Akeela: Not by us to change the city, but by the people who claim to expect Akeela

The city of Tokyo is already saturated in every way, like a ripe fruit that produces seeds, and then, as long as there is wind, it will blow the fruit to the ground, and now the wind of Akira is coming…

Tokyo in 2032, the city is highly prosperous, but governance is already anarchic. The welfare budget in parliament, the tax policies of the prime minister, the government’s post-war reconstruction of the Olympic center; the government’s mobile army, riot squad and traffic department are struggling to cope with the rebels and its public-relations and security budget is overspent. Religious groups are stirring up the masses at the grassroots level, saying that the time of Tokyo’s awakening is near; Rebels and terrorists continue to commit terrorist acts; The Akira social reform movement initiated by the army and the scientific sector was questioned by the commission of inquiry; On the other hand, the military takes over control of Tokyo affairs, and as the conflict with the Diet deepens, the crisis of a coup may break out at any time…

This is the future social context of Oyo Oromo’s Akira, and how similar it is to the countries that are or have been in turmoil in the world today. In particular, after the film, part of the military staged a coup, arrested, shot and put the members of the government’s top cadre committee under house arrest, isolated them from the command system, ordered tanks, armored vehicles and gunships into the city, blocked road sections, and used ground troops and air forces to enforce martial law in Tokyo. All these times clearly saw the armed rebellion in some countries in Southeast Asia and Central Asia. The shadow of government change

Katsuyo Oromo and Yugo Kiki, Tusker Masaaki and Hideaki Anno are known as Japanese anime masters who take the future world as the theme of their works. Among them, Masaaki Tusker’s Ghost in the Shell and Hideaki Anno’s New Century Evangel ion has been widely noticed for their profound and thoughtful themes. And Katsuyo Oromo’s Akira reached an insurmountable height with its pantheistic thought, mysticism and diverse philosophical speculations of modern existentialism and scientific and technological theories. This height is in line with Miyazaki’s Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke.

Kaila has been admired by critics and filmmakers not only in Japan but also in the West for the depth of its themes and the variety it extends. Cameron has said that he admires two masters of Japanese animation, Mamoru Moshi and Katsuyo Oromo. It is generally believed that an important theme of Akira is that human beings create civilization, and civilization becomes the totem of modern human beings. However, highly advanced civilization will eventually get rid of human control and drive human beings to destruction. This theme has a lot in common with Wachowski’s later film The Matrix.

The success of Kaila is not only to describe and predict the social phenomena and trends in the near future, but also to put forward a theory about the future of mankind. The future doesn’t just go in one direction. We should have and can choose different futures. Darwin’s theory of evolution holds that human beings develop from low to high, and finally establish a utopian world that achieves the balance between material and spiritual state. In Akira, two paths of human development are proposed. One is the development of civilization and science on Earth, and it is possible or natural to expand the territory of the galaxy in the future. However, this process is carried out in the midst of war, backwardness and darkness. The other is that with the development of human science and civilization, mutations occur at a certain stage. Just like Akira, the body changes with the power of god, human beings touch the truth of the universe, construct a new human theoretical system, and finally integrate into the development and evolution of the universe. In the film, the former path is that of Knead, the protagonist, who stays with his girlfriend in Tokyo after its destruction; the latter path is the path of another hero, Tetsuo, who flies into the depths of space in search of a new human companion. The theme of the former path is similar to that of many science fiction movies. The latter idea should be a reference to Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”, but in “2001: A Space Odyssey”, the power of human mutation is the mysterious “Black stone”, while “Akira” is the third World War “nuclear war”, and Tetsuo is the “star-child”.

Even though there are many options for the future, there is a possibility that mankind could lead itself to destruction along each path. This is the deeper thinking proposed by Katsuyo Oromo in Akira. Humans discover things and create civilizations throughout their lives, but where does this knowledge come from? Oromo believes it is the unknown genetic material or divine power that is innate in humans. In the evolution of life on Earth, from reptiles, fish, plankton, apes, air and water, cosmic dust, all have a common substance. This means that everyone has the power of Akira within them, but when that power awakens, even if it is not ready, that person still has to choose how to use it. And that choice is likely to lead to human tragedy. Like Tetsuo, he almost destroyed Tokyo again.

Amoeba has the power of human beings, it will not build like human beings, and it will only eat up all the food nearby. Similarly, human beings have the power of god, it does not have the thinking of God, and it will eventually bring the destruction of human beings. So, “It’s not up to us to change the city, it’s up to the people who say they want Akira to change.”