What was the cultural impact of Akira (1988), and why does it occupy a key place in the canon of anime greats?
Anime began to get increasingly popular in the 1960s and 1970’s it appealed to a large audience especially children because it was entertaining and the animation itself was captivating which is one of the reasons it gained recognition. Later on, the release of Akira an animated Japanese movie made in 1988, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, had a significant impact in the anime world because of billions of yen being invested to create this film. Akira is set in a post-apocalyptic future after the third world war and Tokyo has become a ‘neo-Tokyo’ where a member of a biker gang has been kidnapped by a secret government agency and his friends try to rescue him.
The opening scene to Akira where the audience sees a bomb explosion this to signify both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb explosion and the media revolution (Bolton 2018) We later see that the explosions we see in the opening scene of the film this was due to Tetsuo who developed telekinetic powers which influenced Akira making her cause the explosion. Another example we see in the film where there is a cultural impact is the scene where we see a crumbling wall with three panels this is to signify the war that was occurring in Serbia where a Japanese critic Ueno Toshiya paid a visit. In Serbia, Akira was seen to a iconic anime because it showed political resistance which was a rare thing for anime movies to do at the time making it occupy an important place in the canon of anime greats.
Akira has also had a significant impact in the world of arts it inspired a lot of animators and it still does today. Before the release of Akira anime was seen to be for children, there hadn’t been a more influential Japanese animated film ever made because of the amount of money and advanced animation technicians used to create this film. Akira was the first film where western audience were infatuated with the story line, artistic Japanese animation and technical work that went in to creating the film. Now many directors and writers cite Akira as an inspiration for their work such being the Duffer brothers who created ‘Stranger Things’ have said ‘the influence of Akira was obviously a big one’ Chu, H. (2018). The Duffer brother were just one of many creators that were influenced by Akira and they probably won’t be the last because even after 32 years of its initial release the film Akira still manages to influence many creators work which makes it so deserving in the canon of anime greats.
References
Chu, H. (2018). Why the pioneering Japanese anime ‘Akira’ is still relevant 30 years later. 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
Mountfort, P. (2020). ENGL602 Popular Genres: Lecture 4/Week: Anime 1_Akira_2020 [PowerPoint slides] AUT Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/
Bolton, C. (2018). Interpreting anime. University of Minnesota Press.
Pop Genres 2020 