incredibly vivid.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 10, 2013

Extremely violent classic introduced anime to Westerners.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 15, 2013

Moments that can only be captured as animation make Akira still worth watching: gusts of wind from chopper blades, ka-tooming bursts of fiery explosions, Tetsuo's visions.

| Jan 12, 2012

Plenty of superb recent blockbusters, including The Matrix, The Dark Knight, Minority Report, Dark City and Inception, are all in its debt - not to mention a fair number of shockers, like Star Wars Episode II and the most recent Resident Evil atrocity.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 25, 2011

Put it up there with the most astonishing animated features ever made.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 24, 2011

Style and substance run neck and neck in this thrilling, bold landmark film that just refuses to become dated.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 23, 2011

The cityscapes are awesome, the camerawork is dizzying. If you're new to manga, prepare to be converted.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 23, 2011

Akira is pure concentrated cinematic excellence - accept no substitutes.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 22, 2011