Sunday, April 22, 2018

Akira

Image credit: Wikipedia
Having just finished this movie I don’t think any dystopian, science fiction flick even comes close to rivaling the incredible devastation and annihilation of the Apocalypse! Despite being thirty years old, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira still proves to be an intense experience for the senses as well as the analytical side of the brain. Truthfully, ‘intense’ is an understatement.

Set in the dirty, decaying city of Neo-Tokyo –so named after the original Tokyo was destroyed in World War III- the film chronicles the struggles of Kaneda (Mitsuo Iwata) when his best friend suddenly develops terrifying telekinetic powers that could destroy hundreds. As Tetsuo becomes consumed and goes on an unstoppable warpath, Kaneda joins a gang of antigovernment terrorists in their search for the mysterious Akira – a telepath even more powerful than Tetsuo.

The cleverest thing about this movie is its links between the apocalypse and adolescence. The ‘world gone mad’ that is Neo-Tokyo – a genetic splice between Mad Max and Blade Runner- is characterised by a decaying society peopled with activists, the military, and angry rebellious teens. Violence and frustration is the norm so you can imagine how intense it gets to be when a repressed and angry teenager develops powers that take out the city. A delicious sense of doom and gloom peppered with distaste for your fellow man constantly hangs over the film, leaving you hopeless and repulsed but unable to leave your seat.

The crisp animation only heightens this filmic experience, sparing no one from the violence, destruction, and absolute horror that grip the world. The brightest colours in the paint box are yellow, orange, and red and they are used constantly to light up the city and bring it to the ground. The apocalyptic setting and continual bouts of city-wide destruction cleanly and horribly reference the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II as well as explore concurrent themes attached including malaise and social collapse.

Image credit: Boston Hassle
The paranormal theme running alongside the prevalent themes of social decline and enraged youth makes it extraordinarily disturbing. I’m seriously going to have nightmares about that climax! And because it’s animated there’s this extra sense of the macabre and the horrific as things happen to people that could not possibly be done in a live-action movie, cementing the film’s position in movie history!


Starring: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozumo Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Tessho Genda, Hiroshi Otake, Koichi Kitamura, Michihiro Ikemizu, Yuriko Fuchizaki, Masaaki Okura, Taro Arakawa, Takeshi Kusao, Kazumi Tanaka, Masayuki Kato, Yosuke Akimoto, and Masato Hirano

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