LogFAQs > #930478189

5. Akira (OVA) (23.5 points)
Nominated by: OracleGunner (0/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_MONOV1_sc

Importance: 9
Fear: 5.5
Snake: 9

Before I had watched Akira, I had never really watched anime or gave it even half a chance. I had always written it off as cheesy and over-exaggerated, but Akira changed my entire viewpoint on the medium. For the first time, I saw that anime could be as tense and exciting as any other medium, and had influences from stuff I had already loved in the past. As an example, let's take the most overtly horror aspects of Akira, chiefly the body horror of Tetsuo's transformation, not only clearly inspired by the body horror of David Cronenberg. However, Akira transcends these films and themes in a way that speaks almost exclusively to Japan and it's past, especially in relating to its nuclear fears and the Hiroshima/Nagasaki incidents. Akira takes place 31-years after the start of World War III, which wrecked the original Tokyo, but now stands as the futuristic, gang-ridden, corrupt Neo-Tokyo in 2019. The main characters Kaneda and Tetsuo, two members of a Tokyo motorcycle gang called the Capsules. They're friends but are also rivals, and Tetsuo is eager to escape from under the shadow of Kaneda. When Tetsuo is injured in a motorcycle accident, his hidden psychic powers awaken, and thus he's taken as a test subject by the government. Tetsuo does escape, but he's unable to control his powers, and he begins slaughtering his old gang and eventually turns into a huge mass of fleshy matter. There's plenty of other stuff going on, but that's pretty much the gist of it. This is all, of course, rendered in some of the most beautiful animation I've ever seen. The city skyline of Neo-Tokyo is so wonderfully realized and lit so realistically, you'll feel like you visited there yourself. Likewise, Tetsuo's blob mutation, is rendered as a completely biologically-monstrosity, every vein and nuance in muscle is given life through insane detail and an emphasizing an ever shifting and painful sense of being. More than ever before, this gives Japan's fears and struggles with escaping the shadow of nuclear power a fully-realized personification that simply makes you sick to your stomach. Akira similarly portrays a culture of youths in a directionless state purely defying authority, while criticizing Japan's rampant economic growth post-war as losing its national identity due to a desire to become bigger & greater than it once was just to prove they could. Akira is a film that deserves many rewatches to truly grasp everything the film is trying to get across, but even just one viewing can open your eyes to not only some great character drama and excellent horror, but also a snapshot of the culture of Japan at a particular point in time. It's truly a masterpiece of anime and one of the most influential works there is, particularly in the realms of cyberpunk with films, games and shows like Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, The Matrix, Metal Gear Solid, Snatcher, and Final Fantasy VII just to name a couple. If you're one who used to be like me and wrote anime off because of a few pre-conceived notions, Akira begs you to give it a chance and you damn well should.

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What I am about to do has not been approved by the Vatican.
https://imgur.com/MmrKwGZ - https://imgur.com/ntWVGyh