Akira (1988 film)

Akira
File:Cover-akira.jpg IMDB 7.7/10 (19,231 votes)
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	Akira Committee Production (Japan) Orion Pictures Corporation (US) Manga Entertainment (UK)
Release dates	July 16, 1988 1989 - 1990 January 25, 1991 May 8, 1991 May 9, 1991
Running time	124 minutes
Language	Japanese
Budget	¥1,100,000,000 $10,000,000

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 (voices were recorded before the animation was completed, rather than the opposite — a first for an anime production) 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.

31 years later, in the year 2019, a gang of teenage bikers led by a smug teenage 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 wizened child (Takashi, one of the Espers, who has just been kidnapped from a government facility), blocking his path. As Tetsuo tries to avoid the him, his bike inexplicably explodes. When the gang arrives at the scene, several military helicopters arrive. Led by Colonel Shikishima, armed soldiers take Takashi and Tetsuo away. 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 terrorist Resistance. Kaneda sees Kei (whom he recognized from a mugshot) and convinces the soldiers to let her go with them when they are released. It becomes obvious that Kaneda saved Kei just to hit on her. 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 and a high-ranking government official are having a conversation in an office, talking about Takashi's escape and a pending inquiry on the matter by the Supreme Executive Council. The Colonel, however, is soon summoned by the Doctor, who is monitoring Tetsuo at the government lab. The Doctor informs the Colonel that a special machine in the lab is picking up strong mental frequencies from Tetsuo, noting this is unlike anything he's seen before. The Colonel is wary that Tetsuo may turn into "another Akira," and 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. The couple decide to run away together. The next day, they go to the school and steal Kaneda's bike. Just as they are leaving town, the bike's battery goes dead, leaving the two stranded. Unfortunately, they are immediately attacked by some Clown members. The Clowns beat up the two and are about to destroy Kaneda's bike when Kaneda and his gang show up and defeat them. It is here that Tetsuo admits his resentment towards Kaneda and his leadership role, as well as revealing his inferiority complex. Tetsuo then starts to have a painful headache, and begins having disturbing hallucinations. The hallucinations include brief glimpses of Akira. It is then that scientists and bodyguards, upon orders of the Doctor, capture Tetsuo and take him away.

That night, the gang hangs out in the city. Kaneda is understandably mellow. Their excursion is interrupted by terrorist attack, causing havoc. Kaneda glimpses Kei and Ryu as they flee the scene. Leaving his friends behind, Kaneda tries to follow the two. Ryu and Kei separate after agreeing to meet at their hideout. Kei is running in the sewers when she is spotted by a group of soldiers. Kaneda appears out of nowhere and wrestles with one of the soldiers in the sewage, while Kei shoots and kills another in self defense. Kei and Kaneda flee the scene.

We see Tetsuo with experiments being performed on him again. He seems to be having a dream as this is happening, with flashbacks of his childhood. Young versions of himself and Kaneda seem to be playing on a playground when the city around them (and Tetsuo himself) seem to crumble. Tetsuo wakes up, his headache causing a nearby fluorescent light to shatter.

Meanwhile, the Colonel appears at the nursery, at the bedside of Kiyoko, another Esper. She tells him of a dream she has recently had, that she met Akira again, and that Neo-Tokyo was destroyed. The Colonel and the Doctor agree that this might be Kiyoko's precognitive power 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 make their way to Akira's underground cryonic chamber, finding that all of the chamber's systems to be normal.

Kaneda and Kei make their way to the hideout of the Resistance. Ryu and the other terrorists are immediately suspicious of Kaneda and lock him into a room. They then meet up to discuss their next mission. Their leader, a man named Nezu, has given them ID cards to use to gain access to a government facility. Their new mission is to find and rescue a boy named Tetsuo Shima. The group soon finds that Kaneda snuck into the ventilation shaft and has been eavesdropping on them. When they pull him out, he explains that he and Tetsuo are best friends and that he wants to help them. Ryu soon meets with Nezu in Neo-Tokyo. Ryu plans to take Kaneda with them on their mission to rescue Tetsuo, and perhaps use him as a decoy.

The next day, the Colonel appears before the Council, asking for more funding for the project. We soon see that Nezu, the resistance leader, is a member of the Council. They flatly refuse, and soon begin arguing on how to spend the money on other programs instead. Some Council members start to question the Colonel's sense of duty as a soldier, and announce that they will place him before an inquiry committee. The frustrated Colonel abruptly leaves the meeting.

In his hospital room, Tetsuo again has headaches, but is soon attacked by the Espers - Takashi, Kiyoko, and a third child, Masaru - posing as gigantic toys. Leaking milk, the toys repeatedly attempt to kill 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 somehow then learns about the Espers' location - their nursery, called the "baby room" - and starts to make his way there, killing soldiers and wreaking destruction.

Meanwhile, the terrorists are soon spotted by soldiers riding the "flying platforms" - flying one-man vehicles armed with machine guns - and a battle ensues. One of the terrorists is killed while several platforms are shot down and crash. Kaneda and Kei take control of a platform and escape. They hear over the platform's radio that Tetsuo is making his way to the baby room, that he's extremely dangerous and must not be let inside.

We soon find that Kiyoko, possessing Kei, is leading Kaneda to the baby room. When they get there, Tetsuo is already inside, attacking both the Colonel's army and the Espers. He is trying to kill the Espers for attacking him, and has also learned about Akira, eager to meet him to make him stop his headaches. Kaneda and Kei are shocked when Tetsuo demonstrates his immense psychic powers. As Tetsuo makes his escape, he is confronted by Kiyoko. Tetsuo demands to know Akira's whereabouts, then reading Kiyoko's mind, discovering his location beneath the Olympic Stadium. After leaving the scene in a flash of light, he goes to a bar for a drink. His old gang buddies, Yamagata and Kaisuke, arrive later, finding the place a mess and the bartender dead. They also find Tetsuo, who soon kills Yamagata.

Kei and Kaneda are locked-up in a holding cell. Kiyoko possesses Kei again, explaining that all living things - even microscopic creatures like amoebas - have great amounts of energy inside of them, that scientists tried to harness this power but destroyed Tokyo doing so, and that Tetsuo has enough of this energy to consume everything around him. Kei then finds that that door in unlocked and they escape. They soon bump into Kasuke, who tells them of his encounter with Tetsuo and Yamagata. A distraught Kaneda then takes Yamagata's bike and crashes it into a wall, so he can "send Yamagata his wheels." He and Kaisuke both see Kei walking on water, meeting Takashi, and seeing the both of them disappear.

The Colonel has initiated his coup against the government. All members of the Supreme Executive Council are arrested by his men. Nezu, the mole, hears of this at his home and promptly murders his staff. As Nezu is stuffing a briefcase with money, a bleeding Ryu enters the room, saying their mission failed. An angry Nezu then shoots Ryu and flees. We next see Nezu in an alley, followed by a ghostly Ryu. Nezu is soon seen with a mouthful of medication in an attempt to commit suicide. He suffers an overdose and dies, and Ryu, now bleedly profusely, dies next.

Tetsuo is now wreaking havoc across Neo-Tokyo, destroying helicopters, tanks, and a bridge on his way to the Olympic Stadium. He makes it to Akira's cryonic chamber, pulls it out of the ground, and collapses it. Kei, again possessed by Kiyoko, attempts to fight him, but is soon thrown aside. However, he's in for a big surprise. There is nothing left of the dead Akira now except dissected body parts in canisters. After Tetsuo attacks again, the Colonel decides to use the Satellite Orbital Laser (SOL) against him. In the wreck of the chamber, Tetsuo meets Kaneda (now armed with a laser cannon), and they both engage in a fight. In the middle of the fight, SOL is activated, and its beam destroys the area, severing Tetsuo's arm in the process. An enraged Tetsuo then flies into space and brings down the laser satellite.

That night, Tetsuo hides out at the Olympic Stadium. Kaori comes to see her boyfriend, having seen him on television. She hears him screaming in pain, but he soon emerges. Kaori notices a new arm he's made, which appears mechanical. The arm breaks open and seems to merge itself with the Olympic throne Tetsuo has sat on. The Colonel appears, and tells Tetsuo to come back to the lab with him. Tetsuo refuses, and attacks the Colonel with flying rocks. When Tetsuo tries to approach Kaori, the Colonel shoots him. Tetsuo's body responds by turning his arm into a giant blob, attacking and attempting to swallow the Colonel. Tetsuo is stopped when the "arm" is shot by Kaneda and his laser cannon. Meanwhile, the Espers have arrived at the stadium and seem to communicating with Akira in the canisters.

Tetsuo and Kaneda engage in another fight. When Tetsuo is down and Kaneda has a clear shot, he hesitates when Tetsuo's body evolves into a huge, living blob. Eventually, it/Tetsuo becomes so big, it almost fills up the stadium. Tetsuo's body swallows Kaori, who is later seem crushed beneath its throbing insides. Tetsuo's body also swallows Kaneda, who escapes by shooting his way out with the laser cannon.

Suddenly, the canisters shatter, and Akira appears, triggering another explosion. Kiyoko touches the Colonel and sends him to a tunnel far away from the stadium. The explosion starts to absorb Tetsuo, who pleads for Kaneda to help. Kaneda allows himself to be captured by Tetsuo again, and goes inside the explosion with him. In an effort to save Kaneda, the Espers decide to go inside also and use their combined powers to get him out. Inside, Kaneda sees the memories of Tetsuo and the Espers. The Espers tell him that Akira will be sending Tetsuo away. Kaneda then seems to be ejected from the inside of Akira's onslaught.

Neo-Tokyo is destroyed by Akira's second appearance, and is gutted and flooded by the event. Kaneda survives, as do Kei, Kaisuke, and the Colonel. The former three meet up at the remains of the Olympic Stadium, wondering if Tetsuo is truly dead. They then ride their bikes across a bridge into the ruined city.

We last see a stylized "big bang" of sorts, followed by Tetsuo saying "I am Tetsuo." This may imply that Tetsuo is now a god-like entity and now resides in his own universe.

Themes and Symbolism

Like Otomo's earlier work, Domu (1983), Akira revolves around the basic idea of individuals with superhuman powers — in particular, 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.

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 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 using his psychokinetic powers.

• Akira (アキラ) — The principal subject of the story. Akira was a young boy who developed immense psychic abilities when serving as a test subject for secret government ESP experiments in the 1980s. He somehow lost control of his power and destroyed Tokyo in 1988. After the event, his dead body was dissected and subjected to every test known to modern science. His remains were placed in a cryogenic chamber underneath the Neo-Tokyo Olympic Stadium.
• Shotaro Kaneda (金田正太郎 Kaneda Shōtarō) — The anthology's protagonist. Kaneda is a carefree gang-leader with a custom-modified motorcycle. He and Tetsuo have been best friends since childhood. He has a very brash attitude and is not above heckling Tetsuo. Upon rescuing Kei, Kaneda joins a group of anti-government guerillas who are trying to find the mysterious Akira.
• Tetsuo Shima (島鉄雄 Shima Tetsuo) — Kaneda's best friend since preschool, Tetsuo has an inferiority complex, admiring his friend but secretly resenting his assistance. After his telekinetic powers manifest, Tetsuo becomes Kaneda's nemesis; he desires Kaneda's motorcycle (a symbol of status and power), but also wants to prove himself as strong and without need of protection.
• Kei (ケイ) — A young woman who Kaneda meets and becomes enamoured with on his quest to find Tetsuo. She's a member of an anti-government organization that Ryu and Nezu are also involved in. Although she does not have psychic powers, she is employed as a medium of the espers.
• Colonel Shikishima (敷島大佐) — Head of the government project previously responsible for unleashing Akira's power.
• The Espers — Masaru (マサル, also known by the codename "Number 27"), Kiyoko (キヨコ, codename "Number 25") and Takashi (タカシ, codename "Number 26") — are Akira's psychic schoolmates kept in a perpetual yet aging childhood. They affect a variety of paranormal powers to influence the course of events to the best of their ability. While individually of lesser strength than Akira's power, their combined effort proves formidable.
• Nezu (根津) — A mole in the government, who is responsible for Takashi's kidnapping.
• Yamagata (山形) — One of the strongest members of Kaneda's gang. He often criticizes Tetsuo and this leads to some hard feelings which ultimately determine 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	Japanese	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; unknown (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	unknown	Simon Prescott (Simon Isaacson)
Kaori	Yuriko Fuchizaki	Barbara Goodson (Barbara Larsen)	unknown	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	unknown	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)	unknown	unknown
Nezu	Hiroshi Ohtake	Tony Pope (Tony Mozdy)	Daniel Abundis	Mike Reynolds (Ray Michaels)
Inspector	Michihiro Ikemizu	unknown	unknown	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)	unknown	Kurt Wimberger
Harukiya bartender	Yōsuke Akimoto	Bob Bergen	unknown	Ivan Buckley

Production

Akira Committee Productions 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 Productions consisted of:

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

Releases

The original 1988 release by Akira Committee 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

• Special Edition
  Special Edition
• Regular DVD
  Regular DVD
• Japanese Version
  Japanese Version
• Ultimate Collection Edition
  Ultimate Collection Edition

DVD Features

The available DVD releases of the movie each have their own particular features.

Special Edition

For the 2-disk Region 1 Special Edition DVD:

Disk 1 Akira Remastered version Scene Selection Subtitles: English Languages toggle

Disk 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 16:9 version English (Geneon dub) 5.1 Japanese 2.0

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

Soundtrack

Untitled

Akira: Original Soundtrack was recorded by Geinō Yamashirogumi. 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 2030 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, 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.

Trivia

• 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's, 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 closley 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."

File:HK2004-TetsuoParody.jpg

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

• 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.
• 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 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]
• 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.
• 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 Akira from the anime film. The themes of bikers and gangs also resemble that of the film.
• The final boss of Konami's Violent Storm (an arcade beat'em up) was partly inspired by Tetsuo: in the beginning he looked like a child with a cape sitting on a throne, then turned into a hulking man with psychic powers.
• In the original version of the Linkin Park song 'High Voltage' which can be found on the 'In The End: Live & Rare' EP the name 'Akira' can be heard in the background at around 1 min 4 secs into the song at the beginning of the second verse. An obvious reference to the film of the same name as band members have often expressed a love for Japanese Anime & Manga. The video for their song 'Breaking the Habit' is entirely anime style animation.

• The Pop Will Eat Itself single "Karmadrome" features voice samples from the original english dubbing of Akira that was produced by Streamline Pictures.

Parodies

• 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. Another episode does a complete parody of the film: Billy and Mandy, having acquired psychic powers, fight it out in a stadium identical to that in the movie; during the fight, they mutate as did Tetsuo (Billy's enormous nose becomes an arm). At last, they destroy the stadium with a nuclear explosion matching those at the beginning and end of the film.
• 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 a 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.
• One of the segments on The Wacky World of Tex Avery featuring Maurice and Mooch included a parody of The Colonel, who looked like Colonel Sanders.
• In the 4th Season South Park episode entitled "Cartman's 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.
• 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 3rd season Drawn Together episode "Unrestrainable Trainable", the scenes of destruction after Captain Hero's son hugs a nuclear bomb are similar to the blast scenes from Akira.

See also

• Films that have been considered the greatest ever
• The Monstrous adolescent character type
• Thematic similarities in Altered States and Childhood's End.
• Akira (video game)

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