Akira
“The future is not a straight line. It is filled with many crossroads. There must be a future that we can choose for ourselves” – Kiyoko (“Akira”)
Eh, “Akira”… if you ask someone if they know who (or what) “Akira” is, most likely it’ll be one of these two answers: either they don’t know or they’ll mention the famous anime (and maybe even the manga). If you type “Akira” into Google search, you’ll have a lot to scroll through before you come across a link leading to something that isn’t related to this anime film or manga. You can ask ChatGPT too, it’ll first tell you it refers to an anime/manga title, then that it’s a common Japanese name, and only at the end that it’s maybe a reference to something completely different (personally verified).
So what makes “Akira” such an important factor?
Well, for many reasons…
The film (sometimes we’ll use the term “film,” and sometimes “anime,” as it happens) originally appeared (now) a distant 1988 years ago (and it’s based on the manga from 1982)… man, 36 years have passed since the premiere… and it made a boom! Maybe from today’s perspective it doesn’t seem like it made such a big revolution, but it did, it set foundations for many things or redefined them, and it deserves to have the term legacy added to it.
Generally speaking about the film industry (meaning, not just the animated part, but the entire thing), “Akira” is considered one of the classics, and a film you’ll often see ranked in top 10, 50, 100 or 500 films ever.
It greatly influenced the definition of action films and especially the science fiction genre, and if you asked some (older) person what their earliest association with cyberpunk is, you shouldn’t be surprised if “Akira” is precisely mentioned. Especially since it established the idea of Japanese cyberpunk (as we know it today).
The film influenced many things both locally (i.e., Japanese) and global film industry. Starting from phenomenal visual aspect, giving more space to animated titles for adult audiences (adult animation), as well as generally world popularization of the anime scene. Famous film creators like James Cameron, Guillermo Del Toro and the Wachowski brothers (sisters?) cited “Akira” as inspiration for their works. The film’s influence is seen in cult classics like “Matrix,” “Blade Runner,” “The Dark Knight” and “Inception,” as well as series “Stranger Things,” “Batman Beyond” and “Spawn,” not to mention it gave wind in the sails and inspiration for the creation of series like “Cowboy Bebop,” “Ghost in the Shell,” “Battle Angel Alita” and “Elfen Lied,” as well as the video game industry. And the music from the film exerted a solid influence on the music industry (e.g., a curiosity is that even Kanye West… or Ye… or whatever he’s called now, since he changes his name every year… stated “Akira” influenced his work).
How much influence “Akira” had on filmmaking, the fact speaks that many (especially animated) films and series recreated the cult scene, where one of the main heroes (Kaneda) stylishly stops his motorcycle by skidding, for which many use the term Akira slide.
Since I watched the film long ago as a kid (but really a kid), I needed reminders for many things.
Since the tenth Japanese-Serbian film festival was held in November last year, viewers had the opportunity to see the remastered 4K version of the film. So I thought, it’s a shame not to take advantage of the opportunity myself.
Gentlemen, in the summer period of 1988, a world war happened, which started with the sudden destruction of Tokyo.
Now it’s 2019. Former Tokyo is now Neo-Tokyo, poisoned by corruption, protests against the government, terrorism and chaos sown by biker gangs (some more aggressive, and some a bit more “normal”).
One of those small biker (bosozoku) gangs (who call themselves “The Capsules”) is led by young and impulsive Kaneda. During a (racing) showdown with opponents from another gang (“Clowns”), his comrade and best friend Tetsuo crashes himself and his motorcycle at the moment he ran into Takeshi, an esper who escaped from the government with the help of a resistance movement. Soon the army (Japan Self-Defense Forces) led by a crazy colonel (Shikishima) arrives who manage to catch Takeshi, hospitalize Tetsuo and arrest members of “The Capsules.” Luckily, they later release the Capsule members from custody (and Kaneda manages to “smuggle” Kei among them, a girl who turns out to belong to the resistance movement).
Meanwhile, in a secret government facility, the aforementioned colonel and his lead scientist discover that Tetsuo possesses powers similar to those possessed by Akira, the esper who caused the destruction of Tokyo in 1988. One of the espers who has the power of (relatively accurate) predicting the future warns the colonel about a potential cataclysm. The city parliament doesn’t pay any attention to the colonel’s warning, which is why he’s thinking about preventively killing Tetsuo, especially after one of his escape attempts, as well as mysterious headaches that start appearing more and more frequently.
Meanwhile, Kaneda joins the resistance movement hoping he can save Tetsuo.
And Tetsuo starts having bigger and bigger headaches and becomes increasingly psychologically unstable.
And all this will lead to quite cataclysmic events…
And who will survive (and if they will), and whether we’ll find out who (or what) “Akira” is, you’ll find out if you watch the film of the same name.
Keep in mind the film appeared in 1988, and it’s based on a manga six years older. When you watch this title, you should have somewhere in the back of your mind the idea you’re watching this film with the intention of wanting to familiarize yourself with an Asian title that greatly influenced the world scene in many branches, rather than re-examining the plot (which, although from this time seems simple and straightforward, is still interesting) or visual aspect (though which, hand on heart, still seems impressive, and it’s simply unimaginable they managed to execute this so many decades ago, with so much attention to detail… and everything looks even better now that the 4K remaster has been done).
Simply, “Akira” is (with reason) a classic. It’s dark and bloody (gory), harsh, unreal, eccentric and intriguing, and in addition has some imperfections… but it’s a classic that absolutely deserves to be watched.
And who knows, maybe in the coming years we’ll have the opportunity to see a live-action version of the film too… though talk about it has been going on since 2002 and the title has been stuck in development hell mode for too long, but there are signs that Taika Waititi (that silly eccentric who married Rita Ora, and we know him for his work on the third and fourth parts of Marvel’s “Thor” and the film “Jojo Rabbit”) will in the coming years start dealing with the film. And it’s never easy to take responsibility for adapting some literary or animated classic, and “Akira” is a work that really shouldn’t be done by “Netflix” and gambling (though, not to wrong them, they’ve improved a bit regarding anime adaptations).
And in the meantime, watch (or at least remind yourself of) this title.
And a few more curiosities for the end:
- When Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Summer Olympics during the 2013 candidacy process, several commentators claimed “Akira” predicted this future event. In 2017, “Akira” was used in several promotional campaigns for the Tokyo Olympics. In February 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic and 147 days before the start of the Olympics, the scene in “Akira” calling for the cancellation of the 2020 Olympics (also 147 days before the event) caused a trend on social media demanding cancellation of the 2020 Olympics. The Summer Olympics were eventually postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic
- The film consists of 2,212 scenes and 160,000 individual images, which is 2-3 times more than usual, using 327 different colors (another record in animated films), of which 50 were specially created exclusively for this film
- This was one of the first Japanese anime films where character voices were recorded before they were animated. Although this is common practice in American animation, in Japan animation is usually produced first, then voices are added
- The film was re-released in 2001 with new voice dubbing and soundtrack, which reportedly cost over a million dollars
- “Akira” in Japanese means “bright, intelligent, clear”
And you, dear reader, have you had the opportunity to encounter this work before? 😊
Trailer
Imdb | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic
Format: Film
Premiere: 1988
Runtime: 124 minutes
