Tetsuo Shima

Tetsuo Shima, also known as Number 41, is one of the main characters from the Akira series.
== Charactah Account ==
Kaneda's best friend since preschool and the second principal subject of the story's theme. Tetsuo is shown as a black sheep in the gang he and Kaneda are part of, and quietly suffers from a deeply rooted inferiority complex. He admires his friend yet at the same time strongly resents his own reliance upon him. After his psychokinetic abilities manifest, Tetsuo quickly becomes Kaneda's nemesis; he desires Kaneda's motorcycle (a symbol of status and power), and seeks to prove himself supremely powerful, without need of protection.
Tetsuo’s most prominent characteristic is his inferiority complex. Despite Kaneda's efforts to foster a brotherly relationship with him, Tetsuo feels like he is being bossed around and treated as a subordinate. On the surface, Tetsuo has a rather fierce temper, is impulsive, and tends to make rash decisions. Like all other members of The Capsules, he has little to no respect towards authority figures. However, it is likely that he chooses to hide insecurity and sensitivity behind this aggression. This can be inferred through the way he is characterized in flashbacks, especially when compared to Kaneda at the same age.
After acquiring the powers of the Espers, and surviving their attempt to kill him, Tetsuo's personality takes a drastic turn for the worse. He storms through Neo Tokyo in order to find Akira, carelessly using his psychic powers to harm the attacking military and civilians alike. After this rampage, he taunts and attacks Kaneda in an effort to boost his own ego. Despite his poor treatment of, and expression of disdain for Kaneda, he becomes genuinely frightened when his body expands beyond his control, knowing full well they were both powerless to stop the mutation.
== Appearance ==
=== Anime ===
* Akira
* Akira (Shin Anime)
=== Manga ===
* Akira
=== Video Games ===
* Akira
* Akira Psycho Ball
== Trivia ==
* Tetsuo is named after Tetsuo Shikishima, Dr. Shikishima's son in the manga/anime series Tetsujin 28-gou.
* Tetsuo is known for his prominent forehead, which has become a joke within the fandom. Even Kaneda uses this to insult him, referring to him as 'dekosuke' in a climactic moment of the film.
* Tetsuo is the only member of the gang that is referred to by his first name.
* K9999 is a video game character in The King of Fighters series, whose character design is heavily inspired by Tetsuo. He has since been succeeded by his new identity, Krohnen McDougall, and is redesigned while keeping elements of Tetsuo in the character.
** Fellow NESTS agent Nameless takes his place prior to The King of Fighters XV, due to the perceived explicitness of the similarity to Tetsuo.
* According to the glossaries on DVD Bonus Content of the film, Tetsuo's grandfather was a genetic engineer involved in the Akira Project who was killed in Akira's destruction of Tokyo. Due to experimentation around the time of Tetsuo's parents' births, the gene(s) for psychic powers were passed onto Tetsuo (skipping a generation). This caused him to have dormant abilities, which were awakened when he crashed into Number 26 (Takashi) during the battle with the Clowns at the beginning of the film.
== Gallery ==
File:Tetsuo Shima Render 01.png
File:Tetsuo Shima Render 02.png
File:Tetsuo Shima Render 03.png
File:Tetsuo Shima 01.png
File:Tetsuo Shima 02.png
== External Links ==
* Tetsuo Shima/anime at Akira Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Akira