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What about Akira? Is that a master-piece?
Since the bandwagon for this has appeared...
- Thread starter Captain Cadaver
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Akira has some decent theme exploration with it acting as an allegory for Nuclear Weapons and the fear Japan had of them since Hiroshima/Nagasaki. As it's own story, it works somewhat well by having a lot of cool, well executed ideas such as a powerful yet somewhat balanced power system, a good sense of terror and hopelessness for 80% of it's entirety through how unstoppable the psychics were and some decent psychological introspection for some of it's characters.
However, it's far from a masterpiece. To start off, the characters aren't the best I've seen, with Tetsuo being the only one I found engaging whilst Akira, Kaneda and Kei were the only ones who made enough of an impact for me to remember them. Even that was only due to how much screen time they're given, as beyond that they don't have much going on. Akira is just the big bad to be defeated, Kaneda's the cool protagonist with ridiculous plot armour and Kei's just there so the MC can get some pussy at the end. Whilst I also like when a series tries to offer some sort of psuedo-science to explain it's power system, the lack of definition or clear limits to the extent or utilisation of Akira and Tetsuo's powers make it seem more akin to magic, even if it's probably the best depiction of the scientific magic approach I've seen in anime/manga (unless Alchemy from FMA counts as such, in which case it's the clear winner).
It's climactic stage before the conclusion also felt very over the top and surreal even for this series, what with Tetsuo's transformation into a giant fetus at the end and the shoehorned in philosophy right at the end making it feel like a far less subtle and just as surreal version of Evangelion.
So overall, Akira is a series that only really excels in the areas of thematic strength and an interesting setting. Whilst not bad in it's other fields, it isn't outstanding like nostalgia and hype would suggest to most, though still a worthwhile series as a case study of anime/manga's evolution and how the medium can be a conduit of popular and important topics.
7/10
However, it's far from a masterpiece. To start off, the characters aren't the best I've seen, with Tetsuo being the only one I found engaging whilst Akira, Kaneda and Kei were the only ones who made enough of an impact for me to remember them. Even that was only due to how much screen time they're given, as beyond that they don't have much going on. Akira is just the big bad to be defeated, Kaneda's the cool protagonist with ridiculous plot armour and Kei's just there so the MC can get some pussy at the end. Whilst I also like when a series tries to offer some sort of psuedo-science to explain it's power system, the lack of definition or clear limits to the extent or utilisation of Akira and Tetsuo's powers make it seem more akin to magic, even if it's probably the best depiction of the scientific magic approach I've seen in anime/manga (unless Alchemy from FMA counts as such, in which case it's the clear winner).
It's climactic stage before the conclusion also felt very over the top and surreal even for this series, what with Tetsuo's transformation into a giant fetus at the end and the shoehorned in philosophy right at the end making it feel like a far less subtle and just as surreal version of Evangelion.
So overall, Akira is a series that only really excels in the areas of thematic strength and an interesting setting. Whilst not bad in it's other fields, it isn't outstanding like nostalgia and hype would suggest to most, though still a worthwhile series as a case study of anime/manga's evolution and how the medium can be a conduit of popular and important topics.
7/10
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What about the movie?
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Movie's a lot worse than the manga due to cutting out important info for the climax such as Kei's training that just make the last 30 minutes seem nonsensical. Can't offer it any higher than a 6/10.
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How about its production-values and stuff? Is it an amazing looking movie?
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It looks great, but I seldom factor aesthetics as a major component when rating a series. Stylistic qualities do help enhance an already good experience, of which they certainly do here, but not by enough that I'd give such equal precedence to the substantial factors of story and characters.
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Why not both?
Vegeta looks better in the scene if I have to choose. Really looks determined to go at it.
Vegeta looks better in the scene if I have to choose. Really looks determined to go at it.
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Thoughts on Darth Maul?
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Darth Maul's appearance in The Phantom Menace left much to be desired, All he had going was a cool design but zero personality, even compared to other poorly fleshed out prequel villains.
However, The Clone Wars, Son of Dathomir and Rebels succeed in making Darth Maul one of the most engaging characters in the current Star Wars canon. Whilst I don't particularly like how plot armoured he was to survive being cut in half (though I guess if Vader's hatred was enough to have him survive being burnt by lava, anything's possible with enough Dark Side) or how cheaply his trauma was taken away by magic, it was made up for with one of the best character arcs in Star Wars. Maul's ambition in wanting to become the dark horse third party in The Clone Wars, rise up amongst the criminal underworld and found a new Sith Order made for an engaging story, with it being shown he'd moved on from being the brute assassin he formerly was and was prepared to think far more strategically in order to be a true leader.
The Son of Dathomir comic helps make him more sympathetic by showing he never chose to become a Sith and was moulded by his experience. In Rebels, his role as a manipulative Dark Side user helped make him a constant threat in Season 3, plus it was nice to see him ragdoll that series' bland cast. His death against Obi-Wan was somewhat satisfying in helping highlight Maul's character flaw in being so obsessed with the past and revenge he couldn't move forward.
Him confiding in Obi-Wan in his final moments and asking if Luke was indeed the chosen one also show another layer to Maul's character by that point. Tracking down Kenobi may very well have not even been about revenge. Perhaps, having abandoned the Sith long ago, there was a part of Maul that wished for some solace in atoning for his sins. I don't think Maul would've thrown the fight in any way and indeed had revenge and the Dark Side primarily fuelling him, but it's nice to think that knowing he could no longer stand up to Vader or Palpatine, Maul at least wished to go down with honour against the man who robbed him of much and who Maul robbed of his love.
Such a developed and interesting character arc for what started off as someone with less personality than jobber villains like Jango or Grievous really helped propel Maul into becoming one of my favourite Star Wars characters and one of the few good aspects of post-Disney Star Wars.
7.5/10
However, The Clone Wars, Son of Dathomir and Rebels succeed in making Darth Maul one of the most engaging characters in the current Star Wars canon. Whilst I don't particularly like how plot armoured he was to survive being cut in half (though I guess if Vader's hatred was enough to have him survive being burnt by lava, anything's possible with enough Dark Side) or how cheaply his trauma was taken away by magic, it was made up for with one of the best character arcs in Star Wars. Maul's ambition in wanting to become the dark horse third party in The Clone Wars, rise up amongst the criminal underworld and found a new Sith Order made for an engaging story, with it being shown he'd moved on from being the brute assassin he formerly was and was prepared to think far more strategically in order to be a true leader.
The Son of Dathomir comic helps make him more sympathetic by showing he never chose to become a Sith and was moulded by his experience. In Rebels, his role as a manipulative Dark Side user helped make him a constant threat in Season 3, plus it was nice to see him ragdoll that series' bland cast. His death against Obi-Wan was somewhat satisfying in helping highlight Maul's character flaw in being so obsessed with the past and revenge he couldn't move forward.
Him confiding in Obi-Wan in his final moments and asking if Luke was indeed the chosen one also show another layer to Maul's character by that point. Tracking down Kenobi may very well have not even been about revenge. Perhaps, having abandoned the Sith long ago, there was a part of Maul that wished for some solace in atoning for his sins. I don't think Maul would've thrown the fight in any way and indeed had revenge and the Dark Side primarily fuelling him, but it's nice to think that knowing he could no longer stand up to Vader or Palpatine, Maul at least wished to go down with honour against the man who robbed him of much and who Maul robbed of his love.
Such a developed and interesting character arc for what started off as someone with less personality than jobber villains like Jango or Grievous really helped propel Maul into becoming one of my favourite Star Wars characters and one of the few good aspects of post-Disney Star Wars.
7.5/10
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Thoughts on the SW sequels?
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I've gone into detail on them in other threads, but to sum them up, the sequel trilogy are thus far even worse than the prequels. Not only do they destroy any sort of internal logic that survived the prequels or were founded by them such as Ma-Rey Sue being as strong as the plot demands or suddenly any ship being capable of decimating a flagship via Light Speed Kamikaze, but characters in The Force Awakens seem to contradict their character in mere minutes apart (eg. Finn not being fine with killing strangers, yet is fine to help the man who killed his best friend and kills his peers who he can relate to without mercy. Rey not seeming to like BB-8, yet refuses to sell it in the next scene, etc.) The prequels at least brought new elements into the franchise and despite sharing some similar plot points to the original trilogy, rather than simply retreading the same plot as past films.
Not only that, but Kathleen Kennedy's SJW agenda is an apparent cancer to the franchise. Not only is the inclusive pandering leading to characters being remembered purely for their race/gender and not for what "character" they have (eg. Rose having no character other than being the token Asian/fat chick/tumblrette), but their attempt at empowering women by depowering men makes the entire situation cringe worthy. The Last Jedi presents all the male characters as either dumb, weak willed or wrong (especially with Luke's character assassination), whilst presenting it's female characters as intelligent, powerful and opinionated, expecting the audience to go along with it despite such obvious straw men not leading to well written female characters.
The sequel movies have some merits, but they're even more few and far between than in the prequels. This is why in a previous thread, I mentioned the notion that I see the prequels to the sequels as I see GT to Super; good ideas and poor execution VS poor ideas and poor execution. Only thing I've liked from the new movies is Kylo Ren's character arc, and even that is just an emo version of the Legends character Darth Caedus. It's still good enough that I'd rate TLJ above Attack of the Clones, but if it weren't for this character arc The Last Jedi would've been the worst Star Wars movie as the majority are heralding it as. I'd still say the movie is minimally better than The Force Awakens due to Finn and Poe being far more consistent characters than they were in their debut and Rey not having quite as many Mary Sue moments, but I'm comparing one turd to another.
The Force Awakens - 2/10
The Last Jedi - 2,5/10
Don't have much hope for Episode IX other than maybe being slightly better than these two dumpster fires.
Not only that, but Kathleen Kennedy's SJW agenda is an apparent cancer to the franchise. Not only is the inclusive pandering leading to characters being remembered purely for their race/gender and not for what "character" they have (eg. Rose having no character other than being the token Asian/fat chick/tumblrette), but their attempt at empowering women by depowering men makes the entire situation cringe worthy. The Last Jedi presents all the male characters as either dumb, weak willed or wrong (especially with Luke's character assassination), whilst presenting it's female characters as intelligent, powerful and opinionated, expecting the audience to go along with it despite such obvious straw men not leading to well written female characters.
The sequel movies have some merits, but they're even more few and far between than in the prequels. This is why in a previous thread, I mentioned the notion that I see the prequels to the sequels as I see GT to Super; good ideas and poor execution VS poor ideas and poor execution. Only thing I've liked from the new movies is Kylo Ren's character arc, and even that is just an emo version of the Legends character Darth Caedus. It's still good enough that I'd rate TLJ above Attack of the Clones, but if it weren't for this character arc The Last Jedi would've been the worst Star Wars movie as the majority are heralding it as. I'd still say the movie is minimally better than The Force Awakens due to Finn and Poe being far more consistent characters than they were in their debut and Rey not having quite as many Mary Sue moments, but I'm comparing one turd to another.
The Force Awakens - 2/10
The Last Jedi - 2,5/10
Don't have much hope for Episode IX other than maybe being slightly better than these two dumpster fires.
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What about Rogue I and (What you expect of) Solo?
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Rogue One, whilst executed better than both the prequels and sequels, had even less going for it in terms of potential ideas. This is by default as with the entire movie being summed up within one sentence of the text crawl in the first Star Wars film, everyone already knows the story before viewing it and whatever the plot was would have absolutely minimal impact on the Star Wars Saga as a whole.
The characters were also by far the weakest element as despite many having an interesting background, none are given enough focus to truly develop or for the audience to get a good grasp of their character. Whilst they aren't as contradictive as those within the prequels and sequels, the nonsensical ones are still there, such as Cassian suddenly refusing to kill Galen without any sort of arc to make the change believable. The only likeable character was K-2SO and not only does a droid being better than the rest of the cast show a great lack of character writing, but what's essentially an Imperial battle droid having the eloquence and complex thinking beyond his programming's necessity makes little sense.
Best aspect of the film was the lack of Force plot armour, and that wasn't entirely absent with the "I'm one with the Force and the Force is with me" scene.
3/10
As for Solo, I have little hope for it due to having the same problem. Beyond the possibility of having Han meeting Chewbacca, winning the Falcon from Lando and maybe making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs (because they've already poorly inserted that reference once before) any plot point they have will just feel like worthless filler as it's very doubtful the creators will use it as a chance to give Han an additional character arc through this and will instead just be dumb fun at best.
The characters were also by far the weakest element as despite many having an interesting background, none are given enough focus to truly develop or for the audience to get a good grasp of their character. Whilst they aren't as contradictive as those within the prequels and sequels, the nonsensical ones are still there, such as Cassian suddenly refusing to kill Galen without any sort of arc to make the change believable. The only likeable character was K-2SO and not only does a droid being better than the rest of the cast show a great lack of character writing, but what's essentially an Imperial battle droid having the eloquence and complex thinking beyond his programming's necessity makes little sense.
Best aspect of the film was the lack of Force plot armour, and that wasn't entirely absent with the "I'm one with the Force and the Force is with me" scene.
3/10
As for Solo, I have little hope for it due to having the same problem. Beyond the possibility of having Han meeting Chewbacca, winning the Falcon from Lando and maybe making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs (because they've already poorly inserted that reference once before) any plot point they have will just feel like worthless filler as it's very doubtful the creators will use it as a chance to give Han an additional character arc through this and will instead just be dumb fun at best.
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It was definitely true, as the only other characters to get any shine were Pan and Vegeta (and even then, only as support or taking out fodders). One of the few things Super did better is keeping more varied focus on the cast and allowing characters such as the humans, Gohan, Piccolo, etc. to have more shine.
However, to say Super is far better than GT in this area is an exaggeration. Both series handle character victories equally well, with characters such as Gohan still having about as relevant or plot crucial victories in either series (which is to say, not at all), plus GT was at least more consistent in how they were handling their support cast like Gohan and Vegeta, rather than having their development flip-flop in the span of a few episodes like the ToP Arc did.
However, to say Super is far better than GT in this area is an exaggeration. Both series handle character victories equally well, with characters such as Gohan still having about as relevant or plot crucial victories in either series (which is to say, not at all), plus GT was at least more consistent in how they were handling their support cast like Gohan and Vegeta, rather than having their development flip-flop in the span of a few episodes like the ToP Arc did.
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Not by too much. GT's a 2/10 and Super's a 1/10. GT had quite a few good ideas with poor execution such as SS4, Baby and the Evil Dragons, whilst I can't really call any of Super's poorly executed ideas good due to having an element that made them doomed from inception.
If breaking it down into their individual arcs, then GT still comes out on top, as I've already covered in the arc rating/review thread.
Ultimate Dragon Balls Arc - 1/10
Baby Arc - 3/10
Super #17 Arc - 1/10
Evil Dragon Arc - 1.5/10
Battle of Gods Arc - 2/10
Resurrection F Arc - 1.5/10
Everything else - 1/10
At this point, I'd even consider the Super #17 Arc better than the ToP. At least that arc, whilst ripping off Fusion Reborn, did a few improvements such as giving the returning villains some decent screentime and some wins for the side characters, plus it didn't overstay it's welcome by stretching a meaningless plot on for 50+ episodes.
If breaking it down into their individual arcs, then GT still comes out on top, as I've already covered in the arc rating/review thread.
Ultimate Dragon Balls Arc - 1/10
Baby Arc - 3/10
Super #17 Arc - 1/10
Evil Dragon Arc - 1.5/10
Battle of Gods Arc - 2/10
Resurrection F Arc - 1.5/10
Everything else - 1/10
At this point, I'd even consider the Super #17 Arc better than the ToP. At least that arc, whilst ripping off Fusion Reborn, did a few improvements such as giving the returning villains some decent screentime and some wins for the side characters, plus it didn't overstay it's welcome by stretching a meaningless plot on for 50+ episodes.
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My rating for the movie is outdated, since at the time of publishing the review, I hadn't noticed how much of a story-breaking inconsistency the Oracle Fish's prophecy was given multiple timelines and the like. A part of the rating also had to do with the potential it opened up for new Dragon Ball material and as we've seen, that was squandered entirely.
