My Thoughts on “Akira” (1988)

 

(This is a wallpaper image for Akira (1988).) 

It is time for Neo-Tokyo to E.X.P.L.O.D.E.. I still don’t know why it was written as an acronym, or even what that acronym stands for if anything, but that’s how it’s written. I just finished my review of Man of Steel, and it’s time to me to tackle Akira (1988), the seminal anime movie for a lot of people. For a lot of people, especially those who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, this was the thing that got them into anime. It was either this, or Ghost in the Shell (1995), or Ninja Scroll 🥷📜, or Dragonball Z, or Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Pokémon, or Sailor Moon 🌙 if they were girls ♀︎ or gay boys ⚣, or straight boys ⚤♂︎ who were too embarrassed to admit they liked watching Sailor Moon 🌙 and other magical girl ♀︎ shows. It wasn’t for me, the thing that got me into anime was Cowboy Bebop…I think. 

 

I started watching anime around the late 2010s and early 2020s, and my memory of that time is a bit fuzzy, but I do know that Cowboy Bebop was one of the first ones I truly watched from start-to-finish, that I truly engaged with instead of just barely glancing at it. Followed by Outlaw Star, and then this movie, and also Metropolis (2001), which was written by Katsuhiro Ōtomo, the director and co-writer of this film. And it’s been a love affair ever since 🤩. So, even if Akira (1988) wasn’t the first anime I ever watched fully, it was one of the first. 

 

And I’ve decided to review it after all these years since like with Metropolis (2001), I saw it during a time when I didn’t review everything that I watched or rewatched, or I wasn’t reviewing anything at all. I was still making YouTube videos on and off back then and I didn’t have a blog to write any of this on, I just had DeviantART to post journals but even still I wasn’t writing reviews on there or everything I watched. Plus, the pandemic 🦠😷 messed me up, so did the January 6 insurrection, and it took me awhile to get back on my feet and start writing reviews again. Now, I’m making up for lost time and review an anime movie that I quite dig 🙂👍. 

 

 

(This is a poster for Akira (1988).)

 

 

 

I actually like it a lot more than Ghost in the Shell (1995). You might think that’s a bit crazy considering how much I’ve talked about Ghost in the Shell on here, but even in my posts about Ghost in the Shell related media, I’ve made it abundantly clear that I do not like the 1995 movie. I just couldn’t get into it, there’s just something about it that just doesn’t click with me. Maybe it’s the story, maybe it’s the characters (the way they’re written), maybe it’s the overblown philosophy, the pretension that emits from every frame of that movie. I enjoy the other iterations of Ghost in the Shell a lot more than I do the 95 movie. Stand Alone Complex by far my favorite iteration of Ghost in the Shell, the original Stand Alone Complex, not that bullshit 3D animated sequel/soft reboot series, SAC_2045. 

 

I know how important the 95 movie is, not just to the Ghost in the Shell franchise, but to the medium of anime overall. Its influence extends beyond just the realm of anime too, like it’s one of the main things that inspired The Matrix, but I still don’t find much entertainment value within it. That’s just me, I know a bunch of other people love Ghost in the Shell (1995), but if any of you are reading this, just know that I’m not one of you. I can’t imagine I’d enjoy the sequel, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (known as just Innocence in Japan 🇯🇵) since it’s by the same director, Mamoru Oshii, and seems to double down on everything that I disliked about the 1995 movie. 

But, I don’t have that problem with Akira (1988). It’s every bit as important and influential as Ghost in the Shell (1995), if not a bit more, but I still get a lot of entertainment value out of it. I guess for me, it doesn’t I’m watching a philosophy lecture or that I’m being beaten over the head with a certain message. The 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie is a bit heavy handed with its philosophical themes. This movie has philosophical themes too, as well as political themes, but they didn’t prevent me from enjoying the movie, like it doesn’t feel like I’m being talked down to or like the movie’s wagging its finger at me if that makes any sense. 

 

 

 

(This is another poster for Akira (1988).)

 

 

 

It is a cyberpunk movie, and it did partially inspire The Matrix along with Ghost in the Shell (1995), but the interesting thing to me is that despite being in the cyberpunk genre, Akira (1988) doesn’t involve any robots, or cyborgs, or really has anything to do with computers 🖥️💻 or AI. It doesn’t even really involve corporate greed 🤑. It does deal with corrupt politicians and an authoritarian government on the brink of collapse and violent revolution, but that’s really about it. Instead, this movie is about people with telekinetic powers, like the movie Push (2009) with Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, and Djimon Hounsou. It’s actually fitting that I bring up Push (2009) considering that it’s been rumored for a long time that Chris Evans was once attached to the live action Akira movie which is still stuck in development hell. 

 

Perhaps the movie Chronicle with Michael B. Jordan and Dane DeHaan would be a more fitting example. Another fitting comparison would be Matilda (1996) since Matilda develops telekinetic powers similar to the Espers in this movie. Most people don’t think of Akira (1988) as being a superhero movie, but that is essentially what it is, it’s about a group of individuals who have superpowers and about a person who develops those same powers. It’s as much of a superhero movie as those movies I mentioned as well as the Unbreakable movies (Unbreakable, Split, and Glass). It really only uses the aesthetics of cyberpunk, not really of the themes and tropes of cyberpunk except maybe in the surface level broad strokes. 

 

They do say in a few points in the movie that Neo-Tokyo is a corrupt, crime-ridden, hedonistic city that’s on the brink of collapse. There’s gang violence, terrorist attacks and riots every other day, and there’s also probably prostitutes and drug addicts and drug dealers everywhere. It was meant to be a better place than what is called Old-Tokyo, but ended up being way worse. Just a crime-ridden hellhole where people are probably too afraid to go outside at night or in the day time. It’s like Albuquerque but a thousand times worse in other words, if you’re from New Mexico like me. 

 

Or perhaps like Chicago or Detroit (Chicago and Detroit are really not as bad they’re often made to be on the Internet 🛜 and in the media, but they have that reputation), or like 1970s New York, which probably what Ōtomo’s main inspiration was for how to portray the city. Certainly wasn’t 1980s Tokyo that’s for sure. Tokyo, and Japan 🇯🇵 overall, isn’t particularly known for its high crime rates. Tokyo, and Japan 🇯🇵 overall, have historically had some of the lowest crime rates in the world, at least in the post-World War II world. It certainly has lower crime rates than that of the United States 🇺🇸 that’s for sure. That’s why Japan 🇯🇵 (and Tokyo specifically) has this reputation amongst westerners especially of being this fairytale land where nothing bad ever happens. 

 

So, Ōtomo was probably inspired by America 🇺🇸 in terms of portraying a city that’s rotten to core and would probably be better off if it were wiped off the map. That’s not to say there aren’t any anime that tackle 1980s Tokyo and the culture of the city and the entire country at that time, even within the realm of the cyberpunk genre, like Bubblegum Crisis for instance (which I do intend on reviewing some day), but this movie isn’t really one of them. But, besides the city itself and the government, this movie doesn’t really take that much else from cyberpunk. And I really like that. It helps this movie stand out from the myriad of other cyberpunk media out there. 

 

 

 

 

(This is a photo of Katsuhiro Ōtomo posing with a life sized replica of Kaneda’s bike 🏍️, probably the most famous thing from this movie. He’s even wearing a red jacket that sort of looks similar to Kaneda’s jacket. We just see him from the back, so we don’t know if the jacket he’s wearing has that same pill 💊 in the back like Kaneda’s does.) 

 

 

 

Since I’ve already mentioned Ōtomo a few times in this review, it’s not often that you see the writer and artist of a manga actually direct the anime adaptation himself. But, Ōtomo did it on this movie and his other movie, Steamboy ♂︎ years later, which I’ll talk about later on. The reason why he chose to direct this one himself is that he wanted to have full creative control over it, and decide how exactly it would be adapted to the screen. Mostly because of his experience working on an anime film called Harmagedon: Genma Wars, which is based on a manga simply called Genma Wars. Working on that film convinced him that he could direct an anime adaptation of his manga, and that he’d be the best guy ♂︎ to do it. And he was able to do it and secure funding for it because it was a popular manga at the time and he had plenty of clout within the industry. 

But, believe it or not, Akira (1988) was not actually Ōtomo’s first movie, it was not his directorial debut. His directorial debut was actually on Neo Tokyo, a 1987 anime anthology film that Ōtomo contributed a short to. It’s fitting that his first movie was one that was called Neo Tokyo, considering the city in the Akira manga (and movie) is called Neo-Tokyo. He gained enough directing experience to work on a big project like Akira (1988). And it was indeed a big project, it had a budget of around ¥700 million 💴 or ¥1.1 billion 💴, which according to Wikipedia, which was about equivalent to $5.7 million 💵. At the time, it was the most expensive anime film ever made and it remained the most expensive anime movie ever made for many years afterwards, right up until Ōtomo’s own Steamboy ♂︎. No wonder Warner Bros. is so worried about their planned live action remake having a budget that’s as high as $350 million 💵 and becoming among the most expensive movies ever made.

 

The project was so big that they had to put together a partnership of different companies and studios to finance the film and produce the film, as in make the animation, called the Akira Committee. That’s why the movie starts with a credit saying “From the Akira Committee” or something like that. The companies that made up the committee were Kodansha, Mainchi Broadcasting System, Bandai (the same Bandai behind Digimon and Gundam, as well as Cowboy Bebop), Hakuhodo, Toho (the same Toho behind Godzilla), LaserDisc Corporation 📀 (yes, LaserDisc 📀), and Sumitomo Corporation. 

 

They all contributed money 💴 as well as marketing for the film. The company that actually did the animation, at least the 2D hand drawn animation, was a company called Tokyo Movie Shinsha, which is now known as TMS Entertainment. Then a few companies called High Tech Lab. Japan Inc. 🇯🇵, Sumisho Electronic Systems, Inc., and Wavefront Technologies provided the CGI animation in this, because there is some CGI animation in this, particularly used for the holographic patterns that show Tetsuo and Akira’s power. 

 

 

 

(This is an animation cel from Akira (1988).)

 

 

 

 

Another first, maybe not first, but another unique thing about this movie for time is the voice acting. The recording the voice acting first and did the animation afterwards. That’s pretty much common place now in animation, not just in Japan 🇯🇵 or the United States 🇺🇸, but pretty much all around the globe 🌎🌍🌏, but back then, in Japan 🇯🇵 at least, it wasn’t that common. So, this movie sort of pioneered that practice in the anime industry, or at the very least popularized it. 

Another way that this movie was unconventional was the composer, Geniō Yamashirogumi. I say it’s unconventional because it’s not even a person, it’s a band. The Wikipedia says it’s a “musical collective,” but it’s a band. It was founded by Tsutomu Ōhashi, who is the actual credited composer, at least on Wikipedia. He went under the alias, Shōji Yamashiro when he was working on this film and his band active. From what it seems, Tsutomu Ōhashi is not a film composer, he was a musician, he produced music with his band, but he hadn’t composed a score for a movie before Ōtomo asked him and his band to do the score for Akira (1988). Ōtomo hadn’t directed a full feature film like this before (he only directed a short film that was one part of a larger anthology film), so it makes sense why he’d hire someone who had never composed music for a film before. They were like kindred spirits. And their score is one of the best things about the movie. Kaneda’s theme is amazing, one of the most badass pieces of music created for any movie ever. 

 

It’s so good in fact that people actually suggested that it be played during the opening ceremony the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics ☀️ since the movie does take place in 2019 and does involve the 2020 Olympic Stadium 🏟️, like it factors into the plot a lot. They also wanted the opening ceremony to have motorcycles 🏍️ as well since the movie does include a lot of motorcycles 🏍️, and motorcycles 🏍️ and motorcycle culture 🏍️ are a huge part of the movie’s identity and legacy. But, honestly, that’s asking too much, I think. The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics ☀️ are mentioned during that scene with the Executive Council members discussing the current goings on in Neo-Tokyo as well as addressing Colonel Shikishima’s concerns about Tetsuo, who becomes the new test subject for the JSDF 🇯🇵 (Japan Self-Defense Forces 🇯🇵)’s secret human experiments. One of the Council members says that Japan 🇯🇵 is hosting the Olympics next year, which would be 2020. Then the entire third act takes place around the Olympic Stadium 🏟️ since the cryogenic storage dewar holding the remains of Akira is right next to it. Don’t why they thought putting it right next to the stadium 🏟️ was good idea. You’d they’d try to put it in a less conspicuous place, but whatever 🤷‍♂️, it’s cool. 

 

 

 

 

(This is a piece of fan art for Akira (1988) showing the logo of the original 1964 Tokyo Olympics, only it says Neo Tokyo 2020 since it’s supposed to be the 2020 Summer Olympics ☀️. The signature red sun symbol on the flag 🇯🇵 is all mutated just like Tetsuo becomes at the end of the movie. Since the stadium 🏟️, in the film, is being built in Old-Tokyo, it really shouldn’t say Neo Tokyo 2020, what it should really say is: Old Tokyo 2020.) 

 

 

 

 

 

But, Kaneda’s theme isn’t the only piece of music that’s great in this, there’s Tetsuo’s theme, which is amazing, a great contrast to Kaneda’s theme and shows the mental deterioration of Tetsuo as his powers grow and he quickly loses control over them. I also like the music that’s played during that underground sewer chase where Kaneda, Kai, Ryu, and that other guy ♂︎ who gets killed right away are trying to break into the military hospital where Tetsuo is being held so that they can “rescue” him, but really just kidnap him and use him for whatever nefarious purpose that Mr. Nezu has in store for him. And Kaneda commandeers one of those cool looking hovercrafts armed with machine guns that the guards were using, and uses it to fly him and Kei into the hospital, and into the baby room. That piece of music is called “Exodus From The Underground Fortress” on the soundtrack. It’s a great piece of music. Nice little progressive rock music. 

 

The score is great mix of electronic music, traditional Indonesian gamelan music 🇮🇩 (they used a lot of Indonesian instruments 🇮🇩), European classical music, and Japanese theater and spiritual music 🇯🇵 called noh. It gives a really weird ethereal vibe to it, it totally works for this film considering how unconventional it is. I also like the tracks, “Illusion” and “Requiem,” those are beautiful pieces of music that can easily bring a tear to your eye 😢, like I find myself getting choked up when I hear these tracks sometimes. Needless to say, if that live action remake ever gets made, they better either hire Geniō Yamashirogumi to do the music again for that film, or hire someone else who create music that’s just as good and produce music that’s good for that version and respects what Geniō Yamashirogumi (and Tsutomu Ōhashi specifically) did for the score in the original anime film. 

 

It’s just like Tron after Tron: Legacy and the music score for that film made by Daft Punk, music is very important to the legacy of Akira, and a huge part of what makes it so good in the first place. It’s an important part of the recipe, and if you leave it out, it won’t be as good. In fact, now that I think about it, you can draw a lot of parallels between Akira (1988) and Tron: Legacy in terms of how their music scores were composed. They were both composed by people who were not film composers by trade, and yet still managed craft scores that are easily one of the best and most memorable things about the movie. You can even include Blade Runner into this as well since Vangelis wasn’t a film composer either before he was asked to do the score for the first Blade Runner movie, and completely knocked it out of the park 🤩. But, more on that later. 

 

An unfortunate thing about the soundtrack is that it’s pretty hard to find, like the CD 💿 is out of print and expensive depending on where you look, and it isn’t available on any digital music store or music streaming platform. Not only that, but almost every video on YouTube that has one of tracks on it has been copyright claimed by the companies who currently own the soundtrack, Victor Music Industries, Demon Records/JVC Records, and Milan Records. Only a few soundtrack videos of the tracks from this movie are left on the platform. 

 

So, you can’t enjoy the soundtrack in either an official capacity or an unofficial capacity (let’s just say). But hey, at least someone persevered it on the Internet Archive 🛜, which may or may not get torn down one of these days, I don’t know what current situation with the Internet Archive 🛜 is, but last time I checked, it was pretty grim. If anything bad happens to the Internet Archive 🛜 in next couple of years, the entire album could disappear and potentially become lost media. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

I do understand Ōtomo’s desire to want to adapt Akira into a movie himself, rather than letting someone else come in and adapt it on his behalf, or just with his blessing. If I wrote a book 📖, or a comic book, or a manga, or even I wrote an original screenplay (a spec script), I would want to be the one to direct it, not someone else. Who else would know your own work best and know how to adapt it into a movie than you? Of course, if I were to do what Ōtomo did, I would have to gain some filmmaking experience first before I actually directing a feature film and adapting one of my literary works. 

When Ōtomo did adapt Akira for the big screen, he chose not to do a 1V1 straight up word-for-word panel-by-panel adaptation of the manga, he made a lot of changes. The movie is very different from manga, almost to the point of the two being considered two separate entities in the eyes of fans. I’ve never read the manga, so I can’t tell you how different the movie is from the manga, but I’m guessing that it’s pretty different. From what I heard, Akira is a more active character in the story and has more a lingering presence, rather being a collection of disparate body parts inside of jars like in the movie. Even the United States 🇺🇸 is part of the story and plays a bigger role, whereas it’s never even mentioned in the movie. 

 

Several characters are pretty different like the character, Lady Miyako. From what I read on the Akira Wiki, Lady Miyako was a major character in the manga, being a high priestess with her own religion based around her (she’s a cult leader basically with herself as the Messiah-like figure that her followers worship), and a key player within the Resistance and being the one to influence Mr. Nezu to start supporting the Resistance. Not only that, but she also possesses some psychic abilities of her own, and was even apart of the same project that the Espers were apart of, though make no mistake, she’s not as powerful as the Espers. She even battles Tetsuo at the end of the manga and has a full-on rivalry with him. 

But in the movie, she’s just a cult leader who worships Akira, and is pretty much just a background character who dies at the end. She gets killed by Tetsuo when he destroys that bridge that all the Akira cultists are on, mistakenly believing that Tetsuo is Akira awakened and returned. Guess they all had a rude awakening when Tetsuo just decided to snuff out their whole existence. It’s also suggested that she’s a fraud and has no psychic abilities whatsoever. And for some reason, in the 2001 English dub, they dubbed her with a male voice ♂︎. I didn’t know she was a woman ♀︎ until I saw the wiki. Speaking of which, I watched the movie with the 2001 English dub. I haven’t watched the original Japanese audio version 🇯🇵 with English subtitles because I prefer to watch anime dubbed than subbed. 

My guess as to why Ōtomo went with this approach was to make something that would actually work within the medium of film, and would be a little bit more digestible and easier to take in for a general audience, especially those who never read the manga. Not much digestible or easy to take in, since this is still a pretty weird movie and is confusing in some parts, but it’s more digestible and easy to take in than I imagine the manga is. Either that, or he didn’t want to just recreate the manga exactly and wanted the movie to be its own thing, since he knows people will watch it without having read the manga and probably will only watch the movie and not read the manga. 

 

Or maybe, he just wanted to create an abridged version of the story in the manga (have it be the cliff notes version) and have the movie act as an advertisement for the manga. If that’s case, he sure went through a lot of effort and spend a lot of money 💴 just for an advertisement. I think the answer is likely a combination of all those, he wanted to make a movie based on his manga, but wanted it to work as movie first rather than trying to be a full-on recreation of the manga, and he wanted it to stand on its own for people who hadn’t read the manga and probably won’t even read the manga afterwards, but also make it an advertisement for those who like reading manga and would be enticed to read the manga after watching the movie. 

Akira (1988) is an alternate history of sorts. Basically, it takes place in a world where World War III happened, and the world order has completely shifted. We don’t hear about any other countries besides Japan 🇯🇵 in the movie (we probably did in the manga), but we get a sense, just from seeing Japan 🇯🇵, that things are not great. If Japan 🇯🇵 is that bad, then the rest of the world is probably just as bad, if not worse. And how exactly did World War III start? Well, it was basically because of Akira. 

 

He was one of the Espers (which is what they refer to the kids with telekinesis as) who was being studied by the Japanese government 🇯🇵, and was the most powerful one, and he lost control of his powers and caused an explosion 💥 in the city that was mistaken for a nuclear explosion ☢️, and that kicked off World War III. This was 1988 after all, the fear of nuclear war ☢️, particularly between the United States 🇺🇸 and the Soviet Union ☭, was still alive and real, and in this universe, it happens, and it’s all because of a boy ♂︎ with telekinetic powers who couldn’t control his powers. 

 

Though, interestingly, as the scene with the Executive Council shows, there are still people who doubt that Akira was the real cause of the explosion 💥 and are still fully convinced that it was a nuclear strike ☢️. Probably because believing that is a lot easier and less painful than believing that a world war (that more than likely involved nuclear weapons ☢️ to some degree) was started because of a misunderstanding. And probably because the Japanese government 🇯🇵 did a pretty decent job at covering up the existence of Akira and the other Espers to the general public, so only the top brash in the government and military know about it. Anyone who believes in Akira and the Espers or asks too many questions about them is seen as a conspiracy theorist or a weird cultist. Which, yeah, that Akira cult that we see at different points throughout the film is pretty weird.

 

 

 

 

(This is a screenshot from Akira (1988), showing an overhead view of Neo-Tokyo.) 

 

 

 

 

Tokyo was almost completely destroyed by the explosion, and after the war, they had to build a new city in its place, right in the middle of Tokyo Bay. So now, there are two cities: Old-Tokyo and Neo-Tokyo. Old-Tokyo has been completely abandoned and is uninhabited except for the Olympic Stadium 🏟️ they’re building there and the cryogenic storage dewar where Akira’s remains are being kept that’s literally right next to the stadium 🏟️, while Neo-Tokyo is new shiny city ✨ where everyone lives, including those who used to be live in the old city. Okay, it’s not completely shiny ✨ since it’s riddled with crime and corruption, and there’s probably prostitutes and drug addicts everywhere, lots of homeless people probably, and it probably smells like piss in the alleyways. 

It does kind of beg the question, why didn’t the Japanese government 🇯🇵 just move the capital to another city like in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus or in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. The Japanese government 🇯🇵 moved the capital to Osaka due to Godzilla’s constant attacks in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, and they moved the capital to Fukuoka after Tokyo was destroyed in World War III in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Why didn’t they do it here? It would make perfect sense. I guess Ōtomo really wanted to show off Neo-Tokyo and have some snazzy cyberpunk visuals. 

In a lot of ways, Neo-Tokyo is a mirror or an indicator for the state of Japan 🇯🇵 as a whole. From what this movie shows us (and what the manga probably elaborates further on), after the war, Japan 🇯🇵 became a shell of its former self. It now has a corrupt, semi-authoritarian government full of corrupt politicians who only care about lining their own pockets 🤑 than actually helping the people. Even as Japan 🇯🇵’s infrastructure slowly crumbles apart, partially caused by political negligence but also by a bloating military budget as the Japanese government 🇯🇵 is pouring trillions of yen 💴 into the JSDF 🇯🇵’s budget. All so that Colonel Shikishima can keep the Espers contained and study them. 

 

Japan 🇯🇵 is just straight up a kleptocracy in this world, no different from current day South Africa 🇿🇦 (at least until the 2024 elections 🗳️), or like the current day United States 🇺🇸 🤷‍♂️. And then later, when Colonel Shikishima overthrows the government in a coup, it becomes a military dictatorship under martial law. All so that Shikishima can capture Tetsuo and prevent him from discovering Akira’s remains. Oh, and Japan 🇯🇵 also lost its status a being one of the countries with lowest crime rates in the world, as after the war, crime skyrocketed across the board in Japan 🇯🇵, and now it has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Comparable to the United States 🇺🇸, or South Africa 🇿🇦, or Venezuela 🇻🇪, or Afghanistan 🇦🇫 (yes, Afghanistan 🇦🇫 is one of the top 5 countries with the highest amount of crime), or Haiti 🇭🇹. Probably not as bad as Haiti 🇭🇹, but about bad as those other ones. The US 🇺🇸 may not be in the top 5 countries with the highest crime rates like those other countries I mentioned, but it still has a lot of crime, and is certainly not one of the countries with low crime rates. You can totally understand why there’s a Resistance in Japan 🇯🇵, and why the country’s on the brink of a revolution by the time the events of the movie take place. 

The thing that I like about the movie is that it starts out as a crime movie. Besides that opening scene where we see Old-Tokyo get obliterated, the way the movie starts out, it almost makes you think that it’s going to be a movie about motorcycle gangs 🏍️, albeit a futuristic one. Like, the movie opens with Kaneda’s gang, the Capsules 💊, battling a rival gang called the Clowns 🤡. It’s only when Tetsuo runs into Takashi with his bike 🏍️, that we get our genre flip and more overt sci-fi elements (besides just the city and the bikes 🏍️) start getting introduced. 

 

Also, those JSDF helicopters 🇯🇵 were somehow able to sneak up on them when this happened, they come to take Tetsuo and Takashi away. Like we don’t hear them make any noise until that spotlight shines on them and then all of a sudden they’re all loud and we can hear them just like we would any normal helicopter. Post-World War III Japan 🇯🇵 must have some pretty nice stealth technology if they can build their helicopters to be completely silent at a moment’s notice. Though, knowing how the JSDF 🇯🇵 works, I’m guessing they probably got these helicopters from the US 🇺🇸. All of their weapons, vehicles, aircraft, and equipment came from the US 🇺🇸 because America 🇺🇸 is the main supplier of the JSDF 🇯🇵, and that’s still probably the case even in the Akira world. 

 

From there, it stops being a simple story about motorcycle gangs 🏍️ battling each other to the death, to a more complicated and sometimes confusing story about a boy ♂︎ who starts developing superpowers and slowly starts to lose himself to those powers while his best friend is unable to do anything but watch. There’s also hint of body horror, when Tetsuo’s body starts mutating after he loses control of his powers and turns into this giant fleshy blob that starts absorbing everything around it (killing his sort of girlfriend, Kaori in the process), and even turns into a giant baby at one point. 

 

It’s kind of like how Predator starts out as a military action movie about an elite special forces unit being sent on a bogus mission in Central America, but around the halfway point, it becomes a sci-fi thriller about that same special forces unit being hunted down one-by-one by an alien 👽 who hunts humans (and other life forms across the galaxy) for sport. Or like how From Dusk Till Dawn starts out a crime drama thriller, no different from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s earlier movies (which fitting since the movie was directed by Robert Rodriguez and stars Quentin Tarantino in the secondary lead role alongside George Clooney who is the main lead of the film), about a criminal duo taking some people hostage, but towards the end, it turns into a straight up action-horror film about those same criminals and their hostages being under siege from a bunch of vampires 🧛‍♂️🧛‍♀️ in a bar. 

 

 

 

(This is a piece of Akira fan art done by the artist ImmarArt on DeviantART.) 

 

 

 

 

BTW, I didn’t know that Kaneda’s gang was called the Capsules 💊 until this most recent viewing for this review, and I looked it up on Wikipedia. That explains why Kaneda has a picture of a pill 💊 on the back of his jacket. Also, both Kaneda’s gang and the rival gang were influenced by a real Japanese youth subculture 🇯🇵 called bōsōzoku, which involves riding highly customized motorcycles 🏍️, which is why Kaneda’s bike 🏍️ is all fancy and is all decked out with stickers and everything. That’s also what I meant by earlier when I said motorcycles 🏍️ and motorcycle culture 🏍️ are a huge role in the movie’s identity and its legacy. There is a lot of stigma surrounding bōsōzoku, mostly because of its association with organized crime, a lot of yakuza engage into bōsōzoku, though not every bōsōzoku practitioner is associated with the yakuza, and that’s generally become less common. But even the bōsōzoku that aren’t yakuza affiliated still tend to engage in crime. Japan 🇯🇵 has low crime rates, but what crime there is, bōsōzoku tend to make up the majority of it. 

So, if Japanese people 🇯🇵 see someone riding a highly customized bike 🏍️ with colorful and flamboyant paint jobs and/or stickers adorning it, they automatically assume that person’s a criminal or an antisocial troublemaker, and kindly keep their distance. It’s kind of the same way tattoos are viewed in Japan 🇯🇵. Tattoos are generally frowned upon in Japan 🇯🇵 (especially in high volumes) because of their long association with the yakuza. So, if you have a tattoo, especially if you have a ton of tattoos, Japanese people 🇯🇵 will usually assume the worst and keep their distance…just to be safe. Kaneda and his gang, the Capsules 💊 don’t look to be the kind of bōsōzoku who are associated with the yakuza, and are instead an independent biker gang 🏍️, a group of teenage ne’er-do-wells looking to stir up trouble and look cool while doing it. Mostly the looking cool 😎 part, but the Capsules 💊, they’ve probably done a lot of bad stuff and we see them do bad stuff in the film itself. The Clowns 🤡 might be associated with the yakuza, though that’s never confirmed or hinted at in the anime. I don’t know about the manga because I’ve never read the manga.

 

 

 

 

(This is a piece of Akira fan art done by the artist Kuvshinov-Ilya on DeviantART.)

 

Speaking of Kaneda, there is a bit of this question surrounding the movie about which character is supposed to be the main character? Is it Kaneda or Tetsuo? I used to sort of think it was Tetsuo, I thought all the years that he was the main protagonist since it’s largely his story, and he’s the character that has the biggest character arc and goes through the biggest changes in the film. I saw it as a story where the protagonist becomes the antagonist. But, on this most recent viewing, I’ve come to the conclusion that no, Tetsuo’s not the main character, he’s not the main protagonist, Kaneda is. Even if it isn’t technically his story and really doesn’t change or grow that much as a character, we’re still seeing this story through Kaneda’s eyes. 

 

 

 

 

(This is a screenshot from Akira (1988), showing Kaneda on his bike 🏍️, getting ready to ride away.)

 

 

 

In a lot of ways, he’s the audience surrogate, the one character who the audience can relate to and project themselves onto, and who’s as in the dark as we are. Imagine that, the motorcycle gang leader 🏍️ is the most relatable character in this. But hey, at least his bike 🏍️ is cool 🤷‍♂️😁. However, I still don’t fully understand what all the hubbub about that slide or drift that Kaneda does with his bike 🏍️ towards the beginning of the movie. Why is that the one shot that everyone latched onto and tried to recreate or parody whenever they decide to reference Akira? That shot never stuck out to me as anything particularly noteworthy or special, and yet, it’s considered the most iconic shot from the movie for some reason 🙄. 

 

 

 

(This is a screenshot from Akira (1988), showing the famous bike slide/drift that Kaneda does with his bike 🏍️ at the beginning of the movie.) 

 

 

 

 

When you watch this movie with the idea that Kaneda is the main character, it comes a story about a guy ♂︎ who’s forced to watch as his best friend deteriorates and becomes consumed by his newfound powers, and must make a choice on whether to protect him or destroy him. He ultimately chooses the latter, and he goes over to Old-Tokyo on his signature red motorcycle 🏍️ (pretend this emoji is red and cooler looking) with a battery powered laser gun and tries to kill his friend, who has become a danger to himself and everyone else around him. Tetsuo actually kills people and destroys a huge chunk of the city (Neo-Tokyo that is). He fails, and Tetsuo doesn’t actually die, instead he’s taken to another dimension, another plane of existence by the Espers because like them, he and the powers he possesses were just not meant for this world. 

Tetsuo is pretty good villain, he’s driven entirely by pride envy as he’s jealous of Kaneda, and is tired of always being helped out by him and being in his shadow and wants to strike out on his own. And the telekinetic powers he develops only serve to height his worst impulses, as he uses them to exact revenge against those who he felt wronged him in some way, and pushes away the ones who care about him the most. But, in doing so, he ends up flying too close to the Sun ☀️ and loses control of his own godlike powers and starts to horrifically mutate. It’s only when the Espers (including Akira) step in that Tetsuo’s reign of terror is finally put to an end. He sort of reminds me of Rigby from Regular Show, and his dynamic with Kaneda is very similar to the dynamic between Mordecai and Rigby. He’s like if Rigby didn’t mature and become a better person, and remained an envious spiteful jerk, got superpowers, and just went completely insane, killing everyone who even remotely looks at him funny. 

From what it seems, from reading the wiki, it seems like Tetsuo’s an even greater villain in the manga since his motivations or his plans are a bit more complex and complicated than just petty revenge. Like, he just straight up creates his own government, a city state in the ruins of Neo-Tokyo, called the Great Tokyo Empire. He, or his aide, the Captain (he doesn’t have a name, he’s referred to as “Tetsuo’s Aide” or “Captain”), would probably say something like, “like a phoenix 🐦‍🔥, the Great Tokyo Empire rose from the ashes, the ruins of Neo-Tokyo, to give the people of this great city some much needed direction and governance.” He establishes it after Neo-Tokyo is destroyed (I’m not sure it’s destroyed in the manga since in the movie, it’s destroyed by Akira and the Espers and them creating a singularity to suck up Tetsuo and take him to another universe), and has places Akira at the top of it as a figurehead emperor, while he grants himself all the actual power and is the one that actually governs and calls all the shots. 

It’s sort of like how Imperial Japan 🇯🇵 worked, where Emperor Hirohito had little-to-no real power and was just a figurehead, and the people below him, the prime minister and the military generals and admirals were the ones who actually called the shots and had the actual power to do anything. But, they still kept the emperor around and used it as a propaganda symbol to the people to support what the government was doing without question. That’s what Tetsuo does with Akira, he uses him a propaganda symbol to entice people and get them to support his government. 

 

The logic being, if they worship Akira and see him as a god, then they won’t question anything that the government does in his name. Just like real life Empire of Japan 🇯🇵, the Great Tokyo Empire is a highly authoritarian government, holding compulsory rallies at the Olympic Stadium 🏟️ (which I assume is where Tetsuo has his throne since it has that chair where the cauldron is supposed to be), and I assume that any criticism or action taken against the government is punishable by death. That’s how it is in all dictatorships, they’re afraid of the people criticizing them or resisting them in any way, so they try to stomp it out as quickly and as violently as possible.

Speaking of dictatorship, I really do like Colonel Shikishima. Even though he is arguably the secondary antagonist and is certainly not a good person by any means, he’s not completely evil. I don’t know he’s portrayed in the manga, but in the movie, he’s portrayed as a very rigid individual who only really knows how to respond to problems with a military lens. There’s a scene where he’s talking to the scientist, Dr. Onishi inside an elevator, and in that scene, he talks about how he despises politicians, especially corrupt ones, doesn’t really care about politics, and is a soldier at heart. He doesn’t know any other way. His job is to protect the city of Neo-Tokyo (and probably all of Japan 🇯🇵 as well), and yet he hates what the city has become and doesn’t want any part of it. The only reason he takes over the government is so that he can capture or kill Tetsuo. 

 

He also seems rather protective of the other Espers. Whether that’s because he genuinely cares about their wellbeing and has developed an attachment to them, or if he’s just protecting them so he can figure out to use their powers for military purposes is not entirely made clear, but it does make seem like a more nuanced character who has some humanity to him despite his hardy exterior. His life is also spared, like he survives to the end. The Espers saved his life by teleporting him to a safe distance from the singularity. He doesn’t die, just Dr. Onishi does. That tells me that he isn’t really meant to be the bad guy, that perhaps he had some redeeming qualities and wasn’t fully deserving of death. 

 

But, man, he’s going in trouble for overthrowing the Japanese government 🇯🇵 in a coup 😬. He could face a US military intervention 🇺🇸 if his government didn’t collapse first, and he could face prison time. Maybe, the Espers should’ve just let him die since his life is over and he’ll facing the full brunt of the Japanese criminal justice system 🇯🇵 for his crimes against the nation. He’s a straight up insurrectionist for what he did. I also like that orbital weapon that he uses on Tetsuo in the end, called Sol, I thought it was pretty cool. It’s like a solar powered space laser ☀️, which I assume is why it’s called Sol. It reminds me of that solar-powered laser weapon ☀️ from Resident Evil: Revelations called Regia Solis, which was probably inspired by Sol in this movie. Even if it doesn’t last long due to Tetsuo destroying it. 

There are some things in this movie that people have found confusing 😕 over the years. I know, Akira (1988) being a somewhat confusing movie? What a shocker. The first thing I want to talk about is Mr. Nezu and his connection to the Resistance. According to the wiki, Mr. Nezu decided to become a mole within the government secretly supporting the Resistance after being influenced by Lady Miyako, though it’s unknown if he genuinely believes in her teachings or if he’s just using the Resistance to his own ends. Or at least, that’s how he is in the manga, since Lady Miyako not only had bigger role in the story in that, but she is an actual member of the Resistance, being one of its key leaders, while in the movie, she seemingly has no connection to the Resistance whatsoever. 

His true motivations and loyalties are left purposefully ambiguous in the manga. So, without Lady Miyako, the movie version of Nezu kind of just comes across as a corrupt politician who’s trying to use the Resistance to enrich himself 🤑 and gain more power and influence within the government by eliminating his rivals. I assume this because of his reaction to Ryu when he comes back and reports back to him that the mission at the hospital failed, and then Nezu leaves his estate during the coup d’état with a suitcase 🧳 full of cash 💴 before dying of a heart attack 🫀. That doesn’t seem to me like someone genuinely cared about the cause of the Resistance. 

Another moment that people were confused about is the scene where Kaneda and Kei are in the prison together, and Kei starts talking about evolution and amoebas as a way of trying to contemplate or explain the existence of the Espers. A lot of people seem to have either misunderstood or misinterpreted that scene, even Kaneda himself (which is why I consider him the audience surrogate), since Kei explains all this in the most cryptic way possible. Basically the gist of what she’s trying to say is that humans should not be granted godlike powers because most of them use them irresponsibly and get a lot of people killed. 

 

Which is exactly what happens with Tetsuo, he uses his powers irresponsibly, and ends up getting a lot of people killed or hurt, including himself. I think people were thrown off when she started talking about amoebas. The point she was trying to make with the amoeba example or comparison was that to a microorganism like an amoeba, human would be a god, so if you gave an amoeba the power of a human, they wouldn’t necessarily become more enlightened and achieve a higher level of consciousness, they’d just use that power to do what an amoeba does best: eat and reproduce. 

The same thing with humans and giving them godlike powers, they wouldn’t use it responsibly, or use it for good, or use it to achieve a higher level of understanding, they’d use to do what humans do best: mess things up. Humans do a lot of horrible things, not to just to the environment and to other animals, but to each other, in fact the worst things humans do is often towards each other, and you gave humans godlike powers, they’d just keep doing those horrible things, only the destructive potential of them doing those will be increased ten fold. In other words, you can’t change human nature, all you can do is suppress it or enhance it, and granting godlike abilities to a human would enhance or accelerate human nature, heightening and enabling the worst aspects of it. Again, that’s what happens with Tetsuo. Him developing those powers doesn’t make him a better person, it makes him a worse person and makes him much more dangerous. An unstable and jealous person becomes even more unstable and acts on his jealousy with violent outbursts. 

 

They also make a point about how adults (or “grown-ups” as the put it) should not have the power because adults are set in their ways and can’t really change, and therefore can’t really handle given godlike powers, whereas kids are better handle to the power because they’re more pure and malleable, they can grow and change over time, and won’t be as easily corrupted by the power the same way it would to do an adult. That’s why the Espers are afraid of Tetsuo because he’s a teenager and therefore is too old to have the powers and use them responsibly without being corrupted by them. He’s an angsty teenager, an angsty teenager who engages in criminal activity and is jealous of his best friend, giving him godlike power is a recipe for disaster. 

Also, at the end, they strongly hint, or outright say at the end of the movie that Kei is developing psychic abilities of her own. I don’t know how, maybe it’s because the Espers use her as a puppet to serve their own ends, that they inadvertently woke something up with her and started developing the powers too. She’s also the only major female character ♀︎ in this whole movie that’s portrayed with any sort of dignity and isn’t mistreated by any of the men ♂︎, besides Kiyoko. There is a conversation to be had about how this movie portrays women ♀︎ and portrays male/female relations ♂︎♀︎ because let’s just say…it’s not great 😬, in fact it’s pretty bad. This movie is kind of misogynistic at several points. 

 

They could’ve another strong female character ♀︎ had they kept Lady Miyako and let her have a bigger role instead of relegated to the background. Speaking of the ending, what happens at the end apparently is that after the Espers take Tetsuo away from our plane of existence and into that pocket dimension, he create an entire new universe inside of there and transcends the limits of human existence. I know that it’s hard to gather all that from the ending given how cryptic it is, but that’s what plot summary on Wikipedia says.

 

 

 

 

(This is a wallpaper image for Akira (1988).)

 

 

 

 

This movie of course had no sequels, it doesn’t exactly lend itself to sequels, and has a pretty clear cut ending, nor does it have any prequels, though you could probably make a prequel out of it. Just like that prequel comic series to the Watchmen graphic novel, Before Watchmen. Speaking of Watchmen, I suppose you could make a sequel to Akira, somewhat in vein of that 2019 Watchmen series on HBO, where it continues the events of the story decades later, and that shows how world has progressed since the events of the anime/manga, but it’s not really needed. There have been some video game adaptations though, most of them are from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. It was the late 80s and early 90s after all.  The only one that wasn’t was that PS2 pinball simulator game that Bandai put out called Akira Psycho Ball. But, so far, there hasn’t been a proper Akira video game for the modern era. But, maybe we might get one if that live action remake ever comes out, since movie tie-in games and tie-in games in general are slowly making a comeback.

 

 

 

 

(This is a fan made poster for Akira (1988).)

 

 

 

 

Ōtomo for his part, went to work a few other projects after Akira was released was a box office smash (in Japan 🇯🇵 at least), including Memories (1995), another sci-fi anime anthology in the vein of Neo Tokyo, and Metropolis (2001), which he wrote but did not direct. He wouldn’t actually direct a full anime feature film that wasn’t an anthology film until Steamboy ♂︎, which meant to be his main follow up to Akira, and his big triumphant return to the world of big budget filmmaking. Only instead of cyberpunk like Akira was, as the title would suggest Steamboy ♂︎ would be steampunk. With a budget of ¥2.4 billion 💴 ($26 million 💵), it took Akira’s place as being the most expensive anime film ever made and the most expensive Japanese film 🇯🇵 ever made, being in production for 10 years and utilizing over 180,000 drawings and 440 CG shots 😧. I don’t know if it still holds either of those titles, probably not, but I’d be impressed if it did. 

 

However, it was not as big of a successful as Akira was in its time, and didn’t leave as much of a lasting impact on pop culture globally as Akira did. Guess steampunk doesn’t sell nearly as well as cyberpunk. That might be too much to ask for, but Ōtomo did intend to be the main follow-up to Akira and for it to be a spiritual successor of sorts. He certainly wanted it to be a huge epic and an event film. That’s why he spent all that money 💴 and went through all that effort, putting his animators through the wringer. 

 

But, for whatever reason, it just didn’t resonate with people in the same way that Akira did. However, I still plan on watching and reviewing Steamboy ♂︎ sometime in the future because it is part of my childhood by way of those trailers they including on pretty much every Sony DVD 📀 in the 2000s. I owned pretty much all of the Godzilla films that Sony still has the North American distribution rights to, and they used to play the Steamboy ♂︎ trailer a lot in the preview section before you got to the main menu.

 

 

 

(This is a piece of Akira fan art done by the artist fednan on DeviantART.)

 

 

 

Warner Bros. has been trying to make a live action Akira movie for decades, and so far they’ve been pretty unsuccessful. The project has been stuck in development hell, and has become a revolving door of screenwriters, directors, and even actors coming in and then leaving after they fail to come up something that works, after they fail to find an angle to tackle this on. Like, Chris Evans was attached to the project at one point in a still undisclosed role (as far as I know), and that got the project accused of whitewashing. So, he left at some point. Guillermo del Toro I believe might’ve been attached at one point, as either a director or a producer, but I’m not 100% sure on that, don’t quote me on that. 

 

But I wouldn’t be surprised if he was attached to the project at one point, he attached himself to all sorts of projects that never went anywhere, or if they did get made, he didn’t end up working on like The Meg 🦈 and the Hobbit trilogy, which wasn’t meant to be a trilogy at first, it was originally meant to be just be a duology when del Toro was still attached to direct. And then after he left, and Peter Jackson came back to take his place, then it was re-envisioned as a trilogy, with the Battle of the Five Armies chapter in the book 📖 getting its own movie. Something that a lot Tolkien fans feel was a mistake. 

 

Another thing that has kept a live action Akira movie from getting made is ballooning costs. I heard somewhere that if this live action Akira movie were to actually get made it would have to have a budget of $350 million 💵 (maybe even higher) just to do all of things that were done in the anime in live action. And by live action, I mostly mean animated since at least 85% of the movie would probably be CG and be in front of a green screens. Even though I don’t it should, I think most of it can and should done in camera on real sets and locations. I mean if Ghost in the Shell (2017) could do it, I don’t see why this live action Akira couldn’t, and that movie is the one thing that this could be compared to and has been compared, and be a useful model to see what it would actually look like or what it should be. They’re both cyberpunk movies after all. 

 

I know a lot of people didn’t like Ghost in the Shell (2017), but I thought it was decent, and I don’t think it deserved any of the hate it got. I did like that the movie was mostly filmed on real sets, in real locations (a lot of it was shot in Hong Kong 🇭🇰), and I respected that they used a lot of practical effects instead of just relying solely on CGI. I think if a live action Akira is ever made, it should do that, use a mixture of practical and CGI effects instead of just using CGI the whole time because a lot of times, the practical effects enhance the CGI effects and make them look more real. And I do think there is a way to do this right, and do it in a way that the budget doesn’t go over $300 million 💵. 

 

But, even it does, that shouldn’t be an issue anymore. Netflix recently released a film adaptation of the graphic novel, The Electric State ⚡️ that had a budget of $320 million 💵 and Avatar: The Way of Water 💦 had a budget that likely exceeded $400 million 💵, so studios aren’t as risk averse to releasing movies that cost more than $300 million 💵 like they used to. I remember when John Carter (2012) came out, and it was considered a big deal that the movie cost $306.6 million 💵 (gross) and $263.7 million 💵 (net). Nowadays, that’s pretty much the norm for blockbusters to cost that much. So, it shouldn’t be a big deal for Warner Bros. to release a live action Akira movie that costs $350 million 💵 if it comes to that. Unless, they don’t think they’re make back their money 💵 from that and think that this movie would be successful 🤨. Then, why are they still pursuing this project then? 

 

As much as Akira fans don’t want it, I do think there will be a live action version of Akira eventually. Warner Bros. hasn’t canceled the project, they refuse to let this go, they’re still moving forward, and they’re going to keep trying until they finally land on something, until someone comes along and makes this a reality (ideally at a lower cost than $350 million 💵). If the Crow 🐦‍⬛ remake could get made, then this can too. My thought is, if they are going to make a live action Akira movie, if this is a thing that has to exist, they should do a more faithful adaptation of the manga, include things from the manga that the original anime movie left out. 

 

Like, the United States 🇺🇸 plays a much bigger role in the manga, and isn’t mentioned in the anime movie,  and I think there actual American characters 🇺🇸 in the manga if I’m not mistaken. That’d be a great angle to approach an American live action remake 🇺🇸 of Akira while still keeping the key characters Japanese 🇯🇵 and still keeping the movie set in Japan 🇯🇵. Maybe you could incorporate the Great Tokyo Empire, I think that would be pretty cool. And give Lady Miyako a bigger role too, I’d like to see her do battle with Tetsuo and be his arch nemesis. And I think Akira himself has a bigger role and is more active character in the manga than he was in the anime, you do something with that. 

I certainly don’t think that it should take place in America 🇺🇸 and that the main characters should all be Americans 🇺🇸. I’m not on board with changing the setting or the nationality of the characters. I think it should still be set in Japan 🇯🇵, in Neo-Tokyo, and all the core characters still be Japanese 🇯🇵. You bring in the American characters 🇺🇸 from the manga and have been be played by American actors 🇺🇸 for the sake of the English speaking audience. Maybe, you can still have the movie be set in Japan 🇯🇵 and all the characters be Japanese 🇯🇵, but have them all speak English. 

 

They wouldn’t actually be speaking English, but they’d speaking it to us for our sake. We’d perceive them as speaking English, but in reality, they’d actually be speaking Japanese 🇯🇵. Kind of like what The Hunt for Red October, or The Death of Stalin, or Prey (2022), or Enemy at the Gates did, or like what that recent Shōgun series did. That one’s probably a more fitting example since that show takes place in Japan 🇯🇵 (in feudal Japan 🇯🇵 mind you) and features a predominantly Japanese cast 🇯🇵. Some of the actors in the show are even Japanese-Americans 🇯🇵🇺🇸. 

 

I wouldn’t mind changing the time period a little bit to better fit with the times though, like instead of Tokyo getting blown up 💥 in 1988 and the movie taking place 31 years later in 2019, why not have it be, I don’t know 1998 (the year I was born 😉) and then 31 years later in 2029, or perhaps, 2008 to 2039. It all depends on when this puppy actually gets made, or if it ever gets made. I don’t know if Japan 🇯🇵 will ever host the Olympics again, or if it’ll be held in Tokyo again after the 2020 Summer Olympics ☀️ (which actually held in 2021 due to the pandemic 🦠😷), so I don’t know if that aspect can be maintained. You might just to leave it out. 

 

You could change the year to either 2028 or 2027 and have the explosion 💥 take place in 1997 or 1996, so that it would coincide with the 2028 Summer Olympics ☀️ being held in Los Angeles, but again, I’m not on board with changing the setting to the United States 🇺🇸. Maybe just keep the years the same, 1988 and 2019, and have the movie be a period piece retroactively. I mean, Watchmen (2009) kept the same year, 1985, so why can’t the live action Akira movie keep 2019? It was the last year before COVID 🦠 and changed all our lives. The end of the pre-COVID era 🦠😷. 

Whenever and whoever ends up making it, I just hope that it isn’t Taika Waititi, he is absolutely the wrong guy ♂︎ for this project. Just as wrong as the Russo Brothers were for The Electric State ⚡️. He does not possess the seriousness and maturity that this material requires. I like he would just turn it into a comedy, and Akira should not be a comedy. It has funny moments, it has moments of levity, yes, but it is by no means a comedy, especially not a Taika Waititi-style comedy. I feel like Warner Bros. only picked him because he was a popular name at the time that they picked him, but years later after they announced that he was attached to direct, he’s not a popular name anymore, and a good chunk of the Internet 🛜 has turned against him, mostly because of Thor: Love and Thunder ❤️⚡️. Which wasn’t entirely his fault, but a good chunk it was 😒. 

 

Hopefully he leaves the project or if Warner Bros. fires him, and lets someone else come in, because you’re asking for a disaster, you’re asking for failure if you keep him attached. Like, I would trust Jordan Peele to direct a live action Akira movie before I would ever trust Taika Waititi to direct one, especially since Jordan Peele snuck an Akira reference in Nope. The same reference that everyone who references Akira does, the famous bike sweep or bike drift, whatever you want to call it. It would also fit him because he likes short, one word titles. 

 

 

 

 

(This is a screenshot of a comment that I left on the trailer to Him, talking about Jordan Peele’s hyperfixation on short word titles.) 

 

 

 

 

With the exception of his debut film, Get Out, all of Jordan Peele’s movies (he’s directed and or produced) have short one word titles, Us, Nope, and his upcoming movie, Him, which isn’t even being directed by him (no pun intended). It’s being directed by some guy ♂︎ named Justin Tipping. Jordan Peele is just producing it along with his production company, Monkeypaw Productions. But, it explores similar themes and is in a similar style to Peele’s directorial outings (doing horror films that explore themes of racism and/or cultural appropriation on varying levels of subtleness and either feature an all black cast or a nearly all black cast, or at least feature black leads), it still follows his same titling convention, and it’s being advertised as “Jordan Peele’s Him,” even though he isn’t the director. 

 

It’s just like what Disney did with Tim Burton and The Nightmare Before Christmas 🎃🎄, where they just plastered his name all over the advertising, and presented the movie as Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas 🎃🎄, even though he didn’t direct it, he just produced it. Akira would fit right in with that, with all Jordan Peele’s short one word (or in this case, one name) titles. Even the movie that Jordan Peele starred in with his former comedic partner, Keegan-Michael Key back in 2016, Keanu could fit into that even if he didn’t direct it, he just co-wrote and co-produced it. 

 

I bet Keegan-Michael Key wishes Jordan Peele would cast him in one of his horror films, ideally one he actually directs, but he’d be content with being in one that he produces. But then again, the Russo Brothers stayed attached to The Electric State ⚡️ and look how that turned out. So, we can’t get hopes up too high in that front, that Taika Waititi will leave the project and someone better suited will take his place.

 

 

 

(This is a wallpaper image for Akira (1988).)