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Akira (1988, Jp.)
In Katsuhiro Otomo's landmark, visually-spectacular
animated film about 30 years after an atomic bomb (during WWIII)
was detonated in Tokyo, following experiments on Esper children possessing
lime-green skin (with extraordinary psychic powers of ESP):
- the Blade Runner (1982)-styled,
cyberpunk, post-war dystopic view of "Neo-Tokyo" in the
year 2019 following WWIII, complete with reconstructed, gigantic
skyscrapers and 3-D holographic, animated advertisements on billboards
- the opening kinetic, adrenalin-fueled sequence of
two rival vigilante bike gangs of cyberpunks (the Capsules vs. the
Clowns) attacking each other through the streets of the futuristic
metropolis, culminating in a game of chicken between teenaged, cocky
delinquent Capsule leader-hero Shōtarō Kaneda and rival
Clown gangleader
- the sequence of Kaneda's anti-hero friend Tetsuo Shima
being captured when he crossed paths on his bike with one of the
weird Esper children - a wizened, greenish-skinned, pale and psychically-powerful
child named Takashi (an Esper aka Number 26, who was kidnapped by
terrorists from a government lab, and now recaptured after being
on the loose); wounded, Tetsuo would be victimized after being taken
away and hospitalized
- the sequence of secret psychic experiments performed
on Tetsuo and a trio of Espers (to release their dormant psychic
powers) by the government's scientists, directed by Colonel Shikishima
- the mysterious title character named 'Akira' -- a
legendary boy with ultimate, phenomenal powers who caused the destruction
of Tokyo 31 years earlier in 1988, and whose dissected organs were
now stored in cyrogenic jars buried below a construction site - the
future site of the Olympic Stadium
- the climactic confrontational ending in which an uncontrollably-powerful,
mentally-unstable Tetsuo with triggered latent psychokinetic powers
- seeking violent retribution against all authority - had his right
arm shot off by the government's orbital laser weapon (which he dismantled
in outer space!); he used his psychic powers to reinstate a prosthetic
arm; then his body mutated, regenerated, morphed and swelled to gigantic
and grotesque proportions as a fleshy and featureless blob -- leading
to his demise when the three Espers together called forth the awakening,
messianic Akira - a destroyer who caused a white sphere to form around
Tetsuo (Akira's consciousness) and transform him into another plane
of existence (a 2001: A Space Odyssey-ish "Star
Baby"?); this was followed by a massive explosion and the urban
destruction of Neo-Tokyo
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Tetsuo's Loss of His Right Arm
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Restoring Arm with Prosthetic
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An Awakening Akira
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Massive Explosion and Destruction of Neo-Tokyo
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- the end credits sequence of the cosmic 'big-bang'
creation of the universe by a god-like Tetsuo ("I am Tetsuo")
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Neo-Tokyo (2019)
Bike Gang Conflict
Esper: Takashi
Secret Experiments on Tetsuo
'Akira''s Severed Body-Part Remains in Cyrogenic Jars
Three Espers
The Colonel
"I am Tetsuo"
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