Akira
The success story of "Akira" is long. When the first edition of the manga by Katsuhiro Otomo (Mushishi, “Steamboy”) appeared in Japan in December 1982, people in the western part of the world still largely associated Japanese comics with inconsequential children's series like “Heidi” and “Maya the Bee “(Although to this day very few people know that these series were mostly produced in Nippon). After the film adaptation of the series came into Japanese cinemas in July 1988 and broke one audience record after the next, it was shown in selected cities in the USA a year later. From then on, nothing could stop him on his way to becoming a cult film, not even Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan) and George Lucas ("Star Wars"), who in the early 1990s described him as "not for sale on the US market" . But the aftermath of Otomo's masterpiece can still be felt today ...
In 1988 Tokyo was completely destroyed by a huge explosion. This event marks the beginning of World War III. 31 years later, the city is reviving under the name of Neo-Tokyo and Japan finds itself in a time characterized by civil unrest and student revolts against the authorities. The motorcycle gang around Shôtarô Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata, "Golden Boy") moves through the streets of the megalopolis, always in trouble with rival gangs. One night while being followed by the police, they meet a mysterious boy with supernatural powers who is captured by an army unit led by Colonel Shikishima (Tarô Ishida) and flown away in a helicopter. But soon the military also seems to be targeting Tetsuo Shima (Nozomu Sasaki), Kaneda's best friend, who after this nocturnal encounter no longer seems to be the same and is struggling with increasing aggression. The situation becomes more and more complicated when Kaneda meets the young underground fighter Kei (Mami Koyama) who wants to sabotage a secret military project with a group of revolutionaries to prevent the resurrection of "Akira".
To grasp the actual core of "Akira" is almost impossible. Even Otoma, who has always viewed his work as unfinished and shies away from naming a main character, shuts himself off from such an attempt. Many references to personal interpretation can already be found in the world of "Akira", the Japan of the 21st century. Highly technical and with gigantic, luminous house facades, Neo-Tokyo shows its impressive side. But beneath the shiny surface, the city is grappling with crime and civil unrest. The people revolt against the superiors and the repressive system of government, riots are brutally suppressed, and a military coup threatens. But that's only one, the political side of the film. The other is more of a spiritual nature. It's about strange PSI abilities of people who have degenerated into military experiments and about universal power struggles between good and evil, about creation and destruction. Everything then melts together into an impressive dystopia.
Capturing the liveliness of this world in pictures was an enormous challenge for the production team. Between 60 and 70 draftsmen were constantly creating over 160,000 individual images from 327 different colors, which ultimately led to a visual experience that viewers in East and West had never seen before. The impressive thing about the film is the level of detail that the director placed so much importance on. Everywhere there is movement, everywhere you can discover little things that condense the atmosphere so incredibly, make it appear so real. This very unique style of Otomos has been preserved to this day and is as fascinating as ever.
Of course, the film cannot hold a candle to the complexity of the 2000-page original epic and many characters and the overflowing plot had to be trimmed for the screen. Another important aspect of "Akira", as of many other animes to this day, is the historical reference to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. In many works from Japan, this event, which has been indelibly burned into the collective consciousness, plays a decisive role. This is also the case in “Akira”, where the apocalyptic images of a great, all-destructive explosion can be seen several times. Destruction and death are the result. But there is also, and one could certainly understand this as the main message of the film, always new hope and the end of one is always the beginning of the other world that emerges from the ruins. This philosophical, complex level of animation was seen even in Japan at the time