AKIRA: Film/Trailer Study

AKIRA is one of the most renowned anime films that has clear Sci-Fi elements, made in the 1980's. Scenes from AKIRA have even been recreated in the music video of Stronger by Kayne West. AKIRA is now having an American Live action film being made for 2013! However, many fans of AKIRA are very sceptical about the live action film, as a lot of them think it will become too 'americanised', here is an example of someone's (comical) perception of what the film is going to be like:


Brief Summary of the film:
The film is set at a time called Neo-Tokyo, and is based around a group of teenage boys in a biker gang. The two main characters Kaneda and Tetsuo become involved in a secret goverment project, the film is about their struggles on their friendship as Tetsuo goes through the phases of madness as they try to find out, what really is AKIRA?

Analysing the trailer without sound Since this is an old film, this was the best quality trailer I could find, which was made for the bluray rerelease.


The trailer starts off with an establishing shot of a city with lots of skyscrapers,

then two quick flashes of shops/places with holograms as signs. Next we see a close up on someone's hands on a motorbike, accelerating, quick close up on the bikes wheel, with sparks flying, then a medium close shot, of a boy on a red bike, we can already presume this is a main character of the film as he speeds off, with others following, showing that he is the leader. Pan up, close up on motorcyclist,

halting to a sudden stop. Little blue boy, walking across the road, spotlight comes onto him, looks like he's going to get hit. A shot from behind the blue, to confirm that something is coming towards him.

Screaming motorcyclist, close up on blue boy's hand, says the number 26, this could possibly be important later on. Suddenly a giant explosion as the boy on motorbike runs into the blue boy.

Bright flash of light. Boy in some sort of medical machine, close up on a man of authority and a scientist. Running girl in water, spotlight on her, clearly not innocent. Horrifying image of a bear with liquid coming out of his eyes and body.

Boy gone mad, holding his head. Two quick cuts, shots of a religious protest possibly, maybe a cult. Boy shooting towards camera, fallen? First time we see a blue girl, lying in a bed. Tracking POV shot running through a corridor. The boy is hospitalised, we can assume he's also a main character, crashing/destroying the corridor.

Soldiers being destroyed, another shot of boy gone mad, attacks 3 blue people.

A guy on a flying machine picks up girl, the same guy as earlier on the motorbike at the beginning of the film. Mad boy rises up from fire, it's quite clear he's gone mad now, turns to look at camera. Tank. Military aiming at boy, boy produces a forcefield,

deflecting the lasers- lasers showing we're clearly in the future. Destroyed bridge, Tank destroyed, Soldiers Destroyed. Big machine starting to work,

who was once before powerful, boy is acting scared. Blown up bridge, close up on evil boy,

Motorbike boy from beginning jumping up shooting laser at evil boy. New character introduced to the trailer, riding a motorbike, we can therefore presume he's in the gang with the leader. Boy look, girl scared. Evil boy getting shot with laser, lots of quick cuts. Boy with laser aiming,

shoots the camera. AKIRA comes up as the title.