Annecy Classics: Akira

To celebrate 100 years of Japanese animation, the Festival invites you to come watch an anime classic, Akira.

A timeless cult classic, Akira revolutionised the manga scene when it was first published in 1982. With its theme of a post-apocalyptic world and its fast-paced narration, the manga sparked emulation and continues to be considered a game-changer in the history of the genre. Evidence being that Katsuhiro Otamo received the Grand Prix from the Angoulême Festival in 2015, an unprecedented distinction that recognised the influence manga has had on France’s comic book culture.

After encountering substantial success, the author himself directed the film adaptation in 1988, transposing the adventures of Tetsuo onto the screen.

Loyal to the manga series, the film takes un into the year 2019, set in Neo-Tokyo, which was devastated by a nuclear explosion thirty-one years earlier. The city is thrown into a state of chaos with no end in sight, where the streets are filled with bloody protests and biker gang wars. A biker named Tetsuo is an orphaned teenager whose life changes after he crashes when trying to avoid hitting a strange child with an old face.

Although the film went basically unnoticed when it was released in France in 1991, Akira remains a major film that has left its mark on several generations. As part of the special programme paying tribute to Japanimation, the festival invites you to come and (re)discover this futuristic sci-fi classic that revolutionised a conservative Japan in the 1980s.

"Short Cuts" Arte Court-circuit

As an opener to this Annecy Classics special programme, discover an animated short based on a classic film and made as part of "Short Cuts" from Arte’s Court-circuit: Short Cuts "Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey", animated by Zaven Najjar.