Before I had even pressed play on the streamed video of Akira, I could tell there was going to be a lot of action in it. Eleven o’clock on Wednesday night was the first time I had watched an anime film, that was not produced by Studio Ghibli, all the way through. I had noticed multiple themes throughout the movie and trying to write about just one was too complicated for me.
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| onemetal.com |
The first thing that jumped out at me was how controlling the government and higher powers are in the Akira. Ever since the 1988 disaster, the government has cracked down. They set up lengthy check-points all of the time. They even have check-points at the mall that the citizens basically have to shop at. At the school, the disciplinarian figure just started slapping the characters in the face and was screaming ‘discipline’ at them when he did it.
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| otakudata.com |
I also found it terrible that the government knew about the genetic research being done on these children, which brings me to my next point. I personally think that doing genetic research on children is wrong, especially ones that did not consent to it. As the film opens up, you see the child that was abducted forced to go back to the facility. This child is an esper and he has psychic abilities. The scientist and Colonel Shikishima decide that its okay to just take the wounded Tetsuo with them back to the facility with them. When they take Tetsuo back to the facility to heal him they realize he has the mental frequencies that are similar to the former powerful Akira. They automatically start thinking of the powers he could posses and what he could be capable of. The doctor and colonel give Tetsuo capsules that make him develop the psychic abilities without Tetsuo even knowing. They later realize they cannot control Tetsuo because Tetsuo cannot even control himself. Ever since he obtained the powers, he gets random pains when he uses them.Tetsuo loses control of himself when his pain and emotions grow too overwhelming. Tetsuo ends up creating a disaster much like the one Akira created.
