Do we like them?

Do we like Shotaro Kaneda?

A character from Akira (1988)

Our score: 7 out of 10. Brash, vain and reckless, but fiercely loyal. We'd back him, though we'd keep him away from the keys to anything dangerous.

Kaneda leads the Capsules, a bōsōzoku biker gang in 2019 Neo-Tokyo, a city of corrupt politics, street violence and military secrets. He's a smug, charismatic delinquent with a famous red bike. He swaggers and bullies, but he's loyal to his crew.

His closest bond is with Tetsuo, the smaller gang member he has long protected. When a run-in with a strange escaped child pulls Tetsuo into a secret government project, Kaneda is dragged from street rivalries into something much bigger. He falls in with a resistance member and tries to save his friend.

He scores a 7 because he starts out as a show-off, but his loyalty is real and he keeps stepping up when it counts. He is flawed, reckless and sometimes unfair to the people around him, which makes him an easy anti-hero to like. He isn't a clean hero we'd follow anywhere.

By the end he takes responsibility for stopping Tetsuo, whose growing power has turned deadly. That decision is the clearest sign of how far he has come from the vain gang leader of the opening.