# Akira (1988 film)

Akira is a 1988 animated film about a secret military project that endangers Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a raging psychic psychopath that only three teenagers and a group of psychics can stop. It is based on the manga series of the same name.
    Original Manga by Katsuhiro Otomo. Directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. Screenplay also by Katsuhiro Otomo.

## Kaneda

* I customized that bike for myself. It's too wild, you couldn't handle it.
* [Streamline Dub (1989)] And what do we have here, huh? You the funeral director?
* [To a man dressed in a black suit] What's with the get-up, huh? You goin' to a funeral?!
* [holding soldiers at gunpoint] Hands up, now! Where in the hell's the facedown baby room?!
* [when he claims to Ryu he knows who the new subject is] Come on... Don't they say the only amazing questions are asked ones? [Ryu walks up to him with a sinister expression] Huh? They don't?
* [Repeated line] TETSUO!

## Tetsuo

* Twin ceramic rotor drives on each wheel! And these look like computer controlled anti-lock brakes! Wow, 200 horses at 12,000 rpm!
* I am Tetsuo.
* You want me to get in there in that kindergarten room and live stupidly ever after, huh?! Be quiet, do what you're told, take your medicine every day, and wake up all day like those kids?!
* KANEDA!

## Colonel

* My job isn't to believe or believe. It is to act or not act!
* Scientists are a bunch of idiots. Police men always consider the tents first.
* Enough! Open up your eyes and look at the big picture; you're all puppets of broken politicians and capitalists. Don't you understand, it's utterly pointless to fight each other.
* Look at what they have in their panic, they were afraid! They were too scared, so they hided it away from the public. They forgot all courage and honor, cast off the freedom and learning we had made, and close the lid of the Pandora's Box they themselves had opened!
* The passion to build has cooled, and the joy of construction has forgotten. Now, it's just a stupid made up of a bunch of suckling fools!

## Others

* Kai: Something seemed odd the second I saw his face. It's strange. He was wearing what looked like a white hospital dress. He acted like a different thing. Yamagata asked him if he was really Tetsuo or if he was someone else.
* Police Officer: I'm not that much older than you, so don't call me paps or you'll find yourself polishin' my boots with your towel!

## Dialogue

    Tetsuo: Let's run away somewhere... you and me, Kaori.
    Kaori: But... where would we go?
    Tetsuo: Anywhere. Just the farther the better, eh?
    Officer A: All right. The story is, you and your friends went out at night on your bikes to visit your dying mother, and then... another bunch of biker strangers called the Clowns and attacked you. They hurt your friend, you lost your temper, and that's why eight of these Clowns, your attacker, are now in the hospital. And that is the truth.
    [Officer B looks through files of recently brought criminals and a picture of Kei appears on his current page. Kaneda looks over at that picture]
    Kaneda: Wowee! She's sure hot.
    Officer B: Hey! This is confidential!
    [Kaneda chuckles, going back to his seat]
    Officer A: And how's your mother doing?
    Kaneda: Huh? Fortunately the worst is over. She cleared the hump.
    Officer A: She cleared the hump, huh? What's next, a triathlon?
    [Kaneda and a few of his friends laugh]
    Colonel: Is it safe, Doctor?
    Doctor: I will take care of it.
    Colonel: No! I wasn’t talking about the girl at all! I’m asking if he turns out to reach a power like him... Are you positive that you are be able to control such a power?
    Doctor: Um, well... that's a...
    Colonel: Can I leave this in your face?
    Doctor: Um, well, then, in my opinion, if we can use the latest examination equipment to collect even more data, and also do a multi-faced analysis as we go, then surely...
    Colonel: But maybe we weren’t meant to needle... With that ultimate power.
    Doctor: You mean... The power of a Akira?
    Tetsuo: [in telepathy] A... ki... ra...
    Colonel: But we have no choice, but to grasp that power. Stop that power, and learn to control it. And if this situation gets out of hand, then he’s to be terminated... And without hesitation!
    Doctor: Yes... Colonel.
    Kaneda: [Tetsuo is brutally beating a member of the Clown gang] You're gonna kill him, Tetsuo! You want that?!
    Tetsuo: I want him more than dead - I'll split his freaking head open!
    Kaneda: Just knock it off, now! This whole thing happened just because you took my bike for a spin. Enough already.
    Tetsuo: SHUT UP! DON'T ORDER ME AROUND!
    Kaneda: We were just worried.
    Tetsuo: Why do you always have to try and save me? I could've handled it on my own! Yeah, I admit I've gotten beaten before, but I won't always be on the receiving end! You hear that?! YOU UNDERSTAND?!
    Kaori: Tetsuo, I...
    Tetsuo: [crying] Shut up, go away!
    Tetsuo: Kaneda? What are you doing in here?
    Kaneda: Tetsuo! Are you okay? I'm here for the rescue! Hurry up! What are you - an idiot? If we don't get outta here, those...
    [several soldiers enter the room]
    Soldier: There he is! Capture him!
    Tetsuo: You keep away!
    [Isaac uses his telekinetic powers to forcibly blast the soldiers away by lifting the floor, which also throws Kaneda hurtfully]
    Kei: Kaneda!
    Tetsuo: [laughs maniacally] Oh, that's right. I forgot you were there! There, do you see, Kanny? I won't be needing you to come to the rescue ever again, okay? From now on, I'll be in charge of the heroics. So, if you need any saving, just ask, Kanny.
    Kaneda: Hey, Tetsuo! Who the heck do you think you're talking to, ya beautiful?
    Tetsuo: Hah! You don't like what you're hearing, do ya? Makes you angry? So what are you gonna do now? Well, Tetsuo?! WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO NOW?!
    Kaneda: What's wrong? Had some trouble?
    Tetsuo: Yeah. But I already took care of it. And you're too late - You missed the show.
    Kaneda: Tetsuo, you had me worried again. I figured you'd be standing here sobbing like a little baby.
    Tetsuo: Kaneda... you've always been a pain in the ass, you know. You've been telling me what to do since we were kids! You always treat me like a kid! You always show up and start bossing me around, and don't you deny it!
    Kaneda: And now you're a boss too... Of this pile of rubble.
    Tetsuo: Kaneda!
    Kaneda: That's Mister Kaneda to you, punk!
    Tetsuo: Die!
    Takashi: It's too much for Tetsuo... and for the three of us also... and for Akira, too.
    Masaru: It's way to big for us, as we are now.
    Kiyoko: But someday, we may to be able to...
    Masaru: Because it has already began.
    Jaws: This school is your last chance! If you don't like yourselves. You can't keep up with the academic ability of regular students, This is it! If you can't live a decent social life, you end up here! And if you stop here, it's the end of the sidewalk!
    Principal: Also, even though you're under fourteen, if you get more than fifty penalty points on your record, you're sent to the regular courts.
    Kaneda: Ah, bite me! Don't mess with us, you bald old goat!
    Jaws: ARE ANY OF YOU LISTENING TO ME?!
    Yamagata: NO, SIR, YOU LOST ME HALFWAY THROUGH!
    Jaws: Discipline! (slaps Yamagata) Discipline! (punches Kaisuke) Discipline! (slaps Kaneda) Discipline! (slaps Takeyama) Discipline! (slap Watanabe) Discipline! (slap Kuwata) DIIIIIISSS-MISSED!!!!!!! !
    The Capsule Gang: Thank you very much, sir. (moans)

## Taglines

* 2019, Neo-Tokyo: a never-ending puzzle begins. The trump card is... top secret. Film to be treated as hazardous material.
* The definitive science fiction masterpiece. This is an unmissable anime classic!
* Neo-Tokyo is about to E.X.P.L.O.D.E.

## About Akira (1988 film)

* The setting is the sprawling Neo-Tokyo of 2019, 31 years after the city was devastated in a nuclear war. Amazingly, it has been built back to several times its original size (those Japanese are industrious), and most of the prewar brand names-or at least those that have paid promotional fees-have survived.
** Dave Kehr, “JAPANESE CARTOON `AKIRA` ISN`T ONE FOR THE KIDS”, Chicago Tribune, (1990/03/30)
* Mr. Otomo invests this dark flowering of post-nuclear civilization with a clean, mean beauty. The drawings of Neo-Tokyo by night are so intricately detailed that all the individual windows of huge skyscrapers appear distinct.
** Janet Maslin, “Review/Film; A Tokyo of the Future In Vibrant Animation”, New York Times, (Oct. 19, 1990)
* Violent as it is on the surface, Akira is tranquil at its core. The story's sanest characters plead for the wise use of mankind's frightening new powers, lending the whole film the feeling of a cautionary tale.
** Janet Maslin, “Review/Film; A Tokyo of the Future In Vibrant Animation”, New York Times, (Oct. 19, 1990)
* “Akira” (at the Westside Pavilion), a Japanese animated feature based on Katsuhiro Otomo’s popular comic books about a teen-age motorcycle gang, is a compendium of the worst cliches of Japanese animation--two hours of chases, laser attacks, machine-gun battles, spilled stage blood, computer-animated backgrounds and hokey dialogue.
** Charles Solomon, “MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Akira’: High-Tech Hokum From Japan”, Los Angeles Times, (March 14, 1990)
* Katsuhiro Otomo’s dark, alienated “Akira” (1988) is widely credited with creating a mass audience for Japanese animation in America. It has been a perennial favorite on college campuses and in revival houses, despite a bad English dub that made its convoluted story all but incomprehensible.
** Charles Solomon, “Fan Favorite ‘Akira’ Really Blazes Now”, Los Angeles Times, (July 24, 2001)
* Otomo’s vision is violent, angry and often ugly, but it is also arresting and powerful. Thirteen years after its initial release, “Akira” remains a watershed film in the history of Japanese animation and anime fandom in America.
** Charles Solomon, “Fan Favorite ‘Akira’ Really Blazes Now”, Los Angeles Times, (July 24, 2001)

## External links

* Akira quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Akira (1988 film) at Rotten Tomatoes