Akira
OttoDestruct
Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7790Members
Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7790Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Possible spoilers</div> Strangely as much as I love anime I just finished watching it.... I have no idea what just happened. Anyone care explaining? Other than not getting the end (which I sorta expected, given that almost all japanimation has funky endings), it was a terrific film, much better than pretty much any "summer blockbuster" ive seen for a while (Does reloaded count for a summer movie?).
Comments
However for the TRUE telling of Akira, you have to read the original manga (comic) which has been released in 6 Volumes and tells the proper version of the Akira.
You can find it over at places such as <a href='http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dbooks%26field-keywords%3DKatsuhiro%20Otomo%26url%3Dindex%3Dbooks%26store-name%3Dbooks/103-1381872-6758248' target='_blank'>Amazon</a>. Well worth the investment if you truly enjoy the anime artform.
Thats what I didn't get? They already failed once with Akira himself, why try it again with Tetsuo?
*Edit*
Would anyone happen to know how large an image I would need if I were to make a cover art thing for a DVD case?
So you get to see a lot more of Tetsuo and Akira, but then... that would be spoiling <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
The Akira movie resides within Volumes 1-3 of the manga and is then completed in Volumes 4-6
Not to mention painful on the eyes
Not to mention painful on the eyes <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
You're tellin me! I took in all 6 volumes in jpg form in one sitting, not aolny did it freak the living crap outa me, but it gave me a mondo headache akin to one of an Akira-power nature.
I like something I can hold in my hands if you get my drift!
Man that doesn't go well with my sig......
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Ok watching the movie a second time, I gathered that Tetsuo only began showing powers after contact with #26. Now is this saying that this contact awakened powers similar to those of Akira's (in terms of strength), thus he got the headache just as Akira did? Or does he actually get the same power Akira had?... I r confuzed <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The exact explanation is in volume four, I believe. Here's the jist:
The project Akira stems from was conducted some decades before the happenings of movie and comic. This project managed to create psychic children, the mightiest of them being Akira. They are, as Rei describes briefly in the movie, capable of bending the energy that's the basis of all creation.
Human is however not exactely ready for this kind of power, and thus, the childs with this gift become mentally and physically instable. Akira, the most powerful of them, is conversely closest to the collapse. One day, this instability results in a never clearly detailled incident that leads to the detonation that destroys the whole of old Tokyo and kick-starts WW3.
After that, the people we see in the movie (the Colonel, the scientists, etc.) come into the picture. They pick the pieces and remaining children up and try to defend the world from a second such disaster by starting intense research on the phenomenon. They try to control the power that was unleashed to ensure it never runs wild again.
Enter Tetsuo.
The same kind of power awakens in him, why is explained by his tremendous drug abuse, and starts affecting his health and psyche, too.
Enter Tetsuo. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Which still the logic by their part confuses me, but I guess thats anime for ya. Why screw around trying to control something a second time when you screwed it up the first? Did they think Tetsuo was honestly going to be any different from Akira? And yes I did infer that the original incident starting WW3 was Akira going boom.
As for why they tinkered with it - you can start seeing it as Faustian paraphrase on people running after things they were not made for, or ask yourself: There's a number of incredibly powerful, little guys. Would you rather have them out there, where they can do as they please and create interest by people with lesser morallic objections, or keep them nice and cozy in a multi-billion dollar golden cage?
I can capture screenshots from my DVD if you like.
Am I the only one who thinks that Kay and Kanida survived the movie? I'm sure I saw them both with the other surviving member of Kanida's gang at the end.