Japan movie magic: how anime Akira influenced Stranger Things and The Matrix, and predicted Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympics and cancelling them
- Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 anime Akira is one of the most influential sci-fi stories ever made. A 4K restoration of the film has just been released on Blu-ray
- It predicted Tokyo’s hosting of the Olympics in 2020, and the cancellation of the event. A live-action remake, long mooted, has yet to see the light of day
When the phrase “Just cancel it!” began trending on Japanese social media platforms in late February – a reaction to the difficulties the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was facing with the coronavirus pandemic – one thing was clear: Katsuhiro Otomo’s stunning film Akira has not lost one shred of its impact over the past three-and-a-half decades.
First published in 1982, Otomo’s six-volume manga series, which led to his celebrated feature-length anime six years later, has long been hailed as one of the most influential sci-fi stories ever written. Everything from The Matrix to Stranger Things has drawn from its well. But as time has gone on, this cult cyberpunk tale set in “Neo-Tokyo” has felt increasingly prophetic.
Set in 2019, 31 years on from World War III, Akira deals with secret military projects, psychic children, hallucinations and at one point, a terrifying flesh mutation. But Otomo’s future vision also features bureaucratic corruption, attacks on press freedom and anti-government demonstrations and riots – the latter liable to chime with anyone who has lived in Hong Kong this past year or so.
In truth, Otomo was alluding to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II and the 1964 Olympic Games, held in Tokyo, when Japan reasserted itself on the global stage. But when the pandemic began to spread, eagle-eyed fans couldn’t help but nod to one scene in the film where “Just cancel it!” had been painted underneath a countdown clock that showed 147 days until the event began.