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Is Otomo a visionary ?

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A new step inthe building of the Throne of Akira

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As you do know, I am working on a book about the explanation of Akira the movie. I need sometimes to act more than think to catch the essence of the spiritual part of the movie. Then I decided to build the throne of Akira in order to help me to understand the symbol. I started to build this before knowing that Tokyo will be the place for the 2020 OG...

Share the pics and leave comment .

I dedicate this too all animefans around the world and to all Akira fan especially. Wallo 11.37.04

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Because I decided to write a book "Akira The Explanation", sometimes I need action more than reflexion to understand this anime.

This video is dedicated to all animefan and Akira fans around the world. 

Enjoy.

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Akira the explanation : BEGINNING OF A DEEP THOUGHT

Genesis

Maybe you felt disappointed when you watched Akira the movie the first time. Well I have good news, you were not alone in this case. Many people around the world said something like «  What did I watch ? » after they watched the movie. In France in the early nineties, Akira was the beginning of a new cultural movement : The Animefans.

Writing about AKIRA is not really my own idea. That is more the circumstances of life that led me to do it. I joined the team of the french newspaper Animeland by writing an article about Dr Katz professional therapist when Yvan West-Laurence (editor in chef) wanted me to write an article about AKIRA the movie. I did not exactly know why did Yvan wanted me to write about AKIRA, but I thought about one thing : such a responsibility ! A heavy one. A heavy responsibility because during many years (20 years exactly) , I focused my mind on AKIRA the movie and developed thesis about the script, the characters, the deep sense of quotes like “We just didn't have the power... But someday we will be... Because we have already begun.” , the explosion of Akira and the dreams inside it, the speech of Kei when she is in jail with Kaneda, the right arm of Tetsuo and why not the left one, the birth of the universe at the end of the movie... I was really motivated, but finally frustrations came to my heart. Why ? Because I did not succeed to talk about my feelings and understandings in four pages.

The turning Point : Puppet Master-Akira / Major KUSANAGI-Tetsuo

How Ghost In The Shell made me understand AKIRA the movie ?

In the night of a day of March 2001 an event showed me the way to understand Akira. I could watch on a french TV channel Ghost In The Shell directed by Mamoru Oshii. Ghost In The Shell ? On TV ? In france ? Wow ! I just did not believe that but I watched the entire movie. I have to be honest because the first time I watched Ghost In The Shell, I slept. Not that the movie was not interesting but I watched it in bad condition. In the early morning of a day, without a mind and a brain ready for this experience, I fell down in a deep inception, lol.

But this time, by watching Ghost In The Shell on TV, my mind was ready to be concentrated on the plot. Remember, when the Pupet Master starts to talk with the major Kusanagi at the end of the movie, I could match this sequence with the end of AKIRA. This was so obvious that until today I wonder why no-one did not talk about it. How could I say such a thing like this ? Thinking by analogy is one of my favorite way to make sense, to understand, to resolve problem or enigma...

In fact we all use analogy. For example we are all able to connect a song to a feeling or an emotion, or remember when you were a kid playing with those classic toys with basic form, happy to fit a cube with a square, a sphere with a circle... Of course basically I use analysis when I start thinking about concept or whatever you call that. But I have to admit that analysis is limited by my own representation, my goal is to make sense about what I watched and AKIRA the movie is more than a basic philosophy discussion : I WANT TO UNDERSATND, understood !!! Lol ;).

Of course I tried to use deduction too. But Without a huge japanese cultural knowledge deduction was not enough. By the way, even if I am french one (or A.E for African European lol) I am still thinking that universals laws rule the world and by understanding these universals laws, combined to the analogy process you can understand everything. That is my feeling, my way of life.

The analogy is about the fusion. In AKIRA the movie, Akira and Tetsuo merge physically and in Ghost In The Shell Puppet Master and Major Kusanagi merge their “mind data”.

In AKIRA the movie, the moment is about when Tetsuo is out of control. The three child called Akira to help Testuo. Then a fusion is necessary to resolve the problem. In Ghost In The Shell, Puppet Master estimated that the best way to survive was about merging his “mind data” with Kusanagi experience.

The hidden face of the Movie

The enigmatic AKIRA the movie scene found a resonance here. This quote : “ Why continually repeat this cycle? Simply to survive by avoiding the weaknesses of an unchanging system.” (Puppet Master/Ghost In The Shell) is in interaction with “We just didn't have the power... But someday we will be...Because we have already begun.”(The three powered kids /AKIRA)

Did I go too fast ? Ok, let's replay. Three conditions lead me to see the analogy. First, the both scene took place in the “ancient” Town. Old town in Ghost In The Shell, Old Tokyo in AKIRA. Second, three unit are involved at the this climax : couple in fusion and a witness. In AKIRA the Movie Kaneda is the witness and in Ghost In The Shell Batoo is the witness. You can refute or contradict by saying that Batoo is outside where Kaneda is inside. But the analogy is about that only the witness knows what happen and at the end of both Movie. Only external character is aware about what happen. But the couple unit ? Male (unit1) /female (unit2) for Ghost In The Shell, Pure energy (AKIRA and The three children, unit 1 )/ Non-pure Energy (Tetsuo, unit 2). In other word the archetype of duality. Third, the fusion phenomena is a univocal one in both movies. Akira absorbs Testsuo, Puppet Master takes control of Major Kusanagi. Forth, the both quote I mentioned before. Humm, sorry guys. I need more pages too explain this part without vulgarization. But keep that in your mind : as complex is the universe, life is a Cycle. ;).

By the way, I considered that to explain AKIRA is now really possible. There are so many things to talk about but the end of this both movies launch the idea of a deep common point that I can call today ARCHETYPE. If archetype is a universal law, that is mean that is possible to find it in different cultures, sciences, disciplines or even spiritualities. I am sure that some archetypes are deeply involved in AKIRA the Movie. Then if archetypes are involved in the script that is possible to mention it without necessary being japanese. I am not japanese but feel so connect to the plot that I think only universal notion could do that.

Thanks for reading.

Wallo 113704.

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AKIRA : THE EXPLANATION !

Is that just a tagline or am I go crazy ?

I do not intent to give you the absolute explanation about the movie Akira. By the way I was 16 years old when I saw Akira for the first time and I would have loved that someone explains me what I have had just seen. In August 1991, when I left the cinema I had more questions than answers in my mind. I naively believed that I would find the answers in the manga. But even in the manga there was nothing to satisfy my curiosity. Anything that could explain why I understood something deep without being able to say what I understood !

I almost decided to abandon the idea that one day someone explains the depth of this masterpiece. But on the other hand, I'm fed up to live in a world where as soon as an artistic work off the beaten path, the only argument is often the freedom to interpret in its own way.

The problem is that I do not have this freedom. Because I was unable to interpret Akira the movie in my own way... Something else talks to me in this movie and that is not " my point of view of the movie is...". The movie is connected to universal understanding but I do not know how to explain it. That is like that an obvious reference is not given to the viewer... I did not know how to explain this feeling... Not until today ;).  

The other argument often used is to deny that there is something to understand. That is just a cartoon movie, nothing more. I try to accept this "intellectual" behavior about "pain in the neck".  In this case I would like someone to explain what is the human brain if not to at least give meaning to its environment and all life experience. To think is a fundamental function of the brain... And I want to use it the best as possible.

But more I watched the movie, more I was able to understand unconsciously. That was my F---ING problem about Akira the movie. But what could I do by understanding unconsciously  without sharing what I understood. Not a word pass my lips, imposible to enlighten my own feeling but I understood the movie. Damn!!

I finally concluded with this question: "Do people did see the same movie than me ? " 

Maybe I am the only one who saw ideas that even Katsuhiro Otomo never thought about ? 

The movie is full of universal notions or references. How is it possible that a movie have so many universal references without being consciously or unconsciously thought by someone. What are these universal laws involve in the story ? What is the meaning of the intention inside it ? 

Without knowing it, a part of my life was guided by this movie. Indeed from 1991 till 2011 a deep reflection moved in the meanders of my consciousness. In 2000, after the publication of my first article about Akira in the french magazine Animeland (N°53, July 1999), I decided to choose this movie as subject of university report as the validation of my Master's degree of cinema.

Although I completed my memory I did not argue. A thing annoyed me particularly: the writing of the university reports wants that the impersonal form dominates the report. In other words the use of "I" is almost forbidden in favor of impersonal form value of objectivity.

The problem is that except me, in priori, nobody investigated this movie as I did it within the framework of the release of my future book under noisy title " Akira: The Explanation ".

Because I wanted to assume my point of view by using the most subjectivity as possible,  I denied the defense of my master's degree thesis. In the context of university, the impersonal form is almost like a self-denial. Nevertheless it is me who has lived a unique experience with this cartoon. Then, why denied it on the pretext of objectivity? Not that I disparage the need to be objective, but being only objective for me is not Being ! My goal is to express what I felt by seeing this film and how it had a major impact in my life ...

This preamble is necessary in order to make you understand that the book that you will read, it will be written with my heart and subjectivity more than objectivity.

Therefore why the title of the book will not be AKIRA: My explanation. Simply because, unless proven otherwise, any work proposed The Explanation which I shall so much have wanted to read or to hear for more than 20 years. Then, first come, first served!

Walo 11.37.04.