Bernard Ho
The story setting of Akira bears much resemblance to the time when Metabolists gathered and founded the Metabolist movement. The opening scene of Akira is an overhead shot of Neo-Tokyo in 2019, 31 years after World War III in the story (Fig 4). The scene captures a large piece of reclaimed land in the centre of Tokyo Bay. Roads are extended from coastal cities to the artificial island. Sharing lots of commonalities with the Neo-Tokyo design is the linear city plan raised by Metabolist Kenzo Tange in his Plan for Tokyo 1960 (Fig 5). Metabolism, led by Tange, emerged post-war when Japan was experiencing a boom in its population and an advance in technology. The advance in building technology on top of the booming economics had induced the Metabolists to pursue building in enormous scale – megastructure - as never before, and to strive for a techno-utopia.
Neo-Tokyo in Akira is a reclaimed island within Tokyo Bay formed by clusters of high-rise buildings. Neo-Tokyo and Old Tokyo are connected by expressways. The area of reclaimed land of Neo Tokyo in Akira, covering almost half of Tokyo Bay, is much larger than that proposed by Kenzo Tange and other Metabolists.
In reality, the reclamation area in current Tokyo Bay is about 250 square kilometres. All of these areas are land extended from seashore. A megastructure building on conventional reclaimed land in the centre of the inland sea should be impractical, as water depth reaches more than 70 meters just a few kilometres away from the seashore.
The Limits of Architectural Modernity:
A visual analysis of Akira (1988) to reveal established relations between human and machine, environment and nature manifested by Modernists and Metabolists, and to reflect upon the contemporary world.
Architecture and science fiction are interconnected bodies. Some of the fictional environment serve as architectural proposals, such as horizontal urban sprawl remapped onto vertical megastructure, while others are purely hypothetical. Science fiction writers assist in imagining the interactions between human and technology, nature and the environment, following sets of fictional but logical worldview.
In 1988, the year in which Akira was first shown in cinema, Toyo Ito credited science fiction films in presenting ever-expanding cities like Tokyo in ways that architectural drawings could not. Science fiction films are effective in showing:
1. Fictional while temporal spatial settings by illustrating successive events following the main characters. These events invite audience to think from the perspective of specific characters and follow the hierarchy in the fictional world.
2. Unstoppable transformation of cities into a labyrinth brought out by futuristic vehicles, like Tetsuo’s and Kaneda’s motorcycles in Akira, moving through streets and alleys. (Fig 3)
3. Visualisation of noise, chaos and turbulence in urban spaces drew out by machines and technology, as atmospheric properties dispersed in the background to support narrative consequences. For instance, the atmosphere of social unrest in Neo-Tokyo to build up for Tetsuo’s action of destruction. (Fig 4)
4. Countless symbols of consumerism put up in the city. Advertising signs in space are changing in form – holograms are used besides windows display and billboards. (Fig 5)
A visual analysis of Akira (1988) to reveal established relations between human and machine, environment and nature manifested by Modernists and Metabolists, and to reflect upon the contemporary world.
Architecture and science fiction are interconnected bodies. Some of the fictional environment serve as architectural proposals, such as horizontal urban sprawl remapped onto vertical megastructure, while others are purely hypothetical. Science fiction writers assist in imagining the interactions between human and technology, nature and the environment, following sets of fictional but logical worldview.
In 1988, the year in which Akira was first shown in cinema, Toyo Ito credited science fiction films in presenting ever-expanding cities like Tokyo in ways that architectural drawings could not. Science fiction films are effective in showing:
1. Fictional while temporal spatial settings by illustrating successive events following the main characters. These events invite audience to think from the perspective of specific characters and follow the hierarchy in the fictional world.
2. Unstoppable transformation of cities into a labyrinth brought out by futuristic vehicles, like Tetsuo’s and Kaneda’s motorcycles in Akira, moving through streets and alleys. (Fig 3)
3. Visualisation of noise, chaos and turbulence in urban spaces drew out by machines and technology, as atmospheric properties dispersed in the background to support narrative consequences. For instance, the atmosphere of social unrest in Neo-Tokyo to build up for Tetsuo’s action of destruction. (Fig 4)
4. Countless symbols of consumerism put up in the city. Advertising signs in space are changing in form – holograms are used besides windows display and billboards. (Fig 5)