Characters[edit]

Shotaro Kaneda ( Kaneda

Shtar) A carefree gang leader who has a
custom-modified motorcycle. Kaneda and
Tetsuo have been best friends since early
childhood. He is brash and not above teasing
Tetsuo despite feeling affection for him as a
younger brother. Upon rescuing Kei, Kaneda
becomes involved in the activities of her
group of anti-government guerrillas in hopes
of locating Tetsuo.

Tetsuo Shima ( Shima Tetsuo)

Kaneda's best friend since preschool and the
second principal subject of the story's theme.
Tetsuo is shown as a black sheep in the gang
that he is part of and quietly suffers from a
deeply rooted inferiority complex. Tetsuo
admires Kaneda yet at the same time
strongly resents his own reliance upon him.
After his psychokinetic abilities manifest,
Tetsuo quickly becomes Kaneda's nemesis;

he desires Kaneda's motorcycle (a symbol of

status and power) and seeks to prove himself
supremely powerful, without need of
protection. Eventually, his power overwhelms
him.

Kei () A young revolutionary whom

Kaneda meets and becomes enamored with
during his quest to find Tetsuo. She is a
member of an anti-government faction that
Ryusaku and Nezu are also involved in.
Initially, she does not possess any
preternatural abilities, being manipulated by
the Espers as a type ofmedium on several
occasions, but upon coming in contact with
the Espers' powers, due to their power
constantly being channeled through her, she
gains powers of her own.

Colonel Shikishima ( Shikishimataisa) or simply known as The Colonel The

current head of the ongoing government
project which was responsible for

inadvertently unleashing Akira's power thirty

years earlier. Appearing tough and ruthless,
he is nevertheless pragmatic enough to
recognize the danger Tetsuo's fledgling
powers pose and cares genuinely for the
three Espers under his supervision. Amongst
the other government figures depicted in the
film, he is shown to be the most principled,
eschewing the corruption and hedonism that
typifies Neo-Tokyo, adhering instead to a
strict code of soldierly honour.

The Espers Masaru (, codename

#27), Takashi (, codename
#26) and Kiyoko (, codename #25)
Akira's fellow psychic test subjects. They
exhibit a variety of paranormal powers which
they use to influence the course of events to
the best of their ability. While individually of
lesser strength than Akira or Tetsuo, their
combined effort proves decisive in the story's
final confrontation. Physically, they resemble

children with wrinkled faces, white hair and

blue-green skin.

Akira (, codename #28) The titular

character. Akira was a young boy who
developed transcendent psionic, god-like
abilities when serving as a test subject for
secret government ESP experiments in the
1980s. He subsequently lost control of this
power and the ensuing blast completely
annihilated Tokyo in a horrifying explosion in
1988. After the apocalyptic event, Akira was
recovered and subjected to every test known
to modern science, which proved unable to
solve the mystery. He was dissected and
placed within a cryonic chamber underneath
the Neo-Tokyo Olympic Stadium.

Nezu () A government mole for the

resistance movement, and member of NeoTokyo's parliamentary executive council.
Responsible for Takashi's abduction by the
resistance and supplying intelligence to the

underground, he is nevertheless corrupt and

unprincipled, and quickly turns against his
erstwhile revolutionary allies in a fit of
paranoia during the Colonel's coup.

Yamagata () One of the most

prominent members of Kaneda's gang. He
often chides Tetsuo playfully, resulting in his
death when Tetsuo's powers begin to
emerge.

Kai () Another member of Kaneda's

gang, Kai plays a minor supporting role in the
eventual battle against Tetsuo. He is close
friends with Yamagata and they remain
together when the gang breaks up, being one
of the only members to survive.

Kaori () Tetsuo's girlfriend. She

stands by Tetsuo even though he treats her
abusively in the hopes of appearing tough to
his friends. When Tetsuo begins his rampage
through Neo-Tokyo, she follows him, and
when his powers manifest and cause his

body to warp and expand to grotesque

proportions, she is engulfed in his flesh and
crushed by his organs.
Voice cast[edit]

Any pseudonyms used by cast members are in

parenthesis.
English (Electric
Chara Japanese Media/Kodansh
cter

(1988)

a/Streamline,
1989)

Shta
r

Mitsuo

Kane Iwata
da
Tetsu
o
Shima

Nozomu
Sasaki

English
(Animaze/
PioneerGeneon,
2001)

Cam

Johnny

Clarke (Jimmy

Yong

Flinders)

Bosch

Jan
Rabson (Stanley
Gurd Jr.)

Joshua
Seth

Kei Mami
(Kay) Koyama

Colon
el
Shikis

Morris)

Wendee
Lee

Jamieson

Tar Ishida Pope (Anthony Price (Jam

Mozdy)

Docto
Mizuho

nish Suzuki
i
Rysa Tessh
ku

Cody (Deanna

Tony

hima

Lara

Genda (Te

(Ryu/ tsusho
Roy) Genda)
Kiyok Fukue

Lewis
Arquette (Lewis
Lemay)

Steve
Kramer (Drew
Thomas)

Melora

o (No. It (Sachie Harte (Marilyn

es Lyon)

Simon
Prescott (S
imon
Isaacson)
Bob
Buchholz (
Robert
Wicks)
Sandy Fox

25) It)
Takas
hi

Tatsuhiko

(No. Nakamura
26)

Masar
u (No.
27)

Kaori

Barbara
Goodson (Barbar
a Larsen)

Cody
MacKenzie

Kazuhiro
Kamifuji (K
azuhiro

Bob Bergen

Cody
MacKenzie

Kand)

Yuriko
Fuchizaki

Yama
gata Masaaki
(Yama kura
)

Lane)

Barbara
Goodson (Barbar
a Larsen)

Tony

Michelle
Ruff (Geor
gette
Rose)

Michael

Pope (Anthony Lindsay (D

Mozdy)

ylan Tully)

Matthew
Kai

Takeshi
Kusao

Mercer (Ma
Bob Bergen

tt
"Masamun
e" Miller)

Nezu

Hiroshi
take

Tony
Pope (Anthony
Mozdy)

Mike
Reynolds (
Ray
Michaels)
William

Miyak Kichi
o

Kitamura

Steve

Frederick

Kramer (Drew

Knight (Wil

Thomas)

liam
Frederick)
Steve

Inspe Michihiro
ctor Ikemizu

Bob Bergen

Staley (Ste
ve
Cannon)

Skip
Eiichi
Watan
abe

Tar
Arakawa

Jan

Stellrecht (

Rabson (Stanley Henry

Gurd Jr.)

Douglas
Grey)

Mitsur
u

Yukimasa

Kuwat Kishino
a

Tony
Pope (Anthony
Mozdy)

Jonathan
C. Osborne

Eddie
Yji
Takey
ama

Masato
Hirano

Frierson (C
Bob Bergen

hristy
Mathewso
n)

Army Kazumi
Tanaka

Steve

Kurt P.

Kramer (Drew

Wimberger

Thomas)

(Kurt
Wimberge

r)
Haruk
iya Ysuke
Barte Akimoto
nder

John
Bob Bergen

Snyder (Iva
n Buckley)

Production[edit]

While working on Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo did

not intend to adapt the series outside of the
manga; however, he became 'very intrigued'
when he was offered to develop his work for the
screen.[3] He agreed to an anime film adaptation
of the series on the grounds that he retained
creative control of the project - this insistence
was based on his experiences working
on Harmagedon. The Akira Committee was the
name given to a partnership of several major
Japanese entertainment companies brought
together to realize production of an Akira film.
The group's assembly was necessitated by the

unconventionally high budget of around

1,100,000,000, intended to achieve the
desired epic standard equal to Otomo's over
2,000 page manga tale. The committee
consisted of publisher Kodansha Ltd.,Mainichi
Broadcasting System, Inc., Bandai Co.,
Ltd., Hakuhodo Incorporated,
distributor Toho Co., Ltd., Laserdisc Corporation
and Sumitomo Corporation who all
forwarded MONEY and promotion towards the
movie. The animation for the movie was
provided for by animation producers, Tokyo
Movie Shinsha Co., Ltd.[4]
Most anime is notorious for cutting production
corners with limited animation, such as having
only the characters' mouths move while their
faces remained static.Akira broke from this
trend with detailed scenes, pre-scored dialogue
(wherein the dialogue is recorded before the
film starts production and the movements of the
characters' lips are animated to match it)[5] a

first for an anime production, although the voice

actors did perform with the aid of animatics[6]
and super-fluid motion as realized in the film's
more than 160,000 animation cels.[4] Computergenerated imagery was also used in the film,
primarily to animate the pattern indicator used
by Doctor nish, but it was additionally used to
plot the paths of falling objects, model parallax
effects on backgrounds, and tweak lighting and
lens flares.[6]Unlike its live-action
predecessors, Akira also had the budget to
show a fully realized futuristic Tokyo.
The teaser trailer for Akira was released in
1987. The film was completed in 1987 and
released in 1988, two years before the manga
officially ended in 1990. Otomo is claimed to
have filled 2000 pages of notebooks, containing
various ideas and character designs for the film,
but the final storyboard consisted of merely 738
pages.[6] He had great difficulty completing the
manga; Otomo has stated that the inspiration

for its conclusion arose from a conversation that

he had with Alejandro Jodorowsky in 1990. He
later recalled that the film project had to begin
with the writing of an ending that would bring
suitable closure to major characters, storylines,
and themes without being extraordinarily
lengthy, so that he could know in reverse order
which manga elements would make the cut into
the anime and thus suitably resolve the
manga's various elements into a lean, two-hour
story.
Otomo is a big fan of Tetsujin 28-go. As a result,
his naming conventions match the characters
featured in Tetsujin 28-go: Kaneda shares his
name with the protagonist of Tetsujin 28-go;
Colonel Shikishima shares his name with
Professor Shikishima of Tetsujin 28-go, while
Tetsuo is named after Shikishima's son Tetsuo
Shikishima; Akira's Rysaku is named after
Rysaku Murasame. In addition, Takashi has a
"26" tattooed on his hand which closely

resembles the font used inTetsujin 28-go. The

namesake of the series, Akira, is the 28th in a
line of psychics that the government has
developed, the same number as Tetsujin-28.