Anime Week: Akira

Welcome to Anime Week boys and girls!!  We will begin with a controversial title that rocked the nations with its cyberpunk look, feel and dark premise to how the world will progress.   Yes, I am not referring to Pokemon.   That is a whole other kettle of fish to contend with.  I speak of the popular manga turned anime Akira.   With this intense saga of violence, the struggle for power and the corruption of the human soul, this story brought amazing visuals and a complex story was well captured on cell.  This is Akira.

The apocalypse came as we always knew it would. The Cubs won the Pennant.

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





Created from the Manga (Japanese graphic novel) by writer/illustrator Katsuhiro Otomo (A Gun Report, Short Peace Peace, Highway Star, Hippa: The Little Vampire and Park)Akira lasting from 1982 to 1990 and creating more than 6 volumes brings us a similar vision in the small cell screen of the same name.

Our story begins in 1988, when a nuclear explosion destroys the better chunk of Tokyo inviting the beginning of World War III.   By the year 2019, Neo-Toyko is a wasteland of anti-government hysteria, bosozku (tribal biker gangs) and people simply getting by day to day.  Shotaro Kaneda is the leader of the Capsules in constant conflict with a rival gang known as the Clowns.   Guess the Jokers was too on the nose and DC comics would have gone crackers over it.   Kaneda's best friend Tetsuo almost runs down an esper (psionically powered being) Takashi who escaped from a secret government lab sprung by an revolutionary group of underground freedom fighters.  No sooner does that occur, heavily armed soldiers tracking Takashi scoop him up along with Tetsuo after a small firefight.  Kaneda and his whole crew get rousted and interrogated for hours to no avail because the gang has no idea what is going on.    

Let's do some crimes, man!

The military head figure Colonel Shikishima and Doctor Onishi realize that Tetsuo has the same level of psionics that to the esper Akira who gave birth to World War III and they want to either lock down his powers or outright kill the boy before Neo-Tokyo suffers a similar fate.  With martial law declared the Colonel preps block to block searches for Tetsuo and his girlfriend Kaori.   Kandea and Capsules are in deep conflict with the Clowns when Tetsuo unleashes a psychokinetic wave that devastates both gangs and starts tearing up the land.  Kandea has no choice but to join forces with the revolutionaries to bring his former friend down before there is no city left to save.

Just a few tidbits on the overall vibe of this film.  To create this film over 2,000 shots and 160,000 single cell pictures were drawn using over 327 different colors.  The interesting part of this all is the better portion of this film takes place at night, which most animators avoid like the plague due to the increased color requirements.  


Otomo's creation of a post-apocalyptic Tokyo has brought about future similar such stories such as: Demon City Shinjuko, Bubblegum Crisis and A.D. Police mixing the aftermath of the world before and the cyberpunk genre.    The themes Otomo's stories displayed where the awkward social isolation, government corruption and totalitarian concepts.

My side! Your side! MY SIDE! YOUR SIDE!