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The heated conflicts between America (and its allies) with North Korea are hotly discussed recently. Some even predict that the conflict could trigger a 3rd World War (hereinafter written PD3).

It is terrible to talk about, let alone imagine what will and can happen in PD3 and how the world after it. We certainly hope and pray, hopefully it will not happen.

However, if there are readers who are curious about how things are after the PD3, maybe the old animated film titled Akira can give you an idea of ​​how the world came after PD3.

Animated film Akira

Akira was originally a manga created by Ootomo Katsuhiro, a manga artist who is also a story writer as well as a film director. The Akira manga was first featured in Young Magazine's weekly comic magazine beginning August 1982 and ending in 1990.

Then in 1988, animations made based on the manga were shown in theaters. The ending of the animation is different from the manga version, since the animation is made and aired before its manga series in comic magazine ends. The cost spent to make the animation quite fantastic is about 1 billion yen, with workmanship that takes about 3 years.

Akira recounts the events that occurred in 2019, ie 31 years after a new type of bomb detonated in the Kanto area in July 1988, which then triggered the PD3. The condition of Tokyo after the PD3, was destroyed, so the new megapolitan was built with the name "Neo Tokyo" with a location in the bay of Tokyo. The "old" Tokyo that was destroyed was called kyuushigai (old / old city). Neo Tokyo is preparing for the Olympics, which will be held in 2020.

Yes, the 2020 Olympics!

This is an interesting fact. Because in fact, this time Tokyo is preparing for the implementation of the Summer Olympics in 2020. A coincidence is not it?

Could it be Ootomo as the author of the Akira manga, he has supernatural powers (the power that is also the focus of manga / animation) so that he can predict what will happen in the future, especially about the Olympics?

Summary of story path

At the beginning of the animation, a scene of a vocational training school student was shown by Kaneda, then his colleague Tetsuo and other friends were on the road with motorbikes on the highway. Then suddenly appeared a strange-looking kid in the middle of the road, making Tetsuo who was driving a motorcycle with high speed startled and fell.

Then came the soldiers who then brought a strange-looking child, as well as Tetsuo, who was still unconscious after the accident. Soldiers are actually experimenting with supernatural abilities against some strange-looking people like little kids. They were made guinea pigs by soldiers.

Tetsuo, although previously was not anyone, was taken by the army to be a guinea pig as well. But it turns out in the future, Tetsuo can have terrible supernatural powers. His strength can then match, even beyond the power of "Akira" which is a key element of the army's experiments.

Kaneda as Tetsuo's best friend along with Kei who is portrayed as a rebel guerrilla girl, sought to save Tetsuo who was held captive at an army facility. However, Tetsuo avoids Kaneda by using his supernatural powers. Tetsuo with his own ambition, trying to go to the place where Akira is stored in an underground facility located under the area to be used for the Olympics.

Both Kaneda and his colleagues are trying to prevent Tetsuo's wishes. But Tetsuo managed to get into the facility and "free" Akira. Here it turns out that it turns out Akira only tangible brain tissue stored in a preservative solution.

Soldiers who tried to attack Tetsuo, were paralyzed and helpless against Tetsuo's supernatural power. With his strength, Tetsuo's body gradually became big and his physical form turned into a scary. Ultimately, however, some people who have supernatural powers and have been the guinea pigs of the army have helped Kaneda. They then jointly defeated, then get Tetsuo out to another dimension.

Content that goes beyond the Animation dimension

Like most Japanese animations whose content is somewhat "difficult" to digest, apply also in this animation.

We can see that in addition to the science fiction elements, there are also some other elements such as the political upheaval, which is about the rebellion that happened to the government. The religious aspect is also alluded to in the storyline. Paintings about the tragic drama of humanity can also be felt here.

Then, all these elements are combined with the energy of the overwhelming youth. This is in line with the energy emitted by New Tokyo, which is trying to rise from the devastation caused by PD3. Because there are elements of young children, then we can also enjoy the spice romance and love in it.

All the elements, with the shrewdness and skill of the storyteller and the director, are interlocked with the limp of a samurai like a shrewdly plays his katana (sword). The dynamics of the plotline look neatly arranged, although in some scenes, the audience can feel like "poked" by the director's katana, with little surprises.

Scrolling from one scene to another scene, takes place dynamically and quickly. This dynamic scene revolt contradicts the habits of other Japanese filmmakers, Kurosawa Akira (who also happens to have Akira's little name too). Kurosawa usually likes to gradually change the scene, and prioritizes the power of characters with his dialogues, as well as the static atmosphere of a scene played by the artist.

Apart from the story, of course, precision and accuracy and detail of the animated graphical depiction, is one thing that can not be missed.

For the Akira animated film, I do not think any other animation can match the power of stories plus the skills of the animators to translate the story into animated live and very detailed images to describe an event. Though the animation was released almost 30 years ago!

What message will be delivered through Akira?

This animation in my opinion would like to tell the effects of the war that not only resulted in the amount of "physical" damage, such as destroyed buildings, but can also affect the "mental", for example orang2 then experience trauma and live in the emptiness.

Although the development is already visible again, but still there are side effects that arise such as homeless rampant, trash scattered, chaos arising, etc.. In the case of politics, politicians are also concerned only with their own interests. Then, the new religious organization with its sweet mouth to take the hearts of society, also adds to the complexity of the problems.

But in the midst of people's despair, there are still people who want to build the world to a better direction. These people (represented by people who had supernatural powers who were originally guinea pigs) then used their power to jointly counteract ambition and greed (depicted by Tetsuo's character) in order to build a better world of the future.

Apart from that, the most important thing to pick is, destruction is not the end of everything. If we do not give up and always try, then we can turn destruction into a beginning and hope to build a better world in the future.