Landmarks

Landmarks: Akira


R1 Pubisher: Streamline/Pioneer/Bandai
Animation: TMS Entertainment
Producers: Toho
Original Release: 7/16/1988
US Release: 1988

What is it

Akira is a cyberpunk film by Katsuhiro Otomo. The film, set in the year 2019, revolves around biker gang member Shotaro Kaneda, who finds himself drawn into an increasingly dire situation after his friend is taken by the government.

Tetsuo, Kaneda’s friend, is taken after the gang is involved a fierce battle with rival gang The Clowns. As the peak of the battle, as the fighting is as its fiercest, Tetsuo nearly hits a shriveled, aged-looking child. His bike mysteriously explodes, and both Tetsuo and the boy are taken to a military hospital. As Kaneda deals with the local law enforcement, Tetsuo is forced to undergo harsh experimentation.

The situation continues to escalate, as Tetsuo is found to have similar mental frequencies to Akira – a lad whose psychic abilities obliterated Tokyo decades earlier. Kaneda is pulled into the world of Kei, a member of a local terrorist group, and Tetsuo grows more powerful, and more insane. Tetsuo begins to seek justice upon the world that wronged him by unleashing Akira’s remains, and plunging the world into ruin once again. The only one who can stop Tetsuo now is Kaneda – however, it is difficult to say whether he would be able to kill his best friend to save the world.

Why is is Important?

Since its release, Akira has influenced a large amount of art in the anime world. Many illustrators and animators in the industry refer to the film as a powerful influence.

In America, the film played a large part in kicking off post-Robotech anime fandom.

Any Interesting Stories?

Akira received a laserdisc release by Criterion in 1988. The disc cost $59.98, was presented in letterboxed widescreen, and spanned two discs. (3 sides)

The film’s unique animation style, in which character mouth movements were matched to character voices, still has yet to be properly recreated in an anime feature.

Akira’s budget was a record at the time, at $10 million. The film consists of 2,212 shots, and 160,000 individual cels. The film’s cels used 327 colors of paint, 50 of which were made specifically for the feature.

US Theatrical Trailer

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQPsT06z2OE’]

About the author

Samantha Ferreira

Samantha Ferreira is Anime Herald’s founder and editor-in-chief. A Rhode Island native, Samantha has been an anime fan since 1992, and an active member of the anime press since 2002, when she began working as a reviewer for Anime Dream. She launched Anime Herald in 2010, and continues to oversee its operations to this day. Outside of journalism, Samantha actively studies the history of the North American anime fandom and industry, with a particular focus on the 2000s anime boom and bust. She’s a huge fan of all things Sakura Wars, and maintains series fansite Combat Revue Review when she has free time available. When not in the Anime Herald Discord, Samantha can typically be found on Bluesky.

Anime Herald

Support Anime Herald

Anime Herald is brought to you through our Patrons and Ko-fi supporters. Consider backing us for as little as $1 a month to help us keep the site ad-free and pay a fair rate to our writers.

Patrons and backers can access several benefits, including Early Article Access, our members-only Discord, and the ability to suggest articles for our team to write on your behalf.



Latest Posts

Columns

The Evolution of Abridged Anime Part 4 – No Screwing The Rules

Fears about legal ramifications were fairly common in the world of comedic anime fandubs, despite some arguing they might be protected under parody laws. Philip Sral of Sherbert Productions shared a story of how three fans caused a large amount of stress while trying to get a copy of one of their works by pretending […]

By Borealis Capps