Just watched pic related today. Having never read the manga I at first found the second half of it pretty confusing...

Just watched pic related today. Having never read the manga I at first found the second half of it pretty confusing, but after thinking about it all day I think I sort of understand what it was getting at. [spoiler alert w/e]

The main theme in Akira is power, and posing the question: do we wield power or does power wield us? Tetsua, being a young insecure gang member, comes upon a great amount of psychic energy, literally pure energy, and it takes over him. He becomes something else and his insecurities manifest as the ability to destroy large parts of neo-tokyo and kill thousands of people without feeling a thing but a lust for more power. Those little children of the corn dudes had also come upon that power, but in a controlled environment, and in the process had pretty much lost their humanity, it is unclear if they remain that way by choice or by force (at the beginning the main child has a chance to escape and does not) Akira is seen as a god figure because he found a way to control that power while retaining his independence by ascending to a higher plane of existence. Akira at the end chooses to to basically usher Tetsua's meltdown into an alternate universe where he becomes the consciousness of the universe itself, finally content. At the end the flashbacks show that Keneda always had his back, and that his animosity toward him was actually little more than insecurities, which manifested themselves in something greater, because of power. Parallel to all this is the power struggle between the military and the government, and the resistance, which might actually be in the pocket of the government itself (judging by the reaction of the government dude seeing the terrorist leader in his office)

Am I on the right track here?

Anyway his girlfriend is literally the most loyal bitch I've ever seen. Coming back for him after his dumbass literally got her beaten and almost raped, and what does she get in returned, consumed by a giant mutant flesh thing.

/thread

Soon you will become, because it has already begun.

It's mediocre but for anime standards it's fantastic.

>posting your homework

your take is as valid as any. However you should know the printed original manga greatly differs from the movie, goes more into geopolitics territory for instance.

Them trips, dude.

Anyways, yes, you're on the right track. The Manga goes further and is more coherent. The government couldn't control Akira and so decided to freeze him, and the general is just trying to do his job. The resistance is just another faction that wants power, and Lady miyaki (iirc, haven't read the manga in 10 years) wants to free her friends (who have power) from control. The US tries to intervene near the end, and gets #rekt as well.

Akira is about power, and how absolute/unrestrained power is destructive. Akira was the strongest, but his power destroyed Tokyo (reminiscent of Nagasaki, Hiroshima), just like how the japs opened a can of whoop-ass with Pearl Harbor. Tetsuo wants power because he was always 2nd fiddle, TLC's 'No Scrubs' is his life's story. He wants it no matter what, and does so. The resistance wants Akira because it would mean control of Japan. The genre wants to contain Akira-tier because his power is too much for his country, and he is wise to not have faith in that much power.

Akira is my favorite manga/anime because of the theme of power. Who hasn't thought of hurting those around them if they could only rise up and get the courage to fight back? To cause pain to loved ones, even. And to not care, only to use as much power as possible until you are satisfied. I have done so to my brothers and so I can relate to hurting loved ones when in a rage.

It reminds me of Alan Moore a lot.

>tfw I always fail to pick up on themes
Pleb4lyfe I guess

I wish I were normal, son. I was discussing intelligence with a friend a week ago, and I told him it's like having an idea, and understanding what that idea means withing a context. Critical thinking, in other words. I can't stop thinking and this sets me apart from my normie friends. I always play devil's advocate too, which means I'm empathetic. Smart and empathetic isn't a good combination.

I see you two as on the right track, but the power isn't the heart of the story to me, but a part of the greater theme of adolescence.

Coming of age means you can do a whole shitload more, you could say you're more powerful all of a sudden. But this power without responsibility or knowledge can be an awful thing. Look at how many fuckup adults there are all over the world, or what I think the movie meant, look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Humanity starting to develop the powers displayed by Tetsuo, Akira and the three old kids is an allegory for what's happening to us all through technology. Might sound weird but it's not far-fetched when you consider this came from the same culture that made Godzilla, which was saying pretty much the exact same thing.

With the creation of nuclear power (and the onset of globalization, which is a theme of the manga but not the movie) things have become a lot more complicated for us and potentially a whole shitload more dangerous too. But I don't think it's a totally pessimistic story. The new powers aren't shown to be purely destructive, it's the human factor that makes it dangerous.

I see Akira as a cautionary fable, like Godzilla updated to deal with the anxiety of the approach of the 21st century, The Cold War, globalization, urban decay and all the other things that will probably destroy us.

Watchmen might be the most overrated piece of media created in the last century.

The key is to never stop posting on Sup Forums.

Do you also possess nihilism and a wicked sense of humour?

I know this feel all too well

Please set yourself on fire.

...

I'm not dumb or anything, my engineering studies are going fine, its just that I can't pick up on these things sometimes.

The key line in Akira is when Kaneda is talking to the girl (name forgotten) who is in turn telepathically linked to one of the little withered psychic kids, and she says imagine an amoeba, but with the power of an atom bomb - or something like that; all an amoeba wants to do is eat and grow. That's what Tetsuo is. A human with the powers of a god, but with base human drives like ego, vengefulness etc.

I thought that was quite an interesting line, that probably applies to a lot of rich and / or powerful people in real life, their ability to "do" things has vastly and disproportionately exceeded their needs and drives, so people who have everything they could possibly need are still fighting for more territory, more possessions, more mates etc.

What did they mean by this?

It's shit.
>edgy kid gets psychic powers for literally no reason then becomes evil

I've never fought in my life and power doesn't interest me. I just want to be treated nicely and live a good life, and I've definitely never thought about sacrificing people I care about for the sake of power.

The reason he gets psychic powers is becsuse that's the main story element. It's a part of the setting, people get psychic powers in this universe. And yes, the end result is what happens when an unbalanced, under confident teen gets too much power and uses it in the worst way possible. I mean imagine if some shit head like Elliott Rodgers got insane psychic powers like that, what do you think would happen? This is essentially that story.

Might seem like uncultured swine here, but i wanted more of that fucking red masterpiece of a bike kaneda had, its just iconic. Thats the only criticism i have. Not enough of the bike.

The movie as a whole is a masterpiece though. I wish they would finish the story of the manga but its not going to happen.

Adolescence is a good theme, if you take that analogy a bit farther you could argue that humanity had reached its adolescence at the dawn of the atomic age. We are much more developed, but more dangerous and unstable. In a sense, if tetsuo represents the mindset of humanity during world War 2,Akira represents the ideal that humanity could reach, to have amazing capabilities, but to use them without malice.

I am not a fan of motorbikes but Holy Fuck that bike is one of the sexiest vehicles ever created.

The manga wasn't even done when the movie was made (and it was way more in depth), so the movie gets a bit confusing because it acts on in-universe information you don't know about because it's not explained in the anime.

>Having never read the manga
u fukked up

nothing uncultured about it imo, its a fantastic design

Hardly. Most people seem to think the script is weak and the movie is more notable for its audiovisual qualities.

>TLC's 'No Scrubs' is his life's story
Heh what? What a bizarre reference.

There are better anime movies than mediocre ones like Akira.