Japanese animation has always been a field of masterpieces, but when it comes to the masterpieces that really shocked the world.
"Aguilar" is definitely a name that cannot be avoided.
It was once rated as one of the top five animations in the world by Time Magazine, and it is also the only Asian film and animation among the top 20 science fiction films of film history selected by Wired Magazine.
Not long ago, "Aguila" was screened at the Beijing Film Festival, and it was sold out in the first minute of ticket issuance. Many fans felt regretful because they did not get tickets.
Today, let's talk about this masterpiece --
Akira
Akira
Director: Otomo Katsuhiro
Screenwriter: Otomo Katsuhiro / Hashimoto Izo
Starring: Iwata Koyo / Sasaki Nozomi / Koyama Maomi / Genda Tetsusho
Release date: 1988-07-16 (Japan)
Length: 124 minutes
This animated film, released in 1988, is not out of date today.
Among them, the futuristic urban scene is also known as the originator of cyberpunk.
At that time, "Akira" caused a sensation in the United States, and Otomo Keyang became the first Japanese animation director to enjoy international prestige.
The next Japanese animation to enter the international market will have to wait until 1995's "Ghost in the Shell".
"Aguilar" allowed the world to experience the magic of animation for the first time, overturning the long-standing stereotype that animation in Europe and the United States was positioned as a child.
To this day, it continues to influence countless animations, movies, music, TV, and games (Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix, Alita, and more) .
However, this legendary work, the most talked about by fans is-
As early as the 1980s, the success of the Tokyo Olympic bid in 2020 was predicted in the animation , and because of a "doomsday catastrophe", it was postponed.
What is even more incredible is that in addition to predicting the postponement of the Olympic Games , Akira also predicted the epidemic in the comic version.
Even the small masks that Abe distributed to the public that could not cover their faces appeared in the animation.
All these mysterious "coincidences" can't help but make people curious about Otomo Keyang, the author who predicts things like God...
Otomo Keyang is very interested in the subject of "Destruction".
Hayao Miyazaki once commented on him in one sentence——
"A supernatural teenager stands on the ruins of Tokyo, and everyone will say that this is Otomo Keyang."
Katsuhiro Otomo (Katsuhiro Otomo) , April 14, 1954 Born in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, Japanese national treasure animation director, cartoonist, screenwriter, producer.
The influence in the animation industry is second only to the "God of Comics" Osamu Tezuka.
Exquisite pictures and brain-opening plots are the characteristics of Otomo Keyang's comics.
He is particularly good at expressing high-speed motion and explosive scenes, giving people a cinematic visual experience.
In 1983, he won the 4th Japan SF Award for his work "Children's Dream", becoming the first cartoonist to win this honor (the award was only awarded to science fiction writers before) .
"Grassroots hero" is a character that Otomo Keyang is keen to create.
They are not "gentlemen" in the traditional sense, but the epitome of small and medium-sized people in the big era.
But often at a critical moment, showing extraordinary courage and courage.
The manga "Akira", which was serialized in 1983, has been released at the rate of one volume per year since 1984.
It caused a sensation among fans, and was later translated into 6 languages and distributed overseas, and was adapted into a theater animation in 1988 under the direction of Otomo Keyang himself.
After that, Otomo Keyang became an internationally renowned animation producer, and it can be said that he became famous in the first battle.
When it comes to "Aguila", it is impossible not to mention a word that has become popular in recent years, "cyberpunk" .
"Cyberpunk" is composed of the words "cyborg" Cyborg and "punk" Punk.
The former represents a technology that integrates organic and inorganic materials, while the latter is a post-rock spirit born in the 1960s and 1970s.
"Cyberpunk" is a sci-fi work that imagines the future development of science and technology and the fate of mankind, and is also an evolutionary theory that human beings are eager to upgrade their bodies through technological changes to obtain superpowers.
The bud of this desire can be traced back to Akira.
The distinctive cyberpunk style of Akira has sparked a strong interest in manga, animation, and Japanese pop culture throughout the Western world, and has influenced countless animations, films, music, television, and video games.
The first thing that was shocked by it was the Japanese animation industry.
A lot of cyberpunk-style animations have emerged for a while: "Ghost in the Shell", "Evangelion", "Gun Dream", "Cowboy Bebop", including Shinya Tsukamoto's "Iron Man" series, etc., even in The shadow of Akira can also be seen in many of Jin Min's works.
"Ghost in the Shell" and "Gun Dream" have both been filmed live-action versions by Hollywood, and a live-action version of "Cowboy Star" is also in the works.
Masashi Kishimoto, the manga author of "Naruto", has mentioned in interviews many times that "Akira" is his own animation enlightenment.
He used "overwhelming power disparity" to describe the shock and awe that Akira brought to him.
After Akira, there are more and more teenage characters with mysterious superpowers.
From "Naruto" to the popular American TV series "Stranger Things" in recent years, Eleven, the girl used as a superpower weapon, probably originated from the original setting of "Aguilar".
And "Aguilar" and "Ghost in the Shell" have deeply influenced Hollywood movies.
The director of "The Matrix" said that "Akira" is the textbook they communicated the most, and the inspiration for the bullet time effect came from "Akira".
In addition, "The City of Souls", "Midnight Escape", "The Ring Messenger", "Super Power Out of Control"... A series of Hollywood sci-fi films, even in Quentin's "Kill Bill" and Nolan's "Dark Knight" series, all The influence of Akira can be found.
The director of the 12-year-old sci-fi movie "Ring Messenger" was blunt in the interview:
"You can see a range of elements that I've borrowed from Akira to Terminator."
In his own works, there are even more tributes to Akira.
A scene from "Aguilar" appears at the end of the music video for Michael Jackson's single "Scream."
The hip-hop singer Kanye West, known as "Kan Ye", even used an entire MV to pay tribute to "Aguila".
Comparison of "Akira" and "Kan Ye" MV
Even Jay Chou has cosplayed the classic picture in "Aguilar".
Movies such as "Canis Island", "Monster Story", "Inception", "Ghost in the Shell", "Ring Messenger", "Cloud Atlas", "Out of Control", "Ready Player One", etc., all directly or indirectly report to Akira "A tribute scene.
The red motorcycle in Akira (top), the red motorcycle in Ready Player One
Hideo Kojima’s game series, Metal Gear Solid and Predator, Square Soft’s Final Fantasy 7, CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077 … all from Akira to varying degrees Got inspiration.
The character K9999 in the SNK game "The King of Fighters" has the same style as the runaway Tie Xiong in "Aguilar".
In addition to the fans around the world, "Aguilar" has also been unanimously worshipped by people in the animation industry.
The reason is, of course, its "monster-level" art production.
This masterpiece, known as one of the best animated films in history, is also one of the most expensive cartoons of the last century.
Hundreds of thousands of original paintings and the production cost of nearly 1.1 billion yen is a terrifying figure even now (1.1 billion yen in 1988) .
The astronomical production cost of 1.1 billion yen gave Otomo Keyang a great creative space.
So he chose the most primitive one-shot-one mode for painting , that is, 24 pictures per second .
The studio purposely assembled a team of 68 animators, every second to embody the aesthetics of speed and dynamics like a movie.
It is worth mentioning that the film has a total of 172,000 frames, and each frame is hand-painted by the behind-the-scenes animator.
This is an unimaginable project in today's flood of 3D technology.
However, before Akira took the world by storm, Otomo Keyang didn't expect much from it:
"I remember when I first met with the publisher of the comic, I thought it would only be about ten episodes and it would be done soon."
For the filmization of "Akira", Otomo Keyang was also not optimistic at the beginning:
"I was miserable after watching the original film and went home and told my wife that the movie didn't work out."
Fortunately, Otomo Keyang and his team did not give up production and constant revision, and we were able to see this masterpiece.
Regarding the status of this work, the manga critic Yonezawa Yoshihiro even used "before Otomo Katsuo and after Otomo Katsuhiro" to divide the history of Japanese comics.
The plot of Akira is not complicated:
Telling the future of Tokyo, Japan, the military has been secretly carrying out the "Aguila" project. In this chaotic apocalypse, the boy Tetsuo accidentally acquired Akira's super power and turned into a super monster that can destroy the world.
The simple summary is: the originally cowardly second-year-old boy obtained supernatural powers, and he pursued stronger power after being inflated, but he was eventually devoured by power.
Akira AKIRA means "bright" or "bright" in Japanese.
Akira symbolizes the power of creation of human civilization and brings hope to mankind, but in the end it is also "Aguilar" that pushes mankind to destruction.
The teenage protagonist in Akira nearly destroys the world by gaining power that he cannot control.
It is a metaphor that humans have mastered advanced technological power, but the weaknesses in human nature cannot match this technological ability.
A tragic story of the ultimate misuse of technology, leading to its own destruction.
In addition, there is another interpretation, that Japan was at the end of the bubble economy at that time, and it was the most prosperous time of Japan's "post World War II" national strength.
The whole people became rich and profligate, and the government made great efforts to carry out construction projects.
That was Japan's "Bright Age", and that's the literal meaning of the title of "Akira".
In Akira, however, this light expands and eventually becomes a devastating force.
And its source is the ever-expanding desire of the individual.
Just like a line in the film -
"Aguilar's energy exists in everyone's body, but the choice of how to use it is an individual choice."
Tetsuo chose to uncontrollably release his superpowers, and was finally backlashed by the power of infinite expansion, which also metaphors the bleak ending of the bursting of Japan's bubble economy.
After the premiere of "Akira" in 1988, Otomo Keyang went home and told his wife: This movie should be screwed up.
What he did not expect, however, was that the work not only became a success, but also became a timeless classic.
Today, it is not uncommon for tech giants to make humans wary of AI technology.
As early as the 1980s, when smartphones were not born, this cartoon warned human beings to be careful about using the technological capabilities they had mastered.
The nature of its prophecy is no less than the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.
Perhaps in the eyes of Otomo Keyang, human beings are just like the arrogant boy Tie Xiong in "Aguilar".
The end is doomed to be only destruction.
*The author of this article: RAMA
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