'Akira'

To be honest, I had little to no interested in Japanese animation outside of an episode of “Voltron” before starting this project.

As it’s turned out, maybe some of the best films I’ve seen have all been Japanese animation: Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies and, now, Akira. 

Akira is the oldest of the bunch and it could be considered the frontrunner of those other films and others like it that have caught on in the United States. 

Akira is a very cool late-1980s dystopian tale of motorcycle gangs and a sci-fi twist about children psychics and the end of the world. Anything from Japan has some sort of theme that relates to the atomic bombs that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima and for good reason. Good or bad, it sort of defined that country for a long time from the outside in and probably still remains this blot of scar tissue to this day. Like it’ll never go away. 

Made in the late-1980s and based on the manga, it has heavy Cold War themes and the destruction capable should the United States and Soviet Union choose to bomb the crap out of each other (Japan caught in the middle, of course). 

Naturally, the cult status of Akira has spawned at last four attempts to make a snowy white live-action version with actors like James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michael Fassbender, Gary Oldman, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix being mentioned in one way or the other during the synthesis of the project. It’s hard to imagine this turn out well if it ever turns out.