Akira

Akira is a 1988 Japanese animated science-fiction film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Izo Hashimoto and adapted his own manga. Produced by the Akira Committee and animated by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, it opened in Japan on July 16, 1988. The film is set in Neo-Tokyo in 2019, a rebuilt city standing thirty-one years after Tokyo was destroyed in the opening catastrophe that precipitated World War III. Its imagery combines dense urban architecture, political unrest, street gangs, military laboratories, and an enormous construction site for a new Olympic stadium.

The central friendship is between Shotaro Kaneda, the confident leader of a motorcycle gang, and Tetsuo Shima, a more insecure rider within the same group. Tetsuo crashes into Takashi, an escaped child with psychic abilities, and is seized by soldiers working for Colonel Shikishima's secret research program. Dr. Onishi studies him while the Colonel attempts to prevent another catastrophe associated with Akira, a psychic child whose power had been concealed beneath Neo-Tokyo. Kaneda searches for Tetsuo and joins forces with Kei, a young resistance fighter opposed to the government's operations.

As Tetsuo becomes increasingly alienated, his abilities grow beyond the project's control. He rebels against Kaneda, the military, and former friends, while visions and physical transformations reveal the destructive scale of his condition. The climax returns to the Olympic-stadium site, where Tetsuo seeks Akira and confronts Kaneda amid military attacks. Takashi, Kiyoko, and Masaru, the other surviving espers, intervene when Tetsuo's power becomes catastrophic. The ending depicts an unexplained state of existence for Tetsuo after Akira's power is unleashed.

Akira's production became notable for its scale and technical ambition. The film used more than 160,000 animation cels and employed a pre-recording approach unusual in Japanese animation at the time, with dialogue recorded before much of the animation was completed. Its score was composed by Shoji Yamashiro and performed with his Geinoh Yamashirogumi collective; the music incorporates percussion, choral voices, and sounds associated with Balinese gamelan and Japanese religious traditions. The original manga ran in Young Magazine from 1982 to 1990, so the film was released before Otomo finished the comic's full narrative. Akira later became a major international reference point for Japanese animation, particularly after English-language releases brought it to wider audiences outside Japan. The movie's depictions of neon-lit streets, youth rebellion, and state violence remain inseparable from its specific vision of Neo-Tokyo, rather than a generic futuristic city.