akira analysis
nov 7 2020, 10:58 PM

alright I just finished watching akira and im a bit.. confused to say the least. but since I have nothing better to do with my time, im gonna analyze the movie. it probs still wont make sense. but bear with me.

AT FACE VALUE:
right. so tetsuo is essentially the main character. he isnt shown as necessarily a victim but I guess victimizes himself. like he is not portrayed as a helpless kid that always needs defending but for some reason that's how he sees himself-- as second to kaneda. which I'd argue drives his inferiority complex. so when he gets his hands on this insane power, he feels that he can finally rise above, that he can control his own affairs and such. he is no longer second fiddle. he is unstoppable. however this does not change his view of himself; he still sees himself as compensating. as if somehow the power makes him able to defend and prove himself, though it is his own internalized perception of himself that keeps him down. victim complex. he doesnt need the power to improve himself but he thinks he does-- rather, he is presented with the power and automatically assumes that it is his way of becoming his own defender. however, he realizes that the power controls HIM rather than the other way around. once again, he is not in control-- he has become second to the very thing he thought would make him first. first as in powerful enough to defend himself, superior.

kaneda is kind of irrelevant in my opinion. its hard to see where he fits in other than a perceived 'antagonist' to tetsuo. he isn't in the wrong for like, anything, but tetsuo blames him for his inferiority (keep in mind that tetsuo thinks he is second to kaneda which is why he gets so vengeful with the power). or maybe that's just tetsuo's justification for going beserk and he doesn't really mean it... regardless. kaneda's there just to sort of tie up loose ends-- he's the reason why tetsuo has an inferiority complex and the one who carries on his legacy at the end.

akira is the power that tetsuo gets, or at least that's what I think. akira is an actual person, like also an experiment, but he (it?) is spoken about like some sort of intagible entity. uhhh kei describes it as like energy in everything. the memories of everything. that kind of thing. its mythical. but is revealed to be an actual person. there are two kinds of people, 1) those who are scared of akira and 2) those who revere akira. the ones scared of akira are in the gov, ex. the colonel and the scientist guys. they fear akira's power and do not want to unleash it until they are positive that they can control is for themselves. the one's who revere akira are pretty much everyone else-- the common people. they only know of akira by name, an urban legend if you will, and are stimulated by the idea of it. they see it as a means of their revivalll (?). like the coming of a new age. a symbol of hope in the simplest of terms, but more like a rebirth. the vessel for a rebirth.

the colonel and gov people fear akira, as I said before. as much as they are scared of its power, they desire to control it. why is unclear. but they continue to conduct experiments and overall interact with it despite their overwhelmingly obvious fear and cautiousness. scratch that. they're definitely scared but not all that cautious. they deal with the consequences of catastrophe rather than trying to prevent it, in my opinion. like you'd think that if you were conducting secret high-tech psychological experiments on an unstable teenager, you'd have more security than just a freaking door like its a college dorm. so I don't think they prepared beforehand for anything. and its not like they don't know the possible capabilities of akira or any similar powers like they understand that it could fully cause complete destruction of the world. so why don't they have more security or preparation?? I think I can chalk it all up to curiosity. like they want to see what will happen but don't have the balls to straight up conduct experiments out of pressure (maybe from the rest of the gov). so an experiment 'accidentally' escaping and causing damage puts them in a much better position than conducting something themselves and having the subject cause damage. so they're driven by curiosity but controlled by fear.

kei and ryu-- I gotta be honest, I'm not really sure what their purpose is. kei is some kind of savior to kaneda in the end, and ryu is like a father-figure to kei (like she's reliant on him?) but I don't really know why they're there. maybe just for plot purposes? but for some reason kaneda thinks that the three wrinky kids want kei for something so maybe she has a deeper significance? not really sure.

the three wrinkly kids are kinda tripping me out. so they each have similar powers to tetsuo, and we know that they were experiments at the same times as akira the kid. they have some kind of exterior goal, like they want tetsuo to wait and master his power so that they can use it for something, presumably the same thing the gov wants to use him for since they're working together. but they KNOW something. I don't know what. then they say that they have to go in the big akira explosion for some reason, I think they do that to save kaneda but why?? is the question????
MY INTERPRETATION:
let's get intoooo it.

tetsuo represents the idea of inferiority. I first felt he was the oppressed, like a physical group of people or a country or something, but then I think It made more sense for him to be representing the idea of feeling less. not necessarily wanting to prove oneself, but just the general anger and dissatisfaction that builds up from thinking that you're constantly unable to defend yourself. just general frustration from constantly being the victim and perceving yourself as the victim (endless cycle) is what causes tetsuo to snap basically.

kaneda was kind of hard to place but I guess I'd put him as people in general in a weird way. like tetsuo blames kaneda for his inferiority in the same way that the idea of inferiority blames the person for being, well, inferior. like that's the whole concept of inferiority, especially when combined with self-inflicted victim complexes. I don't really think this interpretation makes all that much sense until the end of the movie though. or at least the climax. kaneda starts fighting against tetsuo + akira but then simultaneously wants to save tetsuo from akira. basically its people understanding that the idea of inferiority constricts their potential (hence wanting to defeat it) but also understanding how necessary it is to feel inferior in some aspects, or at least humble, because in the case when they get the power to become the top, the best, the whatever, they become uncontrollable and lead to their own demise (hence wanting to save it from the power).

akira is, simply put, power. in wordly terms, I'd say akira is comparable to something like an atomic bomb. an insane, ungodly, and absolutely catastrophic amount of power that can only lead to destruction. the idea of inferiority drives one to grasp at this power and deludes them into thinking that only with that amount and extent of power can they acheive their potential and role as strong defenders of themselves, but they underestimate the power and become completely overwhelmed. the power is simply uncontrollable. it completely destroys the idea of inferiority and leaves one with raw power, overconfidence, pride and ego. with the power, they can do anything. but they are unable to understand that the power is controlling them. essentially, power has no worldly connections, its just energy, which will always exist. it could care less if it wipes out humanity. it makes no distinction between killing its intended victims or killing its creator. however, this does nothing to curb general human greed and want to control that power, which can be seen in our timeline with nuclear proliferation.

the colonel and gov people represent the intersection between human greed and curiosity. they know akira is uncontrollable, that its power could very much end all civilization. however, keep it around to feed their own power-hungry desires. even if they don't know how to use it, they sure as hell will keep it around as a threat. and even if they know they cannot control it, they sure as hell are going to keep trying. I guess in that way they can be seen as perseverance, though that determination may be blind and naive. eventually they understand that akira cannot be controlled and that they were stupid to think that any kind of human logic or effort could change that, but at that point its too late.

for kei and ryu I honestly have no idea oops. I guess their role is that they enlighten kaneda about what akira is and then bring him to tetsuo + akira so I guess they could be like subconscious stabilizers. like they simply alert kaneda to what he is missing. in that way they could represent knowledge.

the three wrinkly kids were so complicated but I think I figured it out. essentially they're the 'regulators' of akira. they are the 'enlightened' people that understand that akira is uncontrollable, but they too are bound by obligations, political or not, that prevent them from completely destroying it. maybe its for selfish reasons; maybe akira is something that they want to see in action or something that they profit off of. with the atomic bomb analogy I'd say they were like the UN or something. once they see tetsuo become completely overcome with akira, they understand that they were wrong in their actions and must sacrifice themselves to save kaneda. kaneda is humanity. the hope of the future. they are temporary. not necessarily expendable, but a necessary sacrifice.

THE ENDING:
I feel like there's some stuff I need to better articulate in terms of the actual story so here we go.

basically the movie is a loop of history. man feels weak, man sees power, man wants power, man gets power, man becomes overwhelmed by power, man basically destroys everything with power, man barely gets saved, man vows to never use power again, man feels weak... etc etc. the whole thing goes in a cycle again. in the context of akira, here's the basic rundown:
1) tetsuo is the feeling of weakness.
2) he wants to no longer be inferior. he goes on that long winded motorcycle chase and hits the wrinkly kid.
3) a whole bunch of stuff happens but tetsuo gets the akira power.
4) he thinks he can control it, key work being thinks, but finds that he cannot do so. his medication wore off or whatever but basically the power is too much for him.
5) man basically destroying everything is pretty self-explanatory. here I think is where it is important to remember that KANEDA represents humanity, NOT tetsuo. tetsuo is a personality trait OF kaneda-- remember that tetsuo is the concept of inferiority. tetsuo and akira ALMOST kill kaneda.
6) kaneda is saved!!! I might be assuming wrong but I watched the movie believing that the wrinkly kids saved him. essentially, they sacrificed themselves, understanding the futility of their existence without kaneda, to save him. he is narrowly saved.
7) man vows to never use power again. this is an interesting one. basically they want to warn future generations of humanity to not use that kind of power, to not be tempted by insane strength, because it will inevitably cause immense destruction and death. this is seen by a re-emergence of inferiority. in the case of akira, we see akira and tetsuo become completely absorbed by each other in a blinding white light until they become nothing more than a little white marble-like thing that kaneda catches in his hands. this scene represents the defeat of akira, or at least the misplacing of akira, like the breakdown of it until it no longer poses a threat, as well as the scattering of tetsuo. remember: tetsuo is lost the moment he is separated from kaneda. they need each other to survive. so when tetsuo essentially explodes into whatever and kaneda catches him, they are once again together. humility returns to humankind as a reminder than too much power destroys its victims as well as its users. kaneda's thanks to tetsuo are the vow to never use such power again. kaneda, at this point, in more applicable terms, is the new generation. of course this vow never lasts, because each generation is always able to find new powers more dangerous than the last. but each time, without fail, tetsuo is completely obliterated and his fragments find their way back into the open palms of kaneda, ready to warn a new generation.

TL;DR SYMBOLISM:
tetsuo: feeling of inferiority
kaneda: humanity as a whole
akira: power, specifically destructive power
colonel and gov people: human greed and curiosity
kei and ryu: knowledge (?)
the three wrinkly kids: bystanders to destruction, eventually redeem themselves for the sake of humanity

for someone who talks a lot and needs words to contextualize everything, it takes a lot to leave me speechless. i am fucking speechless.

also, there was a point in the movie when i didn't even realize i'd widened my eyes. typically u notice when you're eyes are widening, like out of shock and disbelief and stuff, but there was a time where the screen went black and all i saw was my hand clamped over my mouth and my eyes literally as wide as saucers. insanity. its the kind of movie that warps your mind and manipulates your perception and you don't even notice it happening until your shocked back into your own reality, as what happened with me.

AND I JUST NOTICED THIS but at the beginning like one of the first scenes the stalker-who-we-don't-know-is-a-stalker-yet positions his hand so that it looks like mima is dancing in his palm TO SYMBOLIZE THAT HE LITERALLY HAS HER IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE FILM WOWOWOW BUT ALSO TO JUXTAPOSE HIS CONTROL OVER ACTUAL MIMA AND FAKE MIMA'S CONTROL OVER HIM CRAZINESS.