In the anime film Akira, there showed a lot of corruption in Tokyo. After the atom bomb was dropped, it completely obliterated the town that used to be, and was then controlled by the government. There was a strange feel to the movie that the government was controlling all and the people of Tokyo were there little pawns. This is first noticeable when Tetsuo gets into an accident and the government takes him away. At first, you think that he is just being taken away to a hospital, but soon find out that he has been taken in for experimentation. This is what opened my eyes and allowed me to see how corrupt the government was.
The government was taking people in and experimenting on them. Tetsuo didn’t notice it at first, but once things started acting weird for him, the government intervened again, and then he began to realize he had power. For a government to cruelly test on people is incredibly corrupt. It shows that there was a point in time in Japan where the government ruled everything and people didn’t have much say in it. They treated their people badly and turned them all into guinea pigs, which got out of hand and ended up getting back at them. The first example from the movie that shows this is how Tetsuo ends up being too powerful and the government loses control of him. He tries to bring back Akira, and ends up blowing up the whole city again, losing control of himself.
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| Image From Famous Monsters of Filmland |
You then find out that this is the second time where the government has ruined the city, and didn’t learn their lesson from it. The first time is when Akira was created and blew up the city. This film ends up showing how there is a serious issue with the Japanese government and how it needs to change. They cannot keep on controlling people without there being some sort of consequence, and Akira, shows exactly that. Where the end result may be a little unrealistic in the movie, it does show that something bad can happen, if change does not.
Hey Jonathan-
ReplyDeleteYou made a really good point with the government's role in this anime. The fact that the government did not learn from Akira and continued to run testing on its citizens shows that Akira is not all of Tetsuo's fault and not only Tetsuo's greed for power that made him into the monster he turned out to be. Instead, you argue that this is due to the serious issue the Japanese government treats its people, from subject testing to suppressing them into having no power or say whatsoever. If the people were given more power and say, they may be less destructive and less likely to explode into corrupted power like Akira. Being treated with respect and equality is one thing that is taken for granted within society. Given that the women in the anime are treated poorly, there are riots and gangs (motorcycle gangs), the city is trashed and dirty looking, and the government and the military having internal conflicts just shows that the Japanese people and government demand change. The scientists should learn their lesson that when they experiment with people and extraneous powers that they may not be able to control their experiments all the time. Do you think that there will be another Akira? I also feel that this idea applies to not only Japanese government and its culture, but in a general idea. Any government in any society could have its own Akira, you know? The goal is to have a balance between the government’s power, and the people’s power.
Hello John,
ReplyDeleteIt was a pleasure reading your view on the overarching corrupt behavior coursing throughout Neo Tokyo in the film Akira. I agree with you that the government and society seemed quite malevolent in its manners. Although I'd thought that I would mention the fact that even present day today, the government is corrupt to an extent here in America. I won't get into too much detail on that subject considering its a touchy area. Anyways... On a side note, I was wondering if you noticed any correlation to the use of the Atom bomb to in some way show us Americans or any other possible countries viewing this widely acclaimed film just how devastating dropping the bomb was on Japan as a whole.
I agree with your view that if an individual is treated like a guinea pig for experimentation they will turn on their the ones responsible, although what about those kindergarteners that ended up quite peaceful ( the demented looking children ). They were used as guinea pigs but they turned out pretty peaceful and supportive to their higher authority. I suppose to answer my own question, the age at which they were experimented on are like night and day considering Takashi and the other two were just kids at the time and Tetsuo was taken regardless of his own decision.
Lastly, I wanted to mention that I very much enjoy the picture you have posted seeing as it was a shocker to most people and it portrays so well the deformity that is caused by overwhelming and all-consuming power.
-Castenell, Dee