So, I watched Akira for the first time in a few years, and strewth... it's now set in the past. Like Blade Runner (now also set in the past; where's our blimmin' flying cars we were promised) it's set in 2019.
Also, in Akira's world, the 2020 (Neo) Toyko Olympics didn't take place (presumably) although here it's not a virus stopping it, rather a big explosion destroying the stadium and much of the town...
It's got me to thinking about movies set in the future becoming the past, and how accurate they are when we catch up with them, and really, the answer has to be; not really that accurate at all.
This is, of course, because these movies aren't intended to be predictions of the future, and rather than predictions they're more like a projection of our current fears extrapolated and taken to an extreme.
Akira, from the 1980s, was created in a Japan still reeling from the atomic bombs of the second world war, and their impacts. The comic, and film, even starts off with an atomic bomb exploding, and devastating, Tokyo (hence it being set in Neo Tokyo). These fears that this could happen again were still present at that time.
And you probably find similar extrapolations in other films, too... maybe I'll explore this topic more in future posts.
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