Question 1: What was the cultural impact of Akira (1988), and why does it occupy a key place in the canon of anime greats?
The release of Akira in 1988 marked a pivotal time in anime. This film was at the time seen as sophisticated for anime in Japan. This may be due to it being one of the most highly produced anime with around a billion yen being invested into it (Bolton, 2018). It set a new technical bar for anime. Furthermore, it popularised the art form for North American audiences (Bolton, 2018).
Before Akira, anime in America was present but was often seen as something for children or limited to Speed Racer which most people didn’t even recognise to be of Japanese origin (Napier, 2005). Then when Akira did come out in America in 1990, it was seen as a sophisticated, complex work of art that baffled and inspired its Western audiences. According to Peter Chung who was a director and animator in the 1990’s, he thought that one of the reasons Akira was unique was because they tried to make it appealing to an international audience (Chu, 2018). Due to this spark in popularity and influence Japan opened up a whole new market of animated films (Napier, 2005).
Apart from its groundbreaking animation skills and technical breakthroughs, Akira has strong political messages sewn throughout it. The atomic explosion that occurs at the start of the film is a nod to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs which were released in 1945. We later find out that the explosion was caused by Akira as she represents the famously destructive nuclear bombs, and Tetsuo who has developed telekinetic powers is the consequence of the explosion (Chu, 2018).
As well as these political messages, Akira has been seen to be an influence to many shows and films and other such media that audiences love presently. Shows such as ‘Stranger Things’, movies such as ‘Looper’, and Kanye West music video ‘Stronger’, all the way down to the clothes brand Supreme coming out with an Akira line have all been influenced by the movie (Chu, 2018).
References
Bolton, C. (2018). Interpreting anime. University of Minnesota Press.
Chu, H. (2018, July 14). Why the pioneering Japanese anime ‘Akira’ is still relevant 30 years later. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/why-the-pioneering-japanese-anime-akira-remains-relevant-30-years-later/2018/07/12/b7577c74-813f-11e8-b851-5319c08f7cee_story.html
Napier, S. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl’s moving castle. Palgrave Macmillan.
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