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Here we are with Part Duex with my favorite comic book adaptions, and this week I’m going to talk about Akira. Akira, is a 2,182 page manga epic that is spread across six books, dealing with a humble teenage biker gang and the adventures they have in a post-WWIII Tokyo. Adventures such as underage drinking, street racing/fighting, and dealing with secret government psychic children and the effects on one of their fellow members. And what I just typed, is a terrible description of what goes on in the story, but I think it’s fun to word it like that. What the story really deals with, is a friendship between the gang leader and the runt of the group. During a late-night ride, the runt (Tetsuo) attempts to pass up the leader (Kaneda) in riding position, only to have his bike explode just before hitting a an elderly child in the middle of the road. The explosion was caused by a forcefield, generated by the “child”, which more or less also saved Tetsuo… The exposure to the psychic activity allowed Tetsuo access to psychic powers of his own, eventually leading to a drug addiction and eventual abduction from the government, only to lead to the resurrection of the most powerful psychic on the planet, Akira. With Akira’s revival, Tetsuo pledged allegiance to him, and shortly after, Akira became the self-proclaimed King of Japan. Did I mention that Akira is only about the age of 12?

Anyway, a whole lot of other fun stuff happens, and I realized that I neglected to speak about Kaneda, but he’s in there. Even with Tetsuo’s new found power, he still finds himself falling short to Kaneda. Which brings me to the Anime Movie adaptation. I can tell you right now, that with over 2000 pages of content, a nice portion of story never made it into the 2 hour film. As a result, when the film reaches the point where Akira is supposed to return to our world, we find that this “movie” Akira is something completely different. However, the carnage and riots that happen during that time do occur, but now they are more of a direct result of Tetsuo. As for Kaneda, the movie translation meant that he’d be less angry… That’s about it. It seems that they saved all the rage for Tetsuo instead, which leads to my favorite thing about the movie. All the yelling and screaming. TETSUO!!!! KANEDA!!!!! As a child, this is what I remember most about this movie. Kaneda and Tetsuo screaming each other’s names in anger. It happens fairly often in the movie… But that aside, the plot is reworked to make Tetsuo the primary antagonist, which in turn, make the story, even more about Kaneda and Tetsuo than before. The other psychic children take a backseat, as well as most of Kaneda’s gang and the rival gang, and the religious zealot, and the general and so on. One could argue that the movie is ultimately about friendship, and what people will go through for it.

So, I think I’ve lost my way on this one, but if there’s one thing that I want you to get out of this blog, is that I love this movie, despite it foolishly trying to make 2000 pages of content work in a one-and-done movie. The second half of this film is so radically different from the manga, that it becomes something so different it can be viewed as a what-if story, instead of an adaption. The animation is great, especially for 1988, and even then, it holds up pretty well even now. This is one of the finest animated films the world has to offer, but, my reasons for why are a bit different than those of a prestigious film critic. If you get a chance and have an open mind, check it out.

-Fleet

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