While Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner remains one of the most respected in the genre, another sci-fi film that hit in the ’80s might be just that much better. Scott released Blade Runner in 1982, a movie starring Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, a cop who hunts down renegade cloned replicants that have gone rogue. He ends up on the trail of a replicant named Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), and, in the end, there are serious questions about who the victims and the bad guys are.
However, just six years later, a similar movie was released, and it has possibly developed a better legacy than even Blade Runner, but with an entirely different fan base. That film was Akira, a Japanese animated cyberpunk film based on the manga series of the same name by Katsuhiro Otomo. Just like Blade Runner, Akira is also set in a neo-noir atmosphere, this time following a man named Tetsuo who has telekinetic powers and threatens the military complex holding peace in this society.
Akira Is A Better Neo-Noir Sci-Fi Movie Than Blade Runner
Akira Took What Blade Runner Did And Improved On It
Released in 1988, Akira is based on a manga and is an animated cyberpunk film by director Katsuhiro Otomo. However, similarities between the two might be based on Blade Runner influencing the manga, which came out in December 1982, six months after the movie hit theaters. That makes it sound like the timeline was perfect for the Ridley Scott movie to have influenced Otomo. More likely, a short comic called The Long Tomorrow likely influenced both Blade Runner and the Akira manga, at least as far as the visuals.
The stories are very different, as Blade Runner is based on the 1968 Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The Akira manga takes place in Neo-Tokyo three decades after an explosion destroyed much of the city. The main characters are a motorcycle gang and a young man named Tetsuo, who has telekinetic abilities that threaten to ravage the city. The two movies’ stories are very different, but it is the look and feel of the film that bears a close look.
It is Akira that has stood the test of time better than Blade Runner.
Blade Runner is the film that popularized cyberpunk movies, but then Akira came along later and perfected it. There are differences, as Blade Runner is more contemplative, but both are smart tales that create a world that sweeps viewers into something not even their imaginations could have come up with. Both films are masterpieces for different reasons. However, when looking at the two, it is Akira that has stood the test of time better than Blade Runner.
Akira’s Influence On Cinema Is Even Bigger Than Blade Runner’s
Akira Changed How Cyberpunk Movies Look
The main reason that Akira stands tall above Blade Runner is that it has a greater influence on other films than the Ridley Scott release. Blade Runner took what previous film noir releases did and inserted these techniques and visual flourishes into the world of sci-fi. However, Akira did something different. Akira took what Blade Runner did and then went even further, developing what people think of when they see cyberpunk today.
Blade Runner influenced movies when it comes to the storylines. Akira influenced movies, both animated and live-action, when it comes to the cyberpunk genre. The cyberpunk dystopian film has a clear influence on everything from Chronicle and Inception to Terminator, Dragonball Z, and more. Blade Runner created a storytelling ideal, but Akira is a film that created the look of an entire subgenre. Both are masterpieces, but Akira is historically a better film than Blade Runner thanks to its standing over time.
