Shotaro Kaneda

Shōtarō Kaneda (金田正太郎, Kaneda Shōtarō) is the main protagonist of the manga Akira and its 1988 anime film adaptation. He is the leader of a biker gang called the Capsules and the best friend of Tetsuo Shima. After being abducted and experimented on by the military, Tetsuo gains psychic abilities and begins to abuse them, putting him at odds with Kaneda. To stop Tetsuo, Kaneda became involved with the Resistance, an organization dedicated to fighting against the government and uncovering its conspiracies, fighting alongside Kei, his love interest.
He was voiced by Mitsuo Iwata in Japanese. In the Streamline English dub, he was voiced by Cam Clarke, who has also voiced Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Freddy in Barnyard and Corrin in Fire Emblem. In the Pioneer dub, he was voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch, who has also voiced Ichigo Kurosaki in Bleach and Kiba in Wolf's Rain.
==History==
===Manga/Original Story===
TBA
===Anime Adaptation===
As a child, Kaneda lived in the same orphanage as Tetsuo, whom he befriended shortly after his arrival there. In their teens, they founded a bike gang called the Capsules, with Kaneda as the leader. During a chase with a rival gang, Tetsuo is severely wounded in a collision with Takashi (an esper who had escaped from a government facility), while Kaneda and the rest of the gang are arrested by Colonel Shikishima's men and taken in for questioning. While there, he meets Kei, a female resistance member whom he takes a liking to. He attempts to hit on her by following her around, which leads to him saving her life twice. When he finds out that Tetsuo has been kidnapped by Colonel Shikishima, they both intend to free him for their own reasons.
When he discovers that Tetsuo has gone on a murderous rampage with his new-found psychic powers, he makes it his mission to personally end him, both because he feels responsible for him as his friend and in vengeance for Yamagata's murder. He finds Tetsuo and provokes him into a brawl, which continues until the Espers awaken Akira, whose appearance destroys Neo-Tokyo. Kaneda is dragged into the field of energy teleporting Tetsuo away, but the Espers rescue him at their own cost. After being teleported back to a now destroyed Neo-Tokyo, Kaneda finds and holds the last remnants of Tetsuo's physical presence, a small glowing orb, in his hands before saying his last goodbyes to his friend. With Tetsuo gone, Kaneda rides into the city's ruins with Kei and Kaisuke.
== Shotaro's Bike ==
Kaneda's futuristic motorcycle has become an iconic feature of the series. As the group's leader, Kaneda is entitled to have the most technologically and aesthetically advanced bike. It is a high performance red racing bike of unspecified make and model - though a badge closely resembling the BMW logo is visible on its left hand side in the movie. The bike also bears the logos of Canon Inc., the Citizen Watch Co., Shoei co. and Arai and the roundel for the U.S. Air Force. It has a reverse function, as well as a "ceramic double-rotor two-wheel disk drive."
The bike's iconic status in popular culture has led to it being referenced in many different pieces of media, most notably in the 2018 film adaptation of Ready Player One, where the bike makes an appearance as the vehicle Art3mis uses in the race for the Copper Key. The scene in which Kaneda brings his bike to a halt by performing a sideways slide, commonly referred to as the "Akira Slide", has been paid homage to in numerous anime and cartoons. Multiple working replicas of the bike have also been built.
==Gallery==
D8D86666-DB88-4FB7-BE2C-484A64723CD0.jpeg|Kaneda attempts to shoot Tetsuo Shima.
48B28D65-3CEC-49B5-81E5-03FE40F6D6C4.jpeg|Kaneda on his bike.
96B1FD87-8733-4257-8B5F-EBFD45337F44.jpeg|Kaneda enraged when he fails to hit Tetsuo.
1A97A185-3A07-44AB-88AD-A7A8F5D94EE3.jpeg|Kaneda flirting with Kei when they first meet.
Kaneda large 8728.jpg
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==Trivia==
*Kaneda was ranked at #11 on IGN’s list of the "Top 25 Greatest Anime Characters of All Time".
*As with many of Akira's major characters, Kaneda's name is lifted from the late Mitsuteru Yokoyama's highly influential manga and anime series Tetsujin 28-gō, Shotaro Kaneda being the name of the series' main protagonist.
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