The Importance Of The Color Red In Akira

The film Akira is a cyberpunk movie made in Japan in 1988 directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, and is well revered to be one of the most iconic films for the genre. The film had inspired the works of The Matrix, and Stranger Things. It’s a classic film with impressive animation, especially for the time it was produced in. I had recently watched it and was blown away by the experience that is this film. It’s fast paced story and transition from one scene to another kept me on the edge of my seat. What I noticed that stood out the most though was the films use of the color red, and how prevalent in the film.

Directors use a variety of tools to create film such as lighting, camera angles, and color. This film is shines with a wide variety of color that gives it such intense imagery, but what I noticed most about the film was its use of the color red. It has such a heavy use in the film and is used in affiliation with a few key characters. What I interpreted was that the color red is supposed to represent power, and any character who wears or is red is supposed to a person who controls power.

The intro is a perfect example when we’re introduced to the protagonist Kaneda who wears a bright red jumpsuit and drives a bright red Motorcycle. He is the leader of the biker gang ‘The Capsules’. The opening scene highlights his skill as a driver, and performance in biker gang fights. He wears the color red because of his influence of his gang and performance as the gang leader, and his influence as the main protagonist in the story.

The Next character who is affiliated with red is Tetsuo, one of Keneda’s friends who is a member of ‘The Capsules’. After a bike accident where he crashes into a child with psionic powers, he gains new psychic abilities. After escaping from a military hospital he goes on a rampage through Neo-Tokyo wearing a red cape. This cape that he dawns upon himself is to show the new psychic powers that he had acquired.

He uses this cape and his powers to cover up his flaws, hiding the pain he feels and his insecurities. Later in the film he has a robotic arm that he had constructed out of scrap metal after losing his right arm. When the technology from his arm starts to attach to whatever it’s touching and draw the concern of Tetsuo’s girlfriend Kaori he covers it up with his cape, this represents his attempts to hide his flaws through his newfound power.

The third character is another main protagonist, the rebel named Kei who works with an anti government movement. She is shown in the beginning of the film wearing red, and represents the political power of the revolution and the tension that it creates in the Neo-Tokyo government. This tension is what puts so much pressure on another character Colonel Shikishima, and is what leads to an uprising against government forces. Kei is dressed in red because she is such an essential part of the revolutionary movement that creates so much tension in the story.

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The fourth and final character is Akira himself, who appears at the very end of the movie, and in a few brief scenes hidden inside his container that has sealed him away. When visited in the beginning, the audience is introduced to a large metal sphere that is said to contain Akira inside. The container is colored a cold blue steel, but there is a single red light that is lit underneath his name written on the front. The light is to represent his power, even though contained, that lies dormant inside it’s container.

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At the end of the movie Akira is awakened and reforms from collected tissue samples that had been preserved for scientists in the future to experiment on and better understand. When he resumes a physical form, his entire body is red. Akira is supposed to symbolize ultimate power within the film that is remarked to be the power of god. Akira is a physical manifestation of raw power, and is colored red to represent that fact.

This was an amazing film that is a commentary on Japanese post WWII concerns about reconstruction and newfound power. I would highly recommend it because it is regarded as a pillarstone in animation, and an inspiration for many other movies and films. Fair warning to some people who are squeamish, there is a large amount of body horror in this film and surreal imagery that can be very intense for some people to watch. But I would highly recommend this movie for anyone who loves film or animation.