Why do the main characters join the Great Tokyo Empire? They've been fighting it the whole time, and suddenly they conform? Why? It kind of ruined the series for me which I otherwise loved. Could someone help?
"They don't make straightjackets like they used to. I should know..."
A few possibilities:
A. Since Tetsuo was still his friend, Kaneda decided to keep the empire alive in his memory.
B. They loved the city enough to keep the empire alive.
C. It was a "take that" to Tetsuo's reign and they wanted to create a benevolent empire in return.
D. Power. Once Tetsuo's spot faded, Kaneda saw the opportunity to run the empire for his own ends.
E. An empire was the only logical choice left in their predicament. People needed a leader who would help them and ensure that everything would be okay in such a devastated wasteland.
F. They were very protective of their city and their way of life and any outside influences would tarnish it.
Type like a genius
Talk like a drunk
But then why do they make Akira their deity? If anything, shouldn't they be hoisting Tetsuo as their spiritual leader?
"They don't make straightjackets like they used to. I should know..."
Probably because Akira was the only innocent one here and the all-mighty figurehead who caused all this to begin with.
Type like a genius
Talk like a drunk
I have mixed feelings about the manga ending, too. I think Otomo wanted to end the series in a way that suggested a new beginning. A recurring theme in the manga (and the anime, too) was the collapse of authority and the nihilism that follows - the breakdown of the family, the failure of the school system to guide youth, political corruption, etc. All of the characters we're rooting for stand in opposition to authority in some way (the Colonel became a heroic character later in the story but that was only after he lost his command). The adults blew it so it was up to the kids to start from scratch. Akira and the psychic children created a new universe, so what's left for the survivors on the ground to do? Create a new society where the old one once stood.
Kaneda kicking out the UN didn't make sense to me. Maybe the UN also represent "the old order" but they didn't really have much to do with Neo-Tokyo's predicament and I didn't understand why he was so angry at "interference" when for the most part the international community stood on the sidelines, afraid to make a move. The Americans unhelpfully carpet-bombed the place and released a biological agent to get Tetsuo but at that point the city already had two craters in it courtesy you-know-who. I just kept wondering how they were supposed to rebuild and help the survivors when they wouldn't allow outside help.
I also didn't buy that Kaneda, of all people, would take charge of the Great Tokyo Empire. Kaneda was a leader but he was not the political type. Throughout the manga he never had a goal that wasn't immediate and personal- help Tetsuo, protect Kei, avenge Yamagata, etc. I suppose you could argue that his experiences gave him a broader, less self-interested perspective but still it seemed more appropriate for Kei to take the lead. Kei was the militant, the one with her eye on the "big picture" from the beginning. I'd believe it coming from her.
Looking back, the thing that really bothered me the most was their embracing of the GTE. I still don't really understand why they did that. I really like your idea that they're kicking out the UN because it's the new order. But their inhereting the GTE is like if the rebellion immediatley took the form of the empire at the end of Star Wars.
shareI gather that they were using Akira as a boogeyman to scare away outsiders, but even so, they should have added a scene to show how this new Empire wasn't going to be a clone of the old one. Maybe a scene where the survivors are mobilized to help rebuild. I dunno.
shareIt was a needlessly ambiguous ending that I feel like Otomo didn't mean to make ambiguous.
"They don't make straightjackets like they used to. I should know..."
This is a great thread, and I'm a little late to the party.
"it seemed more appropriate for Kei to take the lead. Kei was the militant, the one with her eye on the "big picture" from the beginning. I'd believe it coming from her."
that's a very good point.
When I read the last part of the manga, when Kei is sitting on the back of Kaneda's bike, it didn't seem right to me.
Kei is the stronger character out of the two, and Kaneda was always trying to impress her and get her attention.
it seemed wrong for her just to (seemingly) become his trophy woman.
although, maybe after everything, he earned her respect and trust.
My cat can eat a whole watermelon!
I think there's a bit of symbolism regarding the real world in what happens at the end of the manga. Katsuhiro Otomo is known (and admits) to have been strongly influenced by american movies and comics before making Akira - even his drawing style is a lot more westernized than mast manga out there now or back then: the proportions are much more realistic and this even holds true compared to other more mature mangas like Evangelion, which still present a more stylized, traditional drawing of the characters.
In that sense, I think Otomo did a great job of taking what he loved about the american pop culture - namely the high-octane action pumping at all times and the daredevil characters - and also to a certain extent the anti-establishment sentiment in favor of individuals, while japanese culture is A LOT more community-oriented than the american. In this sense, the ending with Kaneda accepting the food but sending everyone else away so they can rule themselves is sort of like the author saying, in some level: "thank you for all the inspiration but don't come here expecting us to become a slave to your culture; we'll take what we like and we don't need you to oversee or help us with anything, we can do it our own way, just as well as you do". This is especially relevant considering he had just ended his masterpiece and, frankly, it kicks ass. No american comic back then (and even now, I think) can compare to the genius of his work.
I may be reading too much into it but I think my theory explains why it is there and why it closes the story even when it seems so out of place, as most people commenting here seem to agree. It's more of a message to the audience - both japanese and american, making it painfully obvious that this work of art is japanase at heart and proud of it! It doesn't just take the ideas Otomo liked from american culture and creates a manga based on it - no, it takes a few of those ideas and creates an entire new thing based on japanese culture - and becomes a cornerstone for all new manga.
I had not the feeling they "joined" it, but that they made now their own one, still pretty similar to Tetsuos empire. Kaneda (and also his friends) showed many times towards anyone, even their allies like Miyako and the resistance, that they respect no kinds of authority over them. Next step: take over Tokyo.
But what I did not like so much was the little "montage" where they drive along the roads with their bikes and somehow the city was rebuilt with the huge skysrapers.
The story is a direct allegory of post war Japan.
You have a gang of teenage delinquents, all born after the Akira incident, that are being coerced to attend vocational schools in order to work in industrial plants. There appears to be little adult male supervision. The young men ride around on Japanese motorcycles emblazoned with the logos of Japanese industry and the US Air Force. Meanwhile, a stadium for the Olympics is being built and it is literallycovering up the 'sins of the fathers'.
The actual Tokyo Olympic games took place 19 years after WW2, and it was a watershed moment in the reintegration of Japan into the global community.
Much is made of the connection between the Akira phenomenon and the atomic bomb, but that is really too simplistic a reading. Akira represents power. The government of Japan lusted after power and brought about the destruction of Tokyo. Elements within the government want to resurrect Akira and return to power and glory. Rebels against the government want to seize/reveal Akira and use it to their own ends in overthrowing the government. Even religion is tainted by Akira, as Lady Miyako herself is a product of the Akira project. The UN is willing to use all means necessary (including biological weapons) to ensure that Akira doesn't rise again. Akira himself is literally mindless power.
At the end of the story, the young people who were born post-Akira take over. They reject the power of Akira. Tetsuo puts aside (or grows past) his anger at the previous generation and abandons our universe. Kaneda never wanted anything to do with that crap anyway. The old war veteran had seen too much, so he walks away. And then the young people of Japan reject the UN, preferring to stand on their own, and rebuild their country on their own terms, free of those who would wish to return to the past.
And even religion is changed. Kei has powers, but hers is unique. It channels the power inherent in all people. Rather than being a source of psychic/supernatural power (read 'divine' power), religion becomes reflective.
I think after they fought and died for their city they don´t want an foreign armed force in it.
And i don´t think the Akira they choose as their symbol was not the empty shell Tetsuo used. It was the Boy that helped them absorb Tetsuos power.