The Impact Of Anime Masterpiece ‘akira’

Pieces of media tend to have a lastful, meaningful impact, especially when it comes to animation, as we tend to consume it since a pretty young age – that’s why the genre is often seemed, wrongly, as a medium specific for kids & teens, but it actually gives creators and storytellers an universe of options for them to portray their wildest ideas and mature stories, using multiple aesthetics and techniques to get their message across. This is the case for anime, which thanks to movies like ‘Spirited Away’ (2001) and ‘Perfect Blue’ (1997), is viewed like the serious animation medium that it is. Yes, we all grew up watching anime shows like ‘Dragon Ball Z’ and ‘Sailor Moon’, but anime is much more than that, as we also grew up watching awesome anime movies like Katsuhiro Otomo’s ‘Akira’ (1988) and if we take a closer look, their impact is still palpable in us and everything around us.

The story of ‘Akira’ takes place in Neo-Tokio, a futuristic, cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic city in 2019 (the movie is from the 80s, keep that in mind) where a young man unleashes his psychic powers and is captured by a large corporation that runs experiments on him seeking to turn him into a weapon, as his friends do everything they can to rescue him… and that’s all we can say about it without spoiling the movie.

Visually, ‘Akira’ is stunning, and it’s actually a blueprint for many sci-fi action movies that came after it. Take for example the iconic “Akira motorcycle slide”, this kickass move has appeared from ‘Batman:The Animated Series’ (which shared animators with ‘Akira’), to ‘The Matrix’, to more modern movies like ‘Wolverine’ and ‘Nope’ – they basically invented a movie frame that has been replicated endlessly. As the piece from Inverse on the movie states: “Otomo’s groundbreaking animation looks, acts, and breathes like a live-action film, but goes places live-action could never dream. Every frame is painstakingly animated, right down to the vibrant colors, the intricate backgrounds, and the groundbreaking depiction of light. Its boundary-pushing use of traditional cel animation was so meticulous that animated films can’t even afford to try to copy what Akira did, at least not on its scale. But it’s the weird, grotesque, and eerily prescient story that makes Akira still feel urgent decades after its release”.

Underneath the gimmicks, the action and the gore, ‘Akira’ is in its core a film about friendship, love and human nature, and that’s what makes it relevant and relatable after so many years, depicting a future where humans and technology clash, a common struggle for sci-fi movies. It’s a critique of society, governments, and wars – it’s an action film filled with social commentary, and that’s the beauty of it, besides its outstanding animation. “Rather than glorifying technology, ‘Akira’ explores the disasters it can cause, drawing inspiration from both real and imagined situations”, says The Current about the movie, and that’s also a differential based on everything that was happening in pop culture back in the 80s, with movies like ‘Back To The Future’ and ‘Star Wars’ doing the exact opposite.

In short, ‘Akira’ is a certified icon in the world of cinema by its own rights . It has an incredible and representative visual style, thought-provoking themes, and its lasting impact have made it a timeless classic that continues to captivate and inspire +30 years after its making. The really good stories age like fine wine, huh!