Akira (1988 film)

Akira
File:Cover-akira.jpg
Directed by	Katsuhiro Otomo
Written by	Katsuhiro Otomo Izo Hashimoto
Produced by	Ryohei Suzuki Shunzo Kato
Starring	Mitsuo Iwata Nozomu Sasaki Mami Koyama
Music by	Shoji Yamashiro
Distributed by	Toho (Japan) Orion Pictures Corporation (US) Manga Entertainment (UK)
Release dates	July 18, 1988 (Japan) 1989 - 1990 (US) January 25, 1991 (UK) May 8, 1991 (France) May 9, 1991 (Germany)
Running time	124 min.
Language	Japanese
Budget	¥1,100,000,000 $10,000,000 US

File:AKIRA-DamageControl.jpg

Rioting mobs set the tone of urban chaos.

Akira (アキラ) is a 1988 animated film by Katsuhiro Otomo based on his manga of the same name. The movie led the way for the growing popularity of anime in the West, with Akira considered a forerunner of the second wave of anime fandom that began in the early 1990s. One of the reasons for the movie's success was the highly advanced quality of its animation. At the time, most anime was notorious for cutting production corners with limited motion, such as having only the characters' mouths move while their faces remained static. Akira broke from this trend with meticulously detailed scenes, exactingly lip-synched dialogue — a first for an anime production (voices were recorded before the animation was completed, rather than the opposite) — and superfluous motion as realized in the film's more than 160,000 animation cels.

While most of the character designs and basic settings were directly adapted from the original 2000-plus page manga epic, the restructured plot of the movie differs considerably from the print version, pruning much of the last half of the book.

Notable themes of the film include youth culture, delinquency, social unrest and future uncertainty weighed against the historical spectre of nuclear destruction and Japan's post-war economic revival. This pervasive atmosphere of impending doom is set to fuse in the feature's tag line, "Neo-Tokyo is about to E•X•P•L•O•D•E."

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler The story takes place in the politically volatile city of Neo-Tokyo, built over Tokyo Bay after an unexplained explosion inciting World War III destroyed the original city in 1988. The cataclysm is revealed to have been caused by the frightening psionic powers of a child, Akira, who had earlier been the subject of a secret government research project for the development of psychokinetic abilities.

Thirty-one years later, in the year 2019, a gang of teenage bikers led by a smug 16-year-old delinquent named Kaneda find themselves involved in a street fight with a rival gang called the Clowns. Tetsuo Shima, Kaneda's best friend, having pursued two Clown members in the abandoned Tokyo, finds a child with wizened features (Takashi, an esper who has just been kidnapped from a government facility), blocking his path. As Tetsuo tries to avoid him, his bike inexplicably explodes. When the gang reaches the scene, several military helicopters also arrive. Led by Colonel Shikishima, armed soldiers take Takashi and the injured Tetsuo away while Kaneda and his friends are arrested.

The gang is brought in for questioning, but the interrogators are soon convinced the boys are not members of the anti-government Resistance group. Among the other detainees, Kaneda recognizes a female Resistance member named Kei from an earlier-spied mugshot and, finding her attractive, gets the soldiers to release her by convincing them she is part of their gang. Kei abruptly leaves the scene, leaving a spurned Kaneda behind. When the boys are returned to their vocational training school, they are harshly disciplined by the school administration.

Meanwhile, Colonel Shikishima, engaged in discussion of a Supreme Executive Council inquiry into Takashi's escape, is summoned by Doctor Onishi, who is monitoring Tetsuo at the government lab. The Doctor says that Tetsuo is displaying strong mental frequencies that are unlike anything he's seen before. Warning that Tetsuo may turn into "another Akira," the Colonel orders the Doctor to kill Tetsuo without hesitation should his power grow beyond control. Tetsuo, apparently using telepathy, repeats Akira's name in his mind.

Tetsuo escapes from the government hospital and meets up with his girlfriend, Kaori. Deciding to run away together, they go to the school the next day and steal Kaneda's bike, which stalls just as the two are leaving town. They are immediately attacked by Clown members, who beat them up and are about to destroy the bike when Kaneda and his gang show up and defeat them.

Tetsuo declares his longstanding resentment towards Kaneda and his leadership role, revealing an inferiority complex. Tetsuo then has a painful headache accompanied by disturbing hallucinations, including brief glimpses of Akira. Scientists and bodyguards, acting on orders of the Doctor, sweep in to recapture Tetsuo and take him away.

That night, as the gang hangs out in the city, their excursion is interrupted by a terrorist attack. Kaneda glimpses Kei and Ryu, and follows as they flee the scene. When Kei separates from Ryu and enters the sewers, she is spotted by soldiers; Kaneda wrestles with one of them and Kei shoots and kills another in self-defense. Kei and Kaneda flee the scene.

Experiments are performed on Tetsuo again, who dreams of himself and Kaneda playing as children while the city around them — and Tetsuo himself — seem to crumble. Tetsuo suddenly wakes, his headache causing a nearby fluorescent light to shatter.

Meanwhile, the Colonel appears at the nursery, where Kiyoko, another Esper, tells him she dreamt that she met Akira again, and that Neo-Tokyo was destroyed. The Colonel and the Doctor agree that this might be Kiyoko's precognition at work, and the Doctor notes that the Supreme Executive Council will want to hear about it. The Colonel travels to another top secret facility, this one at the future site of the Neo-Tokyo Olympiad. They descend to Akira's underground cryonic storage chamber, finding all of its systems to be operating normally.

Kaneda and Kei make their way to the hideout of the Resistance, where Ryu and other Resistance members lock Kaneda in a room. The group reviews their next assignment, as given to them by their leader, Nezu: to use special ID cards to gain access to a government facility to rescue a new test subject named Tetsuo Shima. They then discover Kaneda eavesdropping on them from a ventilation shaft and drag him out. He explains that he and Tetsuo are best friends and that he wants to help them. During a later meeting, Ryu and Nezu decide to take Kaneda on the mission, and perhaps use him as a decoy.

The next day, the Colonel appears before the Council, asking for more funding for the project. (Nezu, the Resistance leader, is revealed to be a member of the Council.) They flatly refuse, arguing on how to better spend the money on other projects and questioning the Colonel's sense of duty as a soldier. When he is told he will be placed before an inquiry committee, the frustrated Colonel abruptly leaves the meeting.

In his hospital room, Tetsuo has a vision of the Espers — Takashi, Kiyoko, and a third child, Masaru — posing as gigantic toys. Erupting in a flood of milk, the nightmarish toys attack Tetsuo. When he cuts his foot by stepping on a glass, it scares away the Espers, who are apparently frightened at the sight of blood. Tetsuo, sensing the Espers' location — their nursery, called the "baby room" — proceeds to make his way there, killing soldiers and wreaking destruction.

Meanwhile, in sewage tunnels beneath the towering complex, the infiltrating band is soon spotted by guards riding "flying platforms" — hovering one-man vehicles armed with machine guns — and a battle ensues. Kaneda and Kei take control of a platform and escape. They hear over the vehicle's radio that Tetsuo is making his way to the nursery, that he's extremely dangerous and must not be allowed inside.

Kiyoko possesses Kei and leads Kaneda to the site, finding that Tetsuo is already within, busy attacking both the Colonel's army and the Espers. He has learned about Akira and is eager to meet him, hoping to make his headaches stop. Tetsuo is able to read Kiyoko's mind to discover Akira's location beneath the city's Olympic Stadium, currently under construction.

After leaving the nursery in a flash of light, Tetsuo goes to a familiar bar for a drug fix. His old gang buddies, Yamagata and Kaisuke, arrive later, finding the place a mess and the bartender dead. Tetsuo, seeming to evince an ominous new madness in his demeanor, brutally kills Yamagata.

Back at the government tower, Kei and Kaneda are locked in a holding cell. Kiyoko speaks through Kei once again, explaining that scientists of the past had tried to harness the energy inside all living things but destroyed Tokyo in the process. Tetsuo, she says, has enough of this energy to consume everything around him. Kei then finds the door unlocked and they escape. The pair shortly unite with Kaisuke, who informs them of Tetsuo's murderous actions. A distraught Kaneda crashes Yamagata's bike into a wall as a funereal gesture to "send Yamagata his wheels." He and Kaisuke suddenly witness Kei walking on water in the adjacent reservoir channel, being escorted away by the esper Takashi, both of whom disappear.

The Colonel, initiating a coup d'etat, orders all members of the Supreme Executive Council arrested. Hearing of this at his home, the mole Nezu murders his staff. As Nezu is stuffing a briefcase with money, a bleeding Ryu enters the room, reporting that their mission has failed. Nezu angrily shoots Ryu and flees, but suffers a heart attack and dies on the street a short distance away. A now mortally wounded Ryu follows Nezu as he dies, and Ryu himself soon bleeds to death.

Tetsuo is now wreaking havoc across Neo-Tokyo, using his psionic power to destroy helicopters, tanks, and a bridge on his way to the Olympic Stadium. Kei, again possessed by Kiyoko, attempts to fight him but is soon thrown aside. When Tetsuo tears the entire cryonic chamber from underground and opens it, he finds nothing left of the dead Akira except dissected body parts housed in canisters.

Making his way though wreckage of the scene, Kaneda, now armed with a laser cannon, confronts Tetsuo, and they begin to fight. In the middle of the skirmish, the Colonel activates a Satellite Orbital Laser (SOL), and its beam severs Tetsuo's arm. An enraged Tetsuo flies into space and brings down the laser satellite.

That night, Tetsuo hides out at the Olympic Stadium, where Kaori finds him screaming in pain. He has fashioned a new, apparently mechanical arm, which seems to throb with a life of its own, circuits weaving into the Olympic throne where Tetsuo sits. The Colonel soon appears, asking Tetsuo to come back to the lab with him, but Tetsuo attacks him with a barrage of flying rocks. When the Colonel shoots back, Tetsuo's arm transforms into a horrific blob that attempts to swallow the Colonel. Kaneda arrives and shoots the monstrous appendage with a laser cannon, causing the blob to recede. Meanwhile, the Espers have arrived at the stadium and seem to be communicating with Akira's remains in the canisters.

Tetsuo and Kaneda fight again. Soon finding Tetsuo targeted in his gunsight, Kaneda hesitates when seeing Tetsuo's body swell into a huge protoplasmic mutation that almost fills the stadium. Tetsuo's gruesome form swallows Kaori, crushing her, and attempts to consume Kaneda, who shoots his way out with the laser cannon.

Suddenly, the canisters shatter and Akira appears, triggering another explosion. Kiyoko touches the Colonel, instantly teleporting him to the safety of a tunnel far from the stadium. The explosive energy sphere starts to absorb Tetsuo, who pleads for Kaneda's help. Kaneda allows himself to be recaptured by Tetsuo, venturing inside the energy sphere with him. In an effort to save Kaneda, the Espers decide to enter as well, intending to use their combined powers to free him. Inside, Kaneda sees the memories of Tetsuo and the Espers. The Espers tell him that Akira will be sending Tetsuo "away" (to an undisclosed destination). Kaneda then seems to be ejected from the inside of Akira's onslaught, awakening outside the explosion upon hearing Kei's voice calling his name, perhaps telepathically communicated by the Espers.

Neo-Tokyo is destroyed by the violently expanding sphere; streets are gutted and flooded by the event. Kaneda survives, as do Kei, Kaisuke, and the Colonel. The former three meet up at the ruins of the Olympic Stadium, wondering if Tetsuo is truly dead. They then ride their bikes across a bridge into the ruined city.

Somewhere, a stylized "big bang" breaches the cosmic darkness and Tetsuo's voice is heard to say, "I am Tetsuo." This may imply that Tetsuo is now a god-like entity residing in his own universe, or that he has become another universe entirely.

Themes and Symbolism

Like Otomo's earlier work, Domu (1983), Akira revolves around the basic idea of individuals with psychokinetic abilities, but much of the story focuses on the characters involved, social issues and politics. It takes a wry look at youth alienation, government inefficiency and corruption, and an old-fashioned military displeased with the compromises of modern society. Heavily influenced by Buddhist themes of destruction and recreation, the saga offers a serious critique of the military-industrial complex and nuclear weapons; more broadly, it can be read as a critique of unmitigated technological and theological influence as framed in the concept of 'superhuman power'.

File:AKIRA-TradingCard100.jpg

Akira Trading Card.
Top: Akira revealed in flashback. Reverse: Production art depicting Tetsuo's nightmare.

A central theme reflected in key dialogue exchanges concerns evolution — human, social, and technological — and the dangers inherent in mankind's quest to a virtual godhood by the development of tools which defy a capacity to be controlled. Alongside the more blatant visual cues in depictions of civil implosion and de facto nuclear annihilation, its cautionary message is distilled in exposition that Kei delivers (while channeling an esper girl) to Kaneda when they are imprisoned in a detention cell: Everything, including human invention, owes its existence to an earlier form; the concept of collective unconsciousness is extrapolated into a theory of cosmic memory whose participants, through accident of experimentation, have managed to misappropriate power intended for more advanced stages of evolutionary development.

Kaneda and his motorcycle gang embody the untamed spirit of youth, the cutting edge of social change that can't be contained by an older generation. Neo-Tokyo itself is alternately portrayed as a disenchanted cyberpunk wonderland and an explosively unstable gladiatorial arena whose fraying political infrastructure erupts with horrific ramifications in the contest for control.

The esper children seem icons of arrested development by comparison; they are in fact aged peers of Akira, who was laid to frozen rest thirty years earlier. Living perpetually in an isolated nursery playground, themselves mere playthings of military ambition, they are represented as nightmarish toys in disturbing visions beset by the incubation of Tetsuo's still-growing powers (whose nurturing is symbolized by an imagined flood of milk).

Consumed by raw anger, Tetsuo retrogresses into a monstrous primordial mutation that engulfs everything within reach, unintentionally destroying even the things he values most — his girlfriend Kaori — and at one point assuming the conspicuous shape of a mushroom cloud as he becomes too powerful for his own controlling in the process of metamorphosing to a god-like superpower.

Akira is the 10-year-old child who first manifested these startling powers, obliterating all of Tokyo (at the beginning of the film) with an energy too great to be humanly contained — a veritable atom bomb personified in a little boy: wordless and morally indifferent, the character implicitly represents the 'divine wind' of orgiastic nuclear detonation, simultaneously feared and held in awe by power-hungry humanity. Wearing a perennial Buddha-like grin of misleading docility and rapturously glorified by expectant fanatics, he stands symbolic of "a greater power" that humans aspire to while stumbling through episodes of atrocity in the clumsy upward climb of history — the film's climax set within the stadium thus befitting Olympian endeavour toward 'Faster, Higher, Stronger.'

When Akira's form is reconstituted by the espers, his reawakening proves not unlike the wrathful birth cry of a deity, and Neo-Tokyo is apocalyptically devastated once again. Proximity to this psychic force sweeps Tetsuo into the swelling vortex of Akira's "pure energy", and his newly discorporated consciousness is experienced firsthand by Kaneda, who physically passes through spheres of his friend's disembodied memories in several childhood flashback scenes before the cataclysmic dust finally settles.

Akira and Tetsuo disappear just as suddenly, their harsh departure taking with them the self-serving ambitions of the military scientist whose research crafted this terrible power that an unevolved human race remains unprepared to possess. ("...But someday, we will be... Because it has already begun.") Shafts of sunlight pierce the breaking cloud cover as if to signal Tetsuo's incorporeally survived consciousness somewhere above, transcending all the universe in a tide of star formations, signifying rebirth, as his voice affirms, "I am Tetsuo."

The closing frames of the movie present an animator's pencil test of the immediately subsequent animated sequence (of an expanding energy bubble), suggesting that mankind is already proceeding toward its higher destiny, born from small early steps likened to the movie's own beginnings in humble pencil renderings: Change is coming, it can't be stopped, and it is sometimes violent.

Characters

File:AKIRA-KanedaBike.jpg

Kaneda on his bike.

File:AKIRA-PsychokineticTetsuo.jpg

Tetsuo begins using his vast psychokinetic powers.

• Akira (アキラ) — The eponymous, principal subject of the story. Akira was a young boy who developed transcendent psionic ability when serving as a test subject for secret government ESP experiments in the 1980s. He subsequently lost control of this power and annihilated Tokyo in 1988. After the cataclysmic event, Akira's dead body was recovered and subjected to every test known to modern science, which proved unable to solve the mystery. His remains were placed within a cryogenic chamber underneath the Neo-Tokyo Olympic Stadium, to be entrusted to the study of future generations.
• Shotaro Kaneda (金田正太郎 Kaneda Shōtarō) — The anthology's main protagonist, Kaneda is a carefree gang-leader who boasts a custom-modified motorcycle. He and Tetsuo have been best friends since early childhood. He has a very brash attitude, and is not above heckling Tetsuo despite looking on him as a younger brother. Upon rescuing Kei, Kaneda becomes involved in the activities of her group of anti-government guerillas in hopes of locating Tetsuo.
• Tetsuo Shima (島鉄雄 Shima Tetsuo) — Kaneda's best friend since preschool and the second principal subject of the story's theme. Tetsuo is shown as a black sheep in the gang he and Kaneda are part of, and quietly suffers from a deeply rooted inferiority complex. He admires his friend yet at the same time strongly resents his reliance on Kaneda's assistance in his life. After his psychokinetic abilities manifest, Tetsuo quickly becomes Kaneda's nemesis; he desires Kaneda's motorcycle (a symbol of status and power), and seeks to prove himself supremely powerful, without need of protection.
• Kei (ケイ) — A young female revolutionary who Kaneda meets and becomes enamoured with on his quest to find Tetsuo. She is a member of an anti-government faction that Ryu and Nezu are also involved in. Although she does not possess preternatural abilities, Kei is employed by the espers as a type of medium on several occasions.
• Colonel Shikishima (敷島大佐), also known as simply The Colonel — The head of the ongoing government project which was responsible for inadvertently unleashing Akira's power thirty years earlier.
• The Espers — Masaru (マサル, codename "Number 27"), Takashi (タカシ, codename "Number 26") and Kiyoko (キヨコ, codename "Number 25") — Akira's fellow psychic test subjects kept in a perpetual yet aging childhood. They exhibit a variety of paranormal powers which they use to influence the course of events to the best of their ability. While individually of lesser strength than Akira or Tetsuo, their combined effort proves decisive in the story's final confrontation.
• Nezu (根津) — A mole in the government, who is responsible for Takashi/Number 26's kidnapping.
• Yamagata (山形) — One of the most prominent members of Kaneda's gang. He often derides Tetsuo, which leads to harsh feelings between them that will ultimately seal his fate.
• Kaisuke (甲斐) — Another member of Kaneda's gang, Kai plays an important supporting role in the eventual battle against Tetsuo. He appears to be close friends with Yamagata given that they remain together when the gang breaks up.
• Kaori (カオリ) — Tetsuo's girlfriend. She stands by Tetsuo even though he treats her harshly.

Principal cast

Character	Seiyū	English [Orion] (1989)	Mexican/Latin American (1995)	English [Geneon Entertainment] (2001)
Shotaro Kaneda	Mitsuo Iwata	Cam Clarke (Jimmy Flinders)	Irwin Daayan; Gabriel Ramos (young)	Johnny Yong Bosch
Tetsuo Shima	Nozomu Sasaki	Jan Rabson (Stanley Gurd Jr.)	Benjamin Rivera; Enrique Cervantes (young)	Joshua Seth
Kei	Mami Koyama	Lara Cody (Deanna Morris)	Laura Ayala	Wendee Lee
Ryūsaku (Ryu)	Tessho Genda	Steve Kramer (Drew Thomas)	Salvador Delgado	Robert Buchholz (Robert Wicks)
Colonel Shikishima	Taro Ishida	Tony Pope (Tony Mozdy)	Mario Sauret	Jamieson K. Price (James Lyon)
Doctor Ōnishi	Mizuho Suzuki	Watney Held	Gabriel Chavez	Simon Prescott (Simon Isaacson)
Kaori	Yuriko Fuchizaki	Barbara Goodson (Barbara Larsen)	Mónica Villaseñor	Michelle Ruff (Georgette Rose)
Yamagata	Masaaki Ōkura	Tony Pope (Tony Mozdy)	Armando Coria	Michael Lindsay (Dylan Tully)
Kaisuke	Takeshi Kusao	Bob Bergen	Ricardo Mendoza	Matt K. Miller (Matt "Masamune" Miller)
Masaru	Kazuhiro Kamifuji	Bob Bergen	Enzo Fortuny	Cody MacKenzie
Takashi	Tatsuhiko Nakamura	Barbara Goodson (Barbara Larsen)	Kalimba Marichal	Mona Marshall
Kiyoko	Fukue Ito	Melora Harte (Marilyn Lane)	Rosy Aguirre	Sandy Fox
Miyako	Koichi Kitamura	Steve Kramer (Drew Thomas)	Esteban Siller	unknown
Nezu	Hiroshi Ohtake	Tony Pope (Tony Mozdy)	Daniel Abundis	Mike Reynolds (Ray Michaels)
Inspector	Michihiro Ikemizu	unknown	Blas Garcia	unknown
Mitsuru Kuwata	Yukimasa Kishino	Bob Bergen	Carlos Hugo Hidalgo	unknown
Eiichi Watanabe	Tarō Arakawa	Jan Rabson (Stanley Gurd Jr.)	Jesus Barrero	unknown
Yūji Takeyama	Masato Hirano	Eddie Frierson (Christopher Mathewson)	Yamil Atala	unknown
Army	Kazumi Tanaka	Steve Kramer (Drew Thomas)	Jesse Conde	Kurt Wimberger
Harukiya bartender	Yōsuke Akimoto	Bob Bergen	Alan Miró	John Snyder (Ivan Buckley)

Production

Akira Committee was the name given to a partnership of several major Japanese entertainment companies brought together to realize production of Akira. The group's assembly was necessitated by the unconventionally high budget and ambitious scale of the cinematic project, in order to achieve the desired epic standard equal to Otomo's manga tale.

Akira Committee consisted of:

• publisher Kodansha Ltd.
• Mainichi Broadcasting System, Inc.
• Bandai Co., Ltd.
• Hakuhodo Incorporated
• distributor Toho Co., Ltd.
• Laserdisc Corporation
• Sumitomo Corporation
• animation producer Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., Ltd.

Releases

The original July 16, 1988 release by Toho in Japan set attendance records for an animated film. Fledgling North American distribution company Streamline Pictures soon acquired an existing English-language rendition (originally dubbed for the Hong Kong market) which saw limited release in North American theatres from late 1989 throughout 1990. Streamline is reported to have become the film's distributor when both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg labelled it unmarketable in the U.S. VHS releases included the initial Streamline Video offering (May 1991), later wider distribution by MGM/UA Home Video, and a subtitled edition from Orion Home Video (September 1993). The Criterion Collection released a laserdisc edition in 1993, and Geneon Entertainment issued a DVD with a new English dub in 2001.

In the UK, Akira was theatrically released by ICA Projects on 25th January 1991, and then on video by Island World Communications later that year. The success of this release lead to the creation of Manga Entertainment, who later took over the release. In 2002, Manga released a two-disc DVD featuring the new Geneon English dub followed in 2004 by another two-disc set containing the original Japanese as well as both the Orion and Geneon dubs. This version did not contain standard English subtitles, only closed captioning subtitles. In 2005 Manga Entertainment and Boulevard UMD released Akira on UMD for the Sony PSP (Playstation Portable) using the original Orion English dub.

In 1988 Taito released an Akira adventure game for the Famicom. [1] An Akira game for the Super Famicom was cancelled and never released. International Computer Entertainment produced a video game based on Akira for the Amiga and Amiga CD32 in the 1994. [2] To coincide with the DVD release in 2002, Bandai released Akira Psycho Ball, a pinball simulator for the PlayStation 2. [3]

DVDs

Box art

• US Special Edition
  US Special Edition
• US Regular Edition
  US Regular Edition
• US Japanese DTS Edition
  US Japanese DTS Edition
• UK Ultimate Collection Edition
  UK Ultimate Collection Edition

DVD Features

The available DVD releases of the movie each have their own particular features, including a 'making of'.

Special Edition

For the 2-disc Region 1 Special Edition DVD:

Disc 1 Akira Remastered version Scene Selection English 5.1 Surround Japanese 4.1 Surround Subtitles: English Capsule Option - English translation of graffiti and signs

Disc 2 Production Report (The Making of Akira) Sound Clip (a documentary on the creation of the soundtrack) Director's Interview (conducted in 1988) Production Materials Restoring Akira, a Documentary Akira Glossary A-Z

UK Collectors Edition

• Make Your Own' Akira Trailer
• Production Report - 'Making of Akira' Featurette (the old version)
• Multiple Choice Quiz whereby correct answers will allow you to gain access to particular parts of the akira2002.com website
• Stills Gallery

UK Ultimate Edition

Disk 1 Remastered (Steamline Pictures Edition) 16:9 version English (Geneon dub) 5.1 Japanese 2.0 English Hard-of-hearing subtitles

Disk 2 4:3 version (VHS Port) English (Orion Pictures Corporation dub) Production Report Trailer

Soundtrack

Untitled

Akira: Original Soundtrack was recorded by Geinō Yamashirogumi (芸能山城組). The music was composed and conducted by musical director Shoji Yamashiro. It features music which was additionally rerecorded for release. "Kaneda", "Battle Against Clown" and "Exodus From the Underground Fortress" are really part of the same song cycle — elements of "Battle" can be heard during the opening bike sequence, for example. The score is generally sequenced in the same order that the music occurs in the film.

A second soundtrack was released featuring the original music without rerecording, but also including sound effects and dialogue from the film; the recording was probably a direct transfer from the film.

Track listing

1. "Kaneda" – 3:10
2. "Battle Against Clown" – 3:36
3. "Winds Over Neo-Tokyo" – 2:48
4. "Tetsuo" – 10:18
5. "Doll's Polyphony" – 2:55
6. "Shohmyoh" – 10:10
7. "Mutation" – 4:50
8. "Exodus From the Underground Fortress" – 3:18
9. "Illusion" – 13:56
10. "Requiem" – 14:25

Second Soundtrack Track listing

1. "Kaneda" – 9:57
2. "Tetsuo 1" – 12:37
3. "Tetsuo 2" – 12:33
4. "Akira" – 7:56

Differences between the anime and manga

Although they feature the same characters, premise and themes, the anime and manga versions of the story are quite different. Apart from numerous details of plot, very few scenes or lines play out the same way in both versions.

• The most significant variation is in the role Akira himself, who in the film adaptation is relegated to backstory and only appears very briefly in the main action, and even then in a limited form, as his remains are revealed to have been dissected for study and stored via cryopreservation under the site designated for the 2020 Tokyo Olympiad. The manga, by comparison, has Akira as a major character from the end of Volume 2 onwards, joining forces with Tetsuo to preside over the city after it is destroyed by Akira.
• The anime cropped the whole of the manga's destructive aftermath scenario effected by the title character, which notably included: the establishment of the Great Tokyo Empire, with Akira serving as emperor and Tetsuo as prime minister; Tetsuo's partial destruction of the Moon; and the arrival of an American assassin sent to kill Akira.
• In the manga version, Akira destroys Neo-Tokyo halfway through the story. In the film version, he destroys the city at the very end.
• In the film, Tetsuo manages to fly into space to destroy SOL, the Japanese military's laser satellite. In the manga, Tetsuo doesn't destroy SOL, but the Americans have a satellite with the codename FLOYD, which Tetsuo sends crashing down on the American naval fleet.
• In the film, Mr. Nezu, the Parliament mole, dies of a heart attack, and not by the Colonel's soldiers, as in the manga.
• Ryu dies after being shot by Nezu in the film, whereas he dies from falling debris in an elevator shaft in the manga.
• In the film, Kaori, Tetsuo's girlfriend, is crushed to death inside Tetsuo's grotesque, swelling, and mutating body; in the manga version, she meets a less gruesome fate when she is shot by Tetsuo's lead henchman.
• The Doctor, the Colonel's scientific advisor, is crushed to death in the movie when his mobile laboratory collapses; in the manga, he is frozen to death.
• Lady Miyako, an esper who heads a temple in the manga, is turned into a fanatical follower of Tetsuo in the film, and then crushed by a sliding vehicle when Tetsuo destroys a bridge; in the manga, she dies while helping Kei face off against Tetsuo.
• In the manga, Tetsuo becomes the leader of the Clown gang, ousting Joker from the position. Joker later joins forces with his former enemies Kaneda and Kaisuke in attacking Tetsuo. In the movie, Tetsuo does not become involved with the Clowns and Joker does not play a role in the film beyond his initial skirmish with Kaneda.
• Chiyoko, an important ally of Kei and Ryu and a major supporting character in the manga, is completely absent from the film.
• In the manga, Akira destroys Tokyo in the year 1982 (1992 in the western editions), as opposed to the year 1988 in the film.

Katsuhiro Otomo decried his fame and said that his conclusion of Akira was false in both the Japanese and American editions, and that he could never truly finish his epic. Nevertheless, Akira is widely considered a masterpiece of graphic storytelling.

Trivia

• The film was completed and released in 1988, two years before the manga storyline officially ended in 1990.
• The sound of Kaneda's bike engine was produced by compositing the engine sound of a 1929 Harley-Davidson motorcycle with a jet engine.
• Katsuhiro Otomo is a big fan of the classic 1950s manga Tetsujin-28 (Ironman-28, known as Gigantor in the US). As a result, his naming conventions match the characters featured in Tetsujin-28: Kaneda shares his name with the protagonist of Tetsujin-28; Colonel Shikishima shares his name with Professor Shikishima of Tetsujin-28., while Tetsuo is named after Shikishima's son Tetsuo Shikishima; Akira's Ryūsaku is named after Tetsujin's Ryūsaku Murasame. In addition, Takashi has a "26" tattooed on his hand which closely resembles the font used in Tetsujin-28. The namesake of the anime, Akira, is the 28th in a line of psychics that the government has developed, the same number as Tetsujin-28.
• Several corporate logo stickers decorate Kaneda's bike: Arai, Big 1, Canon, Citizen, Metal, Neo-Tokyo and Shoei.
• Kaneda's bike gang's name is "Capsules", while their rival gang are the "Clowns."
• In the early 1990s, Kodansha Ltd. was in negotiation with Sony Pictures to produce a live-action remake of the film. Talk circulated again a decade later, but the project has yet to materialize. Rumors circulated that the project was cancelled in both instances when the projected budget for the film was upwards of $300 million. However, recently talks have began again as Warner Brothers has signed on to produce the film. Stephen Norrington (writer) along with Jon Peters (producer) have signed on to make the movie. [4]

Other references in entertainment

• Atari Teenage Riot sampled Kaneda's line "Let's sit down and talk about the revolution and stuff" for their song "Into the Death".
• The music video for Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson's 1995 song Scream featured clips from Akira and other anime.
• There is a British band named Kill Kenada after Kaneda.
• The Pop Will Eat Itself single "Karmadrome" features voice samples from the original English dubbing of Akira that was produced by Streamline Pictures.
• Some tracks on Oval's album Wohnton feature samples from the film's soundtrack.

• Tetsuo was the inspiration for the King of Fighters character K9999. Nozomu Sasaki, the Japanese voice actor who played Tetsuo in the film, also did the voice of K9999 in the video game.
• In the SquareSoft video game Live A Live, one of the game's scenarios revolves around a young boy named Akira who has unique powers, much like the title character from the anime film, along with a similar theme of biker-gangs.
• The final boss of Konami's Violent Storm (an arcade beat'em up) was partly inspired by Tetsuo: in the beginning he looks like a child with a cape sitting on a throne, then turns into a hulking man with psychic powers.
• In one of the final levels of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the Bathhouse, Sam Fisher witnesses the death of two guards who exclaim "Kaneda!" and "Tetsuo!"

• Absolut vodka has an advertisement in which Akira is cited as the "Absolute: Anime".
• In an episode of Genshiken, Madarame sprains his wrist while slipping on wet pavement. Before he is taken away by paramedics, he looks at his swollen hand and remarks that he forgot to do an impression of Tetsuo.

Parodies

File:HK2004-TetsuoParody.jpg

Tetsuo's rampage spoofed in a HK animated film (2004).

• A parody appeared in Robot Chicken episodes "The Sack" and "Robot Chicken Christmas Special" in 2005.
• A shot of Tetsuo wearing a hooded sweatshirt and goggles while on his bike is parodied in the anime FLCL with a shot of the main character, Naota, riding his own bike with a similar hoodie and goggles. He is also seen in the episode Brittle Bullet with the same jacket and eyewear, but without a bike.
• In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Mandy shows up during a trip to Japan riding Kaneda's motorcycle.
• An episode of The Powerpuff Girls entitled "Twisted Sister" parodies the end of Akira when their Doppelgänger sister explodes, mimicking the silent explosion which engulfs Neo-Tokyo.
• In the Homestar Runner Halloween cartoon "Three Times Halloween Funjob", a hidden easter egg scenario offers a small jar of pills labeled "Akira" as an option which causes Stinkoman to scream as his arm mutates wildly before he finally stops to remark, "That tickles."
• In Teen Titans: Trouble In Tokyo, when Starfire and Robin are watching a Sumo match, Kaneda And Yamagata look-alikes are seen from behind sitting among the spectators. Robin's bike also resembles Kaneda's, except Robin's is blue.
• In the 4th Season South Park episode entitled "Trapper Keeper", Cartman merges with the trapper keeper causing him to mutate in a fashion similar to Tetsuo. They parody the arm mutation with an unknown part of Cartman shooting out causing the door to crush Kenny. Later in the episode Cartman crushes Rosie O'Donnell in a direct parody of Tetsuo crushing Kaori. Also, the music playing in the background is very similar to the score that played during Tetsuo's mutation in Akira.
• In episode 4 of He Is My Master, Sawatari Mitsuki shaves Kume Shinji's hair into the likeness of Colonel Shikishima from Akira.
• On December 31st, 1999, the band The Disco Biscuits used the film for the third set, creating a new soundtrack for the film live as the audience watched.
• In the video game Mario Tennis: Power Tour, there is a character called Mason who strongly resembles Tetsuo. Unsurprisingly, he is designated a 'power player'.
• In the third season of Drawn Together, in an episode titled "Unrestrainable Trainable", scenes of destruction after Captain Hero's son hugs a nuclear bomb are similar to the blast scenes from Akira.
• The DC animated series Batman Beyond has elements seeming inspired by Akira: the Jokerz biker gang mirror the Clowns as much as the original Joker, while Terry McGinnis' motorcycle is modelled after Kaneda's. In the direct-to-video feature Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, the Joker hijacks an orbital weapon not unlike the SOL satellite in the film, which produces similar lighting effects when fired.
• In season 2, episode 4 of Mahoromatic, there is a scene where a city is subject to the same type of explosion that Tokyo suffered at the beginning of Akira.
• In the TV series Robot Chicken (Season 1, Episode 18: The Sack), there is a brief clip where Kaneda's habit of shouting Tetsuo's name is parodied: Standing beside his red motorbike, Kaneda is seen on stage in a darkened theater and sings out "Tetsuo!" in operatic style.

What's new

Otomo Katsuhiro is the character and mecha designer for Freedom Project, a 6-part OVA series commissioned by Nissin Cup Noodles for their 35th anniversary. Freedom's lead antagonist, Takeru, bears an uncanny resemblance to Kaneda, leading to speculation that the project is a sequel to Akira, though this is incorrect. Freedom bears no relation whatsoever to Akira apart from Otomo's involvement. Here is the official website for Freedom Project.

See also

• Films considered the greatest ever
• The Monstrous adolescent character type
• Thematic similarities in Altered States and Childhood's End.
• Akira (video game)
• Freedom Project
• Firestarter 2: Rekindled which has the same main stroryline

External links

• Akira Official Website (Japanese)
• Akira at IMDb
• Akira : Akira2019.com : Extensive site on Katsuhiro Otomo's Anime/Manga Akira
• An Introduction to Akira
• Blue Blade Akira
• Cyber Punk City
• Otomo Katsuhiro's Freedom Project(Japanese)

Template:Akira