Neo Tokyo 2019, 30 years after World War Three. For Kaneda's bike gang, the daily routine of boredom and high-speed violence is broken when gang member Tetsuo crashes into a wizened child escaped from a research lab...
DVD Extras:
Stills gallery, 1988 production report, make-your-own-trailer feature, quiz, hyperlink, Manga trailers. Like Final Fantasy (directed by a games designer), Akira (directed by a comic artist) is a frustrating mix of breathtaking technical innovation and grindingly pretentious plotting making the whole considerably less than the sum of its 150,000 individually sumptuous frames. This re-release boasts a technically perfect print and a much improved English translation. On the downside, the rampant pill-popping has been censored and the bland extras don't justify the second disc. Unless you fancy a tiny quiz, murky scratch-covered trailers and a make-your-own-trailer feature that's an utter con.
