Seferian-Akira

It is easy to get lost in the government oppressed world and futuristic society of 2019 Tokyo in the movie Akira. The story takes place 30 years after WWIII (which takes place in 1988 and is also the year the movie was released) in Neo-Tokyo. The plot follows multiple characters and has many subplots that make it difficult to follow at some points. The main plot focuses on biker Tetsuo Shima and biker gang leader Shotaro Kaneda. As the plot unfolds, many themes unfold as well. These themes include Social Control, Greed, Adolescence, and other postmodernist values. When Tensuo gets abducted and is experimented on by the government, his dreams of power are realized. When he extorts these powers, his friend Shotaro and the military try to stop him. In the very begging of the movie it is made clear that Tetsuo doesn’t fit in and desires power. He try’s to ride Shotaro’s custom bike and cannot do it because it is to fast for him. This happens later when he tells the general that he can handle his over whelming power, but fails to do so as a result ends up killing a lot of insect people. The driving force of all the events throughout the movie is Akira. In the film it’s not clear what Akira is exactly, but it is insinuated that he is the cause of WWIII. At one point he was a boy with some sort of great telepathic powers but in the story he was no longer living in a physical form. It becomes even more confusing when the little blue children tell you that Akira lives in everything and every one, like some sort of deity. From what I can gather, Akira is more of a symbol then an actual being. He represents the Potential of people to do good or bad. Akira represents free will and the possibilities that you have in your future. In a way he is still the cause of WWIII because it was the potential to do bad that caused it. I hope this makes sense to on some sort of level to who ever is reading this. The Greed and the Corruption are results of the bad potential in people but there is also the potential to be good and that is shown at the end when after the dust from the explosion has settled the sun comes out signifying and possible new and brighter future.