AKIRA
AKIRA starts with motorcycle riders and military experimentation in Neo-Tokyo, then turns a conflict between friends into a question about power and control. This entry concerns the 1988 feature film, not a complete guide to the manga.
The setup
Kaneda tries to recover his friend Tetsuo after an encounter with a strange child leads to military detention. Experiments awaken dangerous abilities in Tetsuo. The distributor’s synopsis locates the main action in an imagined 2019; MADB records the film’s original Japanese release on 16 July 1988.
Sources: Crunchyroll: AKIRA synopsis and 4K release context · Media Arts Database (MADB), National Center for Art Research · Selected/processed by GIZUMO
A useful comparison
An editorial pairing with Summer Wars brings out two ways animation treats technology: power concentrated in bodies and institutions in AKIRA, and dependence on a networked everyday world in Summer Wars. This is a critical reading prompt, not a claim that the films share a universe or that one adapts the other.
Choose the version deliberately
AKIRA contains strong violence and disturbing imagery; consult the classification for the edition and country in which you will watch. Check whether a listing is a subtitled or dubbed film, and which restoration or transfer it uses. A streaming-service upload date is not the production date. This guide does not verify availability in your region or compare disc masters.
Editorial sources, scope and rights
The English reading guide and its stated sources only. Original source dates, rights, identity limitations and live-status fields remain separate.
Original GIZUMO editorial text and limited factual paraphrase. Linked reference pages retain their own rights; the source-data licence below does not license their text or images. No source photographs, film stills, scans or maps are reproduced.
- Media Arts Database (MADB), National Center for Art Research · Selected/processed by GIZUMO
Identity and factual fields in the preserved dated source record; no new live-status verification
- Crunchyroll: AKIRA synopsis and 4K release context
Premise and explicitly stated work/edition information
Preserved source record and metadata
Original title: AKIRA English title supplied by the source. Selected creator credit: Katsuhiro Otomo Original selected credit: [監督]大友克洋 Publisher/distributor source credit: 東宝 Source publication date: 1988-07-16 Source metadata modified: 2024-11-25 11:21:32 (timezone not supplied) Prior reviewed selected credit retained from exact text in schema:contributor; not an exhaustive staff list. Publisher means schema:publisher, not animation studio. English credits are retained only for exact matching source text. Source: MADB, National Center for Art Research, pinned official release 1.2.20. Original MADB metadata is freely reusable under its dataset-specific permission statement; GIZUMO selected and processed these metadata fields. No complete archive, covers, film stills, characters or underlying-work rights are claimed.
- creator
- Katsuhiro Otomo | [監督]大友克洋
- publisher
- Toho | 東宝
- release Year
- 1988
- original Title
- AKIRA
- source Date Published
- 1988-07-16
- source Modified Text
- 2024-11-25 11:21:32 (timezone not supplied)
Media Arts Database (MADB), National Center for Art Research · Selected/processed by GIZUMO