"Akira" An Anime Triumph

    It has been five+ years since I've last watched this film. Admittedly, for a film with as much cultural impact as it had, I only found out about it/watched it because it was mentioned in a MoistCr1TiKaL video (yes I am willing to admit that even I listened to Mr. Fencesitter when I was a teenager). It was during COVID though, and I remember being thoroughly confused about it. But now, with a repaired attention span, and just general knowledge of what was supposed to happen, I was hoping that my perspective on it would change significantly since it was showing in one of my local movie theaters. Let's talk about it.

    Plot-wise, I will say Akira is a little confusing. Like I really did not remember much from my first viewing, because watching it for a second time I can say I understood it a significant amount more. Whether it be all of the layers between the rebels or the strong political undertones. The sort of symbolism/relationships between all of the different groups/characters. As my sister put it, "the plot kind of lost me icl," and I don't really blame her.

    So what exactly is this film about? There's a secret government program in which they experiment on children who have immense psionic potential. What do I mean by that? The namesake of the film, Akira, was so devastating that he caused a third world war, devastated Tokyo to the point that even 20 years later it has yet to fully recover and be rebuilt, and his entire body was dissected and experimented on in hopes that it would never happen again. A small-time biker gang led by a boy named Kaneda accidentally has a run-in with one of these "psionic beings" and it triggers the latent abilities of his childhood friend Tetsuo, who is subsequently put into this government program for his ability to potentially rival even Akira's, which causes Kaneda and his friends to run into a "terrorist" organization hoping to uncover this program.

    I'll admit it sounds like and just generally feels like a lot, especially for a film that only tanks in at around two hours. That's part of the appeal with the film though. It doesn't feel/need to explain everything to viewers. This time around, I noticed that the film felt oddly much more religious/spiritual than I originally thought. Whether it be the Colonel's talk with the scientist about how Tokyo hasn't really been the same since the war and is in need of saving, or the idea/talk of this all being some spiritual reawakening/rebirth for the city, to this seemingly incomprehensible power that brings untold destruction, to even the idea of the three psychic children praying to Akira like he's some kind of God. There's a lot unsaid in this movie, but I would not necessarily categorize it as a negative thing.

    Like take Tetsuo and the other psionics for an example, which I can pretty clearly see the nuclear weapons allegory for, whether it's the chamber they keep Akira in, or the fact that in their most devastating form "unleashing" their power means essentially dropping a very large, devastating bomb. Or the psionic people. There's a lot to unpack there, particularly the fact that they're children. When they first start interacting with Tetsuo when he's in their room despite having immense power they decide to appear in the form of the children's toys in his room, and they shirk at the first site of blood, despite the fact that their creatures bleed "milk" instead. These children have been around much longer as shown by the slideshow in the beginning, yet because of their medication, and possibly because they never had a proper childhood, in both mind and body they still act like little kids even with their immense power.

    Or what about Tetsuo's upbringing without proper parental figures, and when his powers start truly manifesting it brings out his strong desire to be able to defend himself independently without the help of others. Or the fact that even when they do pray and finally manifest Akira, he comes to them not in the form of some strong dominant adult, but simply another slightly more grown-up adolescent. This connection between supreme power that doesn't know any better, and is indiscriminate in it's destruction sort of like a sheltered child might be.  And ultimately, the fact that this power can't really be wielded responsibly like the adults might want it to, sort of like a child, ultimately it's simply too much power and you can't control every single aspect. All of this to say that while much of what this story is trying to say is very much implicit and through imagery and symbolism, there is still quite a bit that this film is trying to convey to viewers. 

Final Score: 85/100

    I enjoyed this film way more than I did the second time around. Do I think it's great? Absolutely, do I think it's worthy of it's legendary status? I'm not quite so sure. It's certainly one of those cases where I'm simply too unfamiliar with it's influence to really say, because for all I know I've watched plenty of pieces of media and as someone who is a big fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion there are plenty of parallels you can draw between them, from the secretive governments, to the religious sides of both of them, children ultimately being what controls these weapons of mass destruction, and this idea of a rebirth for a city/the world as a whole. Honestly, the more I talk about this film the more tempted I am to give it an even higher score. Visually I think it's aged wonderfully, it looks old but doesn't feel old or dated if that makes sense. Like what more could I have wanted from this film? You know what I think I've talked myself into it, this movie is absolutely worthy of the praise it got, though I still have no idea why the motorcycle slide is what is copied the most from this film.