Episode 332: Akira
Added 2020-10-12 13:00:04 +0000 UTCKatsuhiro Otomo's Akira is one of those weird cases of life imitating art. It was wild enough when the 2020 Olympics ended up being awarded to Tokyo, as in the manga (which debuted nearly 40 years ago), but when (just as in the comic) the 2020 Olympics ended up not actually happening—at least not yet, anyway—it was kind of hard not to be overwhelmed by the synchronicity of it all. Hopefully that's as much overlap as we're going to see, though. I for one could stand not to have armies of psychics capable of tapping into the basic binding forces of the cosmos running around hopped up on hormones and pills. It's been a hectic enough year already.
Still, this seemed like a perfect occasion to talk about one of the great landmark works of nerd media. Akira was one of the first breakthrough anime in the U.S., and it was one of the first Japanese media properties period to inspire western-developed video games. Although Akira's video game legacy ain't great, the story's influence on media and pop culture is best measured through influences and references... of which we only begin to scratch the surface here.
Description: Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Henry Gilbert grab a laser rifle and angrily scream each other's names in celebration of one of the all-time great animated movies—Akira—as well as the manga it was based on, and the games it inspired. TETSUOOOO!
Thanks to Greg Leahy for the edits and Shaan Khan for the cover illustration!
Comments
Regarding what you all said about the colors in the anime film....I'm 100% in agreement with you as regards the technical merits of the film. That being said, I've always found the colors to be, on balance, quite ugly. Warm grays contrasted with dull pinks and olive greens. I honestly find the colors to be quite nauseating and off-putting.
Nemo
2020-10-15 21:15:14 +0000 UTCGood episode. Reminded me how brazenly Xenogears ripped off the "Tetsuo explodes scientists with his uncontrollable psychic powers" scene...
Adam Elmahdi
2020-10-15 04:19:23 +0000 UTCJeremy`s line about it not being popular in Japan: While it is true that Evangelion is incredibly mass-market. As Jeremy pointed out the unique artwork has made Akira to have more more of a "Cool" I`m hip in the know vibe to it Collections with High-end $1000 Jackets fashion brands all over https://www.vogue.fr/vogue-hommes/fashion/diaporama/supreme-akira-collection/46901 http://www.comme-des-garcons.org/news/comme-des-garcons-x-katsuhiro-otomo/ Was used as the art work when the new Shibuya Parco was being built( Shibuya and Parco culture is hip youth culture in Japan to an extent) https://grapee.jp/en/125256 etc
Chase
2020-10-14 10:14:46 +0000 UTCYeah, the Matt Alt book we covered a couple of months ago (Pure Invention) gets into how intense Japanese protest culture was in the latter half of the 20th century. It's something we didn't see a lot of over here, but it was a massive trend.
Retronauts
2020-10-12 17:09:25 +0000 UTCThere is a National Geographic article from the 80s about contemporary Tokyo that really shows where Akira sprung from....photos of motorcycle gangs, masked protestors that are identical to the ones in the film, disenchantment with the rebuilt society after the war....
Nemo
2020-10-12 16:29:51 +0000 UTCThe Kaori squish disturbed me for so many years.
Normallyretro
2020-10-12 13:37:33 +0000 UTC
