7. In what ways might Akira, Nausicaā and Mononoke be considered prescient?
Akira, Nausicaä and Mononoke are all considered anime classics with a darker themes and important messages, but how are they prescient? Well, in one way or another they all predict the future of humanity.
Let’s start with Akira. This dystopian science fiction masterpiece first saw the light of day as a manga in 1982, Akira is created by Katsuhiro Otomo who later made the movie with the same name. Akira was first shown on the big screen in 1988 and is still a popular and important movie (Schley, n.d). Akira has been a source for inspiration for movies, TV series, music videos and fashion designers (Chu, 2018).
In Akira we see how humanity destroys itself with technology (Anderson, 2019), we see the long-lasting effect of nuclear destruction and all its consequences. The world of Akira is a world of conflict, from small disputes between friends to police violence and people protesting in the streets. The authorities are quick to fire their weapons and terrorists swift to blow things up (Carlin, 2018). The conflicts between the police and people protesting in the street is still the reality we face today.
“World of Akira foretells Olympics’ demise” is the headline of an article written by Etienne Balmer (2020). Balmer writs about how the 2019 world of Akira foretold that the Olympics would be cancelled when hosted by Japan. Although this is an interesting thought, the article reads:
So is “Akira” a prophecy of the future?
Morikawa believes it is more like a “reinterpretation of the recent past (post-war Japan), projected onto a fictional near future”… These included the 1964 Olympics, when Japan re-announced itself to the world from the rubble of World War II, as well as the student revolutions of 1968, the authoritarian governments of the time and the frantic redevelopment of Tokyo (Balmer, 2020).
The Olympics in Akira may be the government trying to regain their glory, much like today where Japan wanted to show that they had recovered after being hit by natural disasters and a nuclear meltdown. Another interesting thing that Balmer (2020) points out is that in the manga you can see a news headline reading “The World Health Organization criticises the measures taken against the pandemic.” Which at the moment hits pretty close to home with the Covid-19 virus roaming the earth. Matthieu Pinon dismisses this as an aesthetic and something that adds to the atmosphere in the world Akira is set in (Balmer, 2020).
Nausicaä is one of Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpieces, it hit the screen in 1984 and is described as a “epic science fantasy adventure film” though Anderson (2019) calls the film a “post-apocalyptic package”. The story in Nausicaä takes place 1000 years after humankind almost destroyed the planet, and to be fair the planet is still at the brink of destruction (Anderson, 2019).
Mononoke is also a film by Hayao Miyazaki and although it’s made in 1997 it can be viewed as a prequel to Nausicaä. Mononoke evolves around the same themes as Nausicaä, we see humans VS nature, destruction, pollution and war and the biggest difference would be the time the movies are set in. Erica Russell (2017) writes that Mononoke is more important today than ever before, that the film tells us to protect the environment and shows how the human ego can destroy the world with war, pollution, deforestation, climate change and so on.
I think we can look at all three movies as warnings about how humans are balancing on a thin line between saving and killing the planet. Akira shows us how war, technology and ‘messing around with nature’ can be our downfall. Mononoke shows us how we can fix things, take care of nature and live in harmony while Nausicaä shows us what could happened if we don’t take heed and listen to the warning in the first two.
Sources:
Anderson, K. (2019, March 8). Miyazaki’s NAUSICAÄ is the Best Anime We Never Talk About. Nerdist.com.
https://nerdist.com/article/nausicaa-miyazaki-35th-anniversary/
Balmer, E. (2020, March 28). World of Akira foretells Olympics’ demise. Asia Times.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/world-of-akira-foretells-olympics-demise/
Carlin, M. (2018, August 29). The Future Is Now: “Akira” at Thirty. Mubi.com.
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-future-is-now-akira-at-thirty
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
Russel, E. (2017, July 12). Why Princess Mononoke is even more relevant 20 years later. Dazed Digital.
https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/36735/1/why-princess-mononoke-is-even-more-relevant-20-years-later
Schley, M. (n.d). ‘Akira’: Looking back at the future. The Japan Times.
https://features.japantimes.co.jp/akira-new/
Usher, T. (2016, September 22). How ‘Akira’ Has Influenced All Your Favourite TV, Film and Music. Vice.com
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/kwk55w/how-akira-has-influenced-modern-culture
Pop Genres 2020 