The epithet ‘cult classic’ is thrown around a lot these days, in relation to everything from a new Adam Levine song to the latest innovation in mobile housing. It literally means something that has garnered a cult-like club of devout followers willing to vouch for the alleged ‘classic’ status of the phenomenon with whatever it takes. So calling something a ‘cult classic’ would mean that it is certifiably a phenomenon which will bear a modicum of influence on the foreseeable future. Coming back to Akira now: is it really a cult classic?
Undoubtedly, it is. Why? What exactly is it about ‘Akira’ that has transmuted it into a cult classic which still manages to stay in the news over 35 years after its debut as a manga?
Dystopia
In the late 70’s and early 80’s, which was when ‘Akira’ was being developed and eventually published by Katsuhiro Otomo, our world was undergoing a lot of political upheaval which wasn’t necessarily visible to the average person. Widespread paranoia was one of the main consequences of this phenomenon. Everybody feared a war on a global scale with nuclear weapons which opened up genocidal possibilities, a war which they might never see happen since there was every chance that they would be vaporised before knowing it. This paranoia especially haunted the already bitten society of Japan. Japan had already seen nuclear war and even as unlikely as it may be for any other country or society, they rose up. Yet, in undergoing that brutal experience of nuclear attack, Japan acquired a sort of knowledge that no other nation could boast of. The knowledge of staring apocalypse right in the face and living to tell the tale. And ‘Akira’ is that tale : a tale of horror and hopelessness. That definitely shapes the setting of ‘kira’ in the cyberpunk dystopia, which has since then gained great popularity but, it is still a dystopia.
Anarchy and Excess
“A dying world accumulates laws like a dying man accumulates remedies”. And in a dystopian society where everything is falling apart, the obvious reason is that there are simply too many regulations and laws. Rebels rise up proportionately to the number of rules. It is the age-old paradox of a world where there there is widespread starvation as well as glaring excess, coming to an end. This also happens to be another reason why ‘Akira’ is a cult classic : it taps into the frustrations of living in a world with more regulations than ever before. The main crew of characters are all rebels in one way or another and by the end of the story, it is made apparent that rebellion too had became the rule.
Action
‘Akira’ is action-packed. It is riveting to say the least. Therefore, there is awesome scope for the much-touted Taika Waititi adaptation which appears to be shelved temporarily. The high-octane chase sequences and the simply larger than life set-pieces aside, the plot too progresses at a brisk pace and manages to find the balance between plot and characters.
Metaphor
It is apparent that a lot is going on underneath the plot-layer of ‘Akira’ which manages to connect with readers and viewers. There is a hint of the biblical apocalypse couples with the spirituality of Buddhism but, ‘Akira’ really extrapolates the collective psychosis of all religions when it comes to matters of global destruction, especially at the hands of a seemingly omnipotent anthropomorphic being – here, the eponymous ‘Akira’.
So, ‘Akira’ is in these and more other ways a cult classic and predicts the psychology of other cult classics which came out later like ‘Neon Genesis: Evangelion’ and ‘Watchmen’.
