The Bite Magazine - Autmn/Winter 2020 - Issue 28

bitefilmreview What is fascinating is that Akira keeps continuously creat- ing phenomenal widespread culture awareness. To further emphasise the point, there was an article on Bloomberg.com on 28th February that spoke about the film saying: “A scene from an iconic 1988 Japanese animated movie that famous- ly predicted Tokyo would win the right to hold the 2020 Olympics has the country abuzz on Friday over a possible cancellation of the games.” A scene from the movie Akira set in 2019 shows a signboard counting down the days until the Olympics. The sign reads ‘147 Days until the Games’ and encourages citizens to lend their support to make the event a success. Underneath, someone has graffitied, “Just cancel it!” As predicted in Akira , the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo has been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and gained even more weight in anime cult worldwide. Akira is also considered a breakthrough for adult animation as it explores and reveals mature themes and concepts such as political turmoils, social isolations, corruption, poverty, and power and at times can appear bloody, violent and even sexual. It is considered a forerunner of the second wave of anime fandom that began in the early 1990s and has gained a massive cult following since then, not only in Japan but also the USA and Europe. An animated film adaptation released in 1988 shortened the plot considerably, while retaining many of the manga’s primary characters and plot elements alongside additional scenes, settings, motifs. It received similar critical acclaim and has served as a significant influence on the anime in- dustry and the cyberpunk genre, as a whole. The original version of manga takes place over a longer time frame than the film and involves a much more comprehensive array of characters and subplots. Otomo’s Akira anime film adapta- tion marked his transition from a career primarily in the manga to one almost exclusively in anime. The film was set in the futuristic metropolis of Neo Tokyo in 2019. The city is being rebuilt post-World War III after an unknown explosion destroyed the city in 1988. Despite the efforts from the government, the city is struggling to re- cover and is on the verge of collapse due to corruption, an- ti-government protests, gang violence, terrorism, and pov- erty. The story mainly focuses on two high school dropouts who are now members of a biker gang. Kaneda, the leader and childhood friend, Tetsuo Shima, grew up together in a foster home. During a massive protest, Kaneda leads his vigilante Bosozoku motorcycle gang against the rival Clown gang. During the confrontation with Clown gang, Tetsuo in- advertently crashes his motorcycle into Takashi, an esper (person with extrasensory perception) who escaped from a government laboratory with the aid of a resistance organ- isation. The accident awakens psychic powers in Tetsuo, attracting the attention of a secret government project di- rected by Colonel Shikishima, head of the Japanese Self-De- fence Forces. Meanwhile, Kaneda meets Kei, a teenage girl from a resist- ance organisation, who also becomes his love interest, and saves her life a few times throughout the film. Colonel Shi- kishima and his head of research, Doctor Ōnishi, discover that Tetsuo possesses powerful psychic abilities similar to Akira, the esper responsible for Tokyo’s destruction. The colonel and Onishi try to prevent the destruction of Neo Tokyo and decide to kill Tetsuo if he gets too powerful and out of control to protect the city. Colonel Shikishima and the espers attempt to stop Tetsuo,