Episode 332: Akira (Patreon)

Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira is one of those weird cases of life imitating art. It was wild enough when the 2020 Olympics ended up being awarded to Tokyo, as in the manga (which debuted nearly 40 years ago), but when (just as in the comic) the 2020 Olympics ended up not actually happening—at least not yet, anyway—it was kind of hard not to be overwhelmed by the synchronicity of it all. Hopefully that's as much overlap as we're going to see, though. I for one could stand not to have armies of psychics capable of tapping into the basic binding forces of the cosmos running around hopped up on hormones and pills. It's been a hectic enough year already.

Still, this seemed like a perfect occasion to talk about one of the great landmark works of nerd media. Akira was one of the first breakthrough anime in the U.S., and it was one of the first Japanese media properties period to inspire western-developed video games. Although Akira's video game legacy ain't great, the story's influence on media and pop culture is best measured through influences and references... of which we only begin to scratch the surface here.

Description: Jeremy Parish, Bob Mackey, and Henry Gilbert grab a laser rifle and angrily scream each other's names in celebration of one of the all-time great animated movies—Akira—as well as the manga it was based on, and the games it inspired. TETSUOOOO!

Thanks to Greg Leahy for the edits and Shaan Khan for the cover illustration!