Re-watching Akira (1988) as An Adult
It feels nostalgic yet very different. The contradiction was not necessarily mean that there is a logical inconsistency in experience but to be precise there were some parts of it which felt very nostalgic but some other parts felt like i was watching a completely different movie as what I watched before. This has been the exact same experience as i re-watched other old anime I watched growing up.
Akira began like most of old movie you watched growing up in the 90s. A distinguished big title at first, classic font, heart-pumping music, and at the end you don’t really know if it is a good or a bad movie (just like every Tarantino’s movie). The fact that I realized these should be enough proof that there are things that you start to notice as you watch more movies, experience more things in life, and growing old.
The red motorcycle that almost looks very similar to the reddish color of the supreme logo becomes the symbolic things I immediately notice. The motorcycle has become the representation of the movie as if that motorcycle is the movie itself which is not very true.
This technique is known as MacGuffin (Term popularized by Alfred Hitchcock). Things like Briefcase, holy grail, statues are often used and become the character’s motivation. It drives them to move on, it becomes their goal, it justified their action and etc. But at the end of the movie that things can be forgotten easily.
The title of the movie Akira was also as iconic as that motorcycle itself. For those who hasn’t watched the movie, they probably think that the one riding the motorcycle is named Akira but he is not (for those who hasn’t played The Legend of Zelda would also make the same misconception about the main character’s name). Just like briefcase that Vince and Jules carried in Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in a way that it moves the plot but at the end it is not that important.
As i was re-watching the old anime I realize that the theme was a complete different than what I thought it was when I grew up. My 15 years old would never think that Akira was about the concept of rebirth, science, physics, chaotic post-apocalyptic society, the effect of war, juvenile delinquency, and bullying. The same as who would have thought that Ghibli’s Spirited Away was about prostitution, kidnapping, and violence. I just thought that the they are doing ad adventure in which they meet new friends and do some stuff together.
This is also probably the reason why watching Avatar Korra and Avatar Aang feels very different for me. I watched Avatar Aang as teenagers and at that time it was more about adventure, being goofy, and the epicness of Bender’s battle but Avatar Korra gives a complete serious vibe of various theme like Anarchy, fascism, the effect of modernization, discrimination and etc. Now that I think about it Avatar Aang also has some serious theme.
it was mind-blowing mostly because Anime or most people known as cartoon is very closely related to children and movie for children should not be taken seriously. At least this is what I think my parents were thinking that time (this was what I was thinking that time too). These days, even if I watch Spongebob Squarepants I can’t help but being suspicious about the theme of the episodes (remember the episode when Spongebob and Patrick adopts a baby clam and he suddenly turns into woman and Patrick becomes the irresponsible father who neglect them or when Sandy becomes the object of Spongebob’s stand up comedy routine and being portrayed as stupid because she came from Texas, Yes, let that sink for a moment).
The world of Anime is vast and wide. It is not only for children and will never be only for children.
