Media Analysis: Akira
Akira is a film that I have known for so long, and I feel like a lot have aswell. Not necessarily that they watched the movie, but more specifically witnessed the "Akira bike slide", which is in so many different shows, movies, and video games. Yet, I like to say how Akira is one of the most influential films in history, and not just for its animation, but its grotesque and brutal explorations of power, identity, and control.
At its undeniable core, Akira is about the instability of control, whether that be over one's body, society, or the future. Tetsuo's transformation from a nobody outcast to a godlike figure is both breathtaking and horrifying. His powers are a symbol for unchecked technological and political experimentation, especially if this experimentation becomes way too out of anyone's grasp. This is viscerally represented in the final scenes of Akira, when Tetsuo's body becomes a massive, uncontrollable blob, reflecting what happens when human ambition and power are stretched and unchecked.
This theme of control is emphasized in the portrayal of institutions like the military and the government. In Akira, they oversaw the secret psychological experiments on children to harness psychic powers for national dominance. The irony here is that while the state attempts to create control, it actually creates something uncontrollable. Even the scientists are reduced to spectators by the end of the film. Their awe quickly turns to fear, showing how even the most “rational” systems of knowledge are helpless when confronted with forces they helped unleash but cannot govern.
One last thing I'd like to mention is some comparisons I found with Akira and Neon Genesis Evangelion, particularly in Shinji and Tetsuo. Both are teenagers who were forced into roles shaped by adult institutions, with both stories ending in bodily transformation and psychological collapse. Tetsuo's mutation was uncontrollable, a total collapse of his autonomy, consumed by a power never meant to be wielded. Shinji’s absorption into the EVA-01 in End of Evangelion and his near-loss of self during Instrumentality represent his psychological collapse under the burden of expectation, grief, and emotional isolation. In both cases, the protagonists lose control over their own existence, highlighting the terrifying consequences of forcing growth without guidance, care, or consent. However, both endings are different. Akira ends in cosmic rebirth, with Tetsuo becoming something entirely new, very ambiguous but oddly hopeful. Shinji's end results in personal revaluation, left in a world where meaning must be self-created. Yet, both attempt to answer one question: What does it mean to grow up when the world around you is broken, and the systems meant to protect you are the ones doing the damage? Both suggest that this path to maturity involves confronting such chaos, not through violence, but with awareness, reflection, and, sometimes, painful transformation.
He did a really good job of introducing the subject of cyberpunk Society which was the movie. I think you're right the first did you notice his animation but the story behind it is so amazing that you don't even realize it. Fact that you realize that they're both teenagers and Genesis of Gillian and Akira and making how they all mess together really really good. Comes back to the rational system of dominoes and being able to protect it I feel like whenever it is a big force of power like nuclear power there's always some type of influence does gonna be able to control it and there's a influence is not gonna be able to control it and that's where the issue comes up. I feel the issue that is coming up as soon as would it be Technology free is gonna be water and it's gonna be material.
