AnimApril comes to a close as we discuss one of the most influential animated films of all time: Akira. Directed by the manga's author, Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira follows teen bikers Kaneda and Tetsuo through the neon-bathed Japanese Cyberpunk world of Neo-Tokyo. When Tetsuo has a run-in with a government experiment ESPer, his life and Kaneda's are changed forever. With anime shows like Dragon Ball, Naruto, Pokemon, and Attack on Titan owing so much to Akira for paving the way, Dan, Jess, and Avery dive headfirst into this anime classic to understand why it became the staple of pop culture we know it as today.

 

PS - Thanks for listening along to AnimApril (as short as it was). If you like these themed weeks/months, let us know, and we'll keep thinking them up!

 

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Watch Akira here:

Hulu

Funimation/Crunchyroll

Vudu

 

Theme: Hope is Not Lost (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/jim-hall/synth-kid-elsewhere/hope-is-not-lost) by Jim Hall (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/jim-hall). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Changes were made to the original work to shorten it and lower its original volume.