Akira opens with the devastating image of what appears to be
a nuclear explosion tearing apart Tokyo in a flash of blinding white. 31 years
later Neo-Tokyo has risen from the devastation, the urban sprawl of the city
burying the secrets of the past. Motorcycle gangs, rioting and protests against
the government are commonplace, and the city appears to be once again on the
brink of societal collapse. Teenage friends Tetsuo and Kaneda, members of a biker
gang head out to take on their rivals, the “clowns”, in a high-speed chase
through the city. Tetsuo crashes into a boy who appears to have strange powers,
his first interaction with a trio of mysterious children with telekinetic
abilities. The government capture Tetsuo, who soon comes to realise that he is developing
powers that he is barely able to control. Meanwhile Kaneda has fallen for a
girl, Kei, who is working with a radical anti-government group attempting to uncover
the governments secretive experiments on these children.
Written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, who also wrote the
manga on which it is based, “Akira” is a stunning achievement. From the high-speed
chase that kickstarts the action to the cosmic horror of the final moments, the
animators go all out to create a world that is vibrant and alive. The backgrounds
are detailed with graffiti and signs of decay that make the world feel real and
lived in. Add to this the explosions, shattering glass, water and lighting
effects, and there is so much visual information on screen at any one time that
it demands your attention. This is a good thing as the story moves at a break-neck
pace. The manga on which it is based runs to 2000 pages, which means certain characters
and subplots in the film are addressed only briefly, such as the government
discussions and the quasi-religious group who worship Akira. Characters such as
Tetsuo’s girlfriend and the leader of the resistance movement are likewise
underdeveloped. This does however go a long way to making the film’s world feel
absolutely real, as there is always the sense that a lot more is happening off-screen.
There are two main story threads, one involving Tetsuo and Kaneda’s
relationship, and one involving the secret government experiments, both of which
are engaging and benefit from the background information we do get. The impact
of the score is one element that cannot be understated, with tribal drums and
breathy vocals, chanting and bells, it creates a unique sound that is traditional
and timeless. The blasts of sound are an assault on the senses in the same way
as the striking visuals.
Akira is a film that is at once epic, dealing with themes of cosmic
significance, societal collapse and man’s hubristic drive towards ever more
destructive technologies, and at the same time deeply personal, dealing with
the psychology of Tetsuo, a young orphan who feels mistreated by the world. The
nuclear era has more than ever led humanity to confront its inability to
control what it is creating. The scientists and military in the film are
representative of the naïve attempt to control such weapons (in this case
represented by the children they are experimenting on). In one scene of the
film we see the colonel and the scientist descending in an elevator, looking
out over the towering skyscrapers. This visual metaphor for the inevitable fall
after the rise of civilisation is poignant, even more so given that what they
are facing has already happened before. They are doomed to this cycle of
destruction and rebirth. Kaneda and Tetsuo are oblivious to their machinations,
living at street level they are unaware that there are grand schemes afoot. The
tragedy of Tetsuo is that he is a victim of society who is suddenly given
absolute power. He is jealous and insecure, but what is terrifying is not that
he is a flawed individual, but that he is given a power that allows him to act
out his most harmful urges. It is also possible to see in him a rejection of religious
ideology. Those who believe Akira and Tetsuo to represent some sort of
salvation are in for a rude awakening when they realise that ultimate power can
be misused and in fact will rarely benefit society. It is a rejection of the
notion that absolute power is a good thing and questions the belief that the
relentless march of progress is heading in the right direction.