Akira (Technology & Protest)

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A film by Katsuhiro Otomo

Written by Katsuhiro Otomo and Izo Hashimoto Based on the manga, Akira, by Katsuhiro Otomo

TECHNOLOGY & PROTEST

Morgan Nicholson Introduction, Overview

Aaron Martin Perspectives, Film Clip

Sean Larkin Perspectives, Questions

Ommie Gonzales Presentation Design

GROUP PRESENTATION

INTRODUCTION

Released in 1988, Akira is a Japanese animated film set in

the post-war dystopia of Neo Tokyo in the year 2019, 31

years after WWIII, which saw the destruction of Tokyo

byway of an atomic explosion. The film greatly condenses

the source material, altering the story to focus on the

struggle between the protagonists, Shotaro Kaneda and

Tetsuo Shima, childhood friends and members of a biker

gang called the Capsules.

OVERVIEW

Neo Tokyo is in a state of social unrest, the government is

privately conducting human experimentation. The story

begins with the Capsules provoking a rival gang into a

biker brawl, at which Tetsuo comes in contact with an

Esper, Takashi, causing him to crash his bike. Seriously

injured, Tetsuo, along with Takashi, is abducted into the

government program where scientists discover Tetsuo’s

powers resemble Akira’s in potential.

Kaneda attempts to save his best friend from the corrupt

government, eventually joining a group of revolutionaries

intent on breaking into the Esper’s compound. Meanwhile,

Tetsuo’s abilities continue to grow and he escapes from the

compound intent on meeting Akira, the powerful Esper

that led to Tokyo’s destruction 31 years earlier. The film

comes to an unforgettable climax in which Tetsuo’s total

loss of control leads to the destruction of Neo Tokyo.

THEMES & PERSPECTIVES

SCIENCE& TECHNOLOGY

In Akira, misused science causes the complete collapse of

Tokyo. Twice. This cause is a government funded, top secret

program experimenting on children to create “Espers,”

powerful individuals who can read thoughts, see events

miles away, or move items with their mind. Even more

disturbing, the program is operated by an unscrupulous

scientist named Dr. Onishi, and overseen by a ruthless army

colonel named Shikishima.

The Esper program demonstrates a brazen lack of ethical

regard for human life. Tetsuo is kidnapped due to his

potential as an Esper. It is clear Dr. Onishi and Col.

Shikishima plan to weaponize him just like the others. No

mention is ever made of the Espers as children with human

needs—they are tools to be used. In one telling moment,

Masaru, an Esper, tells the escaping Takashi, “You can’t run

away… we aren’t meant to exist in the outside world.”

Akira presents a grim solution to the overreaching of

humanity: societal collapse. In the end, Tokyo’s grand

restructuring failed catastrophically at the hands of its

greatest experiment, Tetsuo. If its leaders had veered away

from their acts of hubris, would this crisis have been

averted? The dangers of unchecked ambition exist in our

world as well, shown in what we see daily of corporate greed,

unethical science, and general disregard for human life.

ORDER VS. FREEDOM

Neo Tokyo is no utopian future. During the opening scenes

of the film we see rows of police in riot gear against the

crowd while a news anchor reports that the student

protest has descended into violence. Later, a religious

demonstration is dispersed by paramilitaries. Those that

stand against the regime are detained, beaten, or worse.

The film warns of a future where Japanese cultural ideals

of honor and harmony have given way to fascism.

The situation in Neo Tokyo has gotten so bad that at least

one resistance group seeks to topple the entire system.

Furthermore, in the wake of Tetsuo’s telekinetic rampage,

the religious cult grows in audacity as they celebrate the

coming of Akira. The struggle between the people of Neo

Tokyo and their authoritarian government grounds the

film’s sci-fi themes in a world the audience can recognize,

a world that resembles our own. This could be us.

Film Clip - External Link

HERO VS. ANTIHERO

Few characters in the film fall into the traditional hero/

villain archetypes. Kaneda, the ‘hero’, is a bosozoku biker

leader willing to kill other bikers that mess with his crew.

Col. Shikishima, the antagonist, questions the very program

he oversees and deplores the chaos his government has

created telling the Council, “Open your eyes and look at

the big picture. You’re all puppets of corrupt politicians

and capitalists… it’s utterly pointless to fight each other.”

Tetsuo, after a life of being the underdog, becomes

psychotic when he obtains power, though he eventually

loses the ability to control this power which results in

untold destruction. Still he idolizes and envies Kaneda:

“You’ve always been a pain in the ass, y’know. You’ve been

telling me what to do since we were kids. You always treat

me like a kid. You always show up and start bossing me

around, and don’t you deny it!”

The result of such complex characters is that no single

person feels “in the right.” Dr. Onishi lacks ethics in his

research, Col. Shikishima abuses his power, the government

evacuates at the first sign of disaster, even Kaneda can’t

escape the conflict without blood on his hands. When it’s

all over there is no winner in the struggle for the future of

Neo Tokyo. There are plenty of losers, most notably the

countless civilian casualties resulting from the struggle.

CULTURAL CONTEXT

At the time of Akira's creation, Japan is still reeling from

the trauma of the nuclear end to WWII. This apocalyptic

backdrop of the monstrous extremes of human progress

and striving colors the cynical projections of humanities’

near future. At the same time, Japan is engaged in a

haphazard evolution from the 'classical' Japanese culture

of honor and tradition to a more 'modernized' culture of

business and economic status.

The film’s depiction of the schizophrenic nature of Neo

Tokyo’s leadership and social unrest acts as commentary on

this cultural confusion. From the bureaucratic mess of the

Council to the strife between the Colonel and Dr. Onishi,

leadership and authority are neither cogent nor effective.

This struggle for power and control engenders a society

where violence and dereliction are normative. The

Capsules exemplify much of this through their experiences.

DUBIOUS PROGRESS

Throughout Akira we see a questioning of the validity of

'modern progress' at the cost of humanities integrity. The

Esper program's experimentation on children to realize

human potential manifests Akira's 'transcendental

awakening' and destruction of Tokyo. The influx of

'western' business ethos corrupts the political/civic process.

Even the advanced technology present is used to exploit

and destroy rather than support and create.

The Akira cult in the film is itself a play on the apocalyptic

Aum cult of that time that fomented the unrest of the

youth into a terrorist prone cult. The cult of ‘Lord Akira’ as

harbinger of moral cleansing and the Esper program’s

grasp at ‘the power of God’ are equally disillusion in goal

though dubiously prophetic in result. In our striving for the

'next stage' or 'the answer' the film suggests that we can

lose ourselves, and each other along the way.

WORKS CITED

Napier, Susan J. “Panic Sites: The Japanese Imagination of Disaster from Godzilla to

Akira.” Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1993), pp. 327–351. The

Society for Japanese Studies. http://www.jstor.org/stable/132643

Napier. “When the Machines Stop: Fantasy, Reality, and Terminal Identity in ‘Neon Genesis

Evangelion’ and ‘Serial Experiments Lain’, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3, Japanese

Science Fiction (Nov., 2002), pp. 418–435. SF-TH Inc. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4241108

Tadashi, Uchino. “Images of Armageddon: Japan’s 1980s Theatre Culture.” TDR, Vol. 44,

No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 85–96. The MIT Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1146820

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