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#321 - Akira, the Wrath of God (Patreon)

Published:
2022-04-06 02:11:03
Imported:
2024-06

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The Superdelegate patron tier has voted for us to discuss AKIRA (1988), the groundbreaking anime classic. We hash over the film's vision of a future-dystopia, finding elements both unique to 1988 and applicable to all times. PLUS: the new Amazon union in Staten Island, and checking the pulse of right-wing politics on Canada.

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Comments

J.P. McD.

Told ya we’d get a teenaged Will story out of it

Ambrose Honeysuckle

Thank you for yet another outstanding episode! Nothing matches my excitement when I see new 'Michael and Us' content in my podcast app, and I was especially excited to see you were discussing this seminal anime. While 'Akira' is a visual masterpiece, our beloved hosts are correct that it is sorely lacking in its political details, and those shortcomings only become more intense when you consider the works that Studio Ghibli was producing around the same time. Simply, what Miyazaki and Takahata were creating was FAR more sophisticated in its examinations of capital and working life (to say nothing of their richness in narrative and character). Furthermore, there is a decided contempt for life in 'Akira' that, on subsequent viewings, I find quite disturbing. Consider the film's final act: the espers summon the Akira character, who – the god that he is – triggers an atomic blast to stop Tetsuo's grotesque expansion; that blast wipes out most of Neo Tokyo, and the film does not draw ANY attention to the millions of lives that were likely lost as a result of that blast; instead, we're supposed to be wrapped up in Tetsuo finally finding peace, and how Kaneda (as boring a protagonist as there ever was in film) protected Tetsuo when they were kids. Contrast that with the finale of 'Castle in the Sky,' where Miyazaki forces you to consider all the lives that are lost on Laputa; or 'Princess Mononoke,' where there is no hiding from the brutalities of war and the horrific power that Ashitaka's corruption has provided him. 'Akira' is simply not up to the task of taking those concerns seriously, and that is why, for all its visual brilliance, I don't think I'll ever watch it again.