Katsuhiro Otomo’s “Akira,” is considered one of the benchmark or defining moments in the history of Japanese anime when it came 1988. The cult classic which is based on the acclaim manga series by Mr. Otomo was one of the first anime to show a great amount of detail of a realistic world with a dark future as well as presenting strong and mature themes that show how fragile the human race are. The storyis set in 2019 in Neo-Tokyo, 30 years after Tokyo was destroyed by the first Akira project that started a World War III. The Akira project helped scientists to unlock the potential energy that exists in all life and all things which connect us to our cosmological beginnings, causing a human test subject, Akira, to manifest such power that he was responsible for the destruction of Tokyo.
Now in modern day, Neo-Tokyo is a city on the verge of anarchy that is filled with social as well as economic unrest, where biker gangs swoops the streets creating chaos and where politicians try to manipulate events for their personal gain. It is also a time when science has no boundaries and gifted test subjects of science experiment wield great powers that are able to create a universe. Now Neo-Tokyo is about to see history repeats itself again when Tetsuo Shima the antagonist who is a member of a biker gang comes in-contact with a prematurely aged test subject who has been temporarily freed from continuing the Akira project. When the subject is re-captured, Tetsuo is also taken and initiated into the programme, leaving his best friend Kaneda the protagonist to unravel the mystery as well as trying to save Tetsuo.
During Kaneda’s search for Tetsuo, he discovers an underground operation whose purpose is to oppose the Akira project, while Tetsuo escapes his captors and begins to manifest powerful psionic abilities that are soon spiralling out of control. The theme’s and images in Akira are unforgettable as well as breathtaking give you a glimpse of very dark post apocalyptic world. The anime shows how fragile we humans really are for example Tetsuo who is an angry teenager gifted with psychic powers of truly frightening scale is tortured by them as he is hollowly empowered. His torment, god complex, and desperate breakdown give an emotional depth to events that are otherwise drastically out of human scale. Even with all of this Kaneda still try his very best in order to save his best friend which here Mr. Otomo stresses on the theme of friendship.
What makes Akira a classic is, its ability to cover a wide variety of themes ranging from corruption, scientific ethics, friendship, euthanasia as well as unique and dazzling animation. There is a small downside to Akira. It might only appealed to a specialty of audience who are willing to unravel its well developed plots in a realized cyberpunk setting which is dark and has a disturbing vision of power gone wrong. In the end Akira is beautiful, dark, violent and impressive anime which tries to bring so many messages like this saying which was used in the anime “Those who forget in the past are doomed to repeat it.”
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