"Katsuhiro Otomo’s dark, alienated “Akira” (1988) is widely credited with creating a mass audience for Japanese animation in America. It has been a perennial favorite on college campuses and in revival houses, despite a bad English dub that made its convoluted story all but incomprehensible."

"“Akira” (at the Westside Pavilion), a Japanese animated feature based on Katsuhiro Otomo’s popular comic books about a teen-age motorcycle gang, is a compendium of the worst cliches of Japanese animation--two hours of chases, laser attacks, machine-gun battles, spilled stage blood, computer-animated backgrounds and hokey dialogue."

"Violent as it is on the surface, Akira is tranquil at its core. The story's sanest characters plead for the wise use of mankind's frightening new powers, lending the whole film the feeling of a cautionary tale."

"Mr. Otomo invests this dark flowering of post-nuclear civilization with a clean, mean beauty. The drawings of Neo-Tokyo by night are so intricately detailed that all the individual windows of huge skyscrapers appear distinct."

"The setting is the sprawling Neo-Tokyo of 2019, 31 years after the city was devastated in a nuclear war. Amazingly, it has been built back to several times its original size (those Japanese are industrious), and most of the prewar brand names-or at least those that have paid promotional fees-have survived."

"Neo-Tokyo is about to E.X.P.L.O.D.E."

"The definitive science fiction masterpiece. This is an unmissable anime classic!"

"2019, Neo-Tokyo: a never-ending puzzle begins. The trump card is... top secret. Film to be treated as hazardous material."

"Police Officer: I'm not that much older than you, so don't call me paps or you'll find yourself polishin' my boots with your towel!"

"Kai: Something seemed odd the second I saw his face. It's strange. He was wearing what looked like a white hospital dress. He acted like a different thing. Yamagata asked him if he was really Tetsuo or if he was someone else."

"The passion to build has cooled, and the joy of construction has forgotten. Now, it's just a stupid made up of a bunch of suckling fools!"

"Look at what they have in their panic, they were afraid! They were too scared, so they hided it away from the public. They forgot all courage and honor, cast off the freedom and learning we had made, and close the lid of the Pandora's Box they themselves had opened!"

"Enough! Open up your eyes and look at the big picture; you're all puppets of broken politicians and capitalists. Don't you understand, it's utterly pointless to fight each other."

"Scientists are a bunch of idiots. Police men always consider the tents first."

"My job isn't to believe or believe. It is to act or not act!"

"You want me to get in there in that kindergarten room and live stupidly ever after, huh?! Be quiet, do what you're told, take your medicine every day, and wake up all day like those kids?!"

"I am Tetsuo."

"Twin ceramic rotor drives on each wheel! And these look like computer controlled anti-lock brakes! Wow, 200 horses at 12,000 rpm!"

"[Repeated line] TETSUO!"

"[when he claims to Ryu he knows who the new subject is] Come on... Don't they say the only amazing questions are asked ones? [Ryu walks up to him with a sinister expression] Huh? They don't?"

"[holding soldiers at gunpoint] Hands up, now! Where in the hell's the facedown baby room?!"

"[To a man dressed in a black suit] What's with the get-up, huh? You goin' to a funeral?!"

"[Streamline Dub (1989)] And what do we have here, huh? You the funeral director?"

"I customized that bike for myself. It's too wild, you couldn't handle it."

"Wayde Preston - Jack"

"Carla Cassola - Dr. Maria Vaselli"

"Melinda Dillon - Mrs. Rogers"

"Kim Gillingham - Bernice Stewart / Sharon"

"Michael Nouri - Lt. Col. Louis"

"Francesca Neri - Valentina de Santis"

"Darren McGavin - General Fleming"

"Ned Beatty - Sam Kolawetz"

"Scott Paulin - Tadzio de Santis/Red Skull"

"Ronny Cox - President Tom Kimball"

"Matt Salinger - Steve Rogers / Captain America"

"Radio newscaster: In Rome today, one hundred and sixteen nations agreed to an environmental protection treaty. In a brief statement after the signing, President Kimball asked that we remember the many people who have gallantly sacrificed all to make our world a better place to live. The president closed his statement with this odd message: "To Captain America, wherever he is. We're all back in the fight.""

"Tom Kimball: Are you kidding? I'm nog bailing out on Captain America!"

"Sam Kolawetz: Captain America, ya gotta help us. There was a scientist, eh, an Italian, eh, her name was eh... Doctor, eh, Vaseline?"

"Dr. Maria Vaselli: Because of you i have the chance to make a wrong thing right. I thank you for that."

"Assassination isn't worth the trouble. It took me two years to find Sirhan. Three to find Oswald. The King job alone cost me over twenty million dollars. What do we get for our pains? Saints. Martyrs to the cause."

"Gee whiz, we gotta get going, Mr. President."

"Otomo’s vision is violent, angry and often ugly, but it is also arresting and powerful. Thirteen years after its initial release, “Akira” remains a watershed film in the history of Japanese animation and anime fandom in America."

"Your leaders will now understand. Decepticons will never leave your planet alone. And we needed them to believe we had gone. For today, in the name of freedom, we take the battle to them!"