Akira is one of the most influential anime of all time. After more than 30 years, the movie still holds up as a bastion of storytelling and incredible animation, and there are a lot of things in pop culture that wouldn’t exist if Akira hadn’t existed first.
More than in any other space, anime has been most affected by Akira, and it shows in subtle ways in many of the anime we watch today. But there are also specific references to Akira in several of our favorite animated series. Here are 10 references to Akira that we found in other series.
10 Roujin Z
It should come as no surprise that Roujin Z has references to Akira, as it was written by Katsuhiro Otomo, who wrote and drew the manga that the Akira film was based on. The references to Akira in Roujin Z are subtle and also not subtle at all. The film deals with some of the same themes, also taking place in a futuristic vision of Japan and explores themes around technology and class. The main character, Haruko, who is a nurse in a geriatric facility, even rides a scooter, making sure we draw comparisons to the main character of Akira and his iconic bike.
9 Urotsukidoji III: Return of the Overfiend
Urotsukidoji III: Return of the Overfiend has some of the same plot points as Akira, and it’s hard to imagine that a film that came out just a few years after Akira was in theaters wouldn’t be taking some cues from it, considering the influence and popularity it already had at that stage.
One of the big points that feels particularly like it was inspired by Akira is the fact that the titular Overfiend is asleep in a city while there’s chaos and tyranny happening around him, not unlike Akira himself. It’s only to be expected that the endings of the films are also similar in tone, with Akira and Overfiend respectively intervening in the living world.
8 Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Shell is a classic anime film in its own right and has certainly influenced its futuristic sci-fi drama ever since its release in 1995. Similarly to Roujin Z, Ghost in the Shell follows in Akira’s footsteps, taking place in a heavily militarized futuristic setting, where cyborgs live side by side with humans and shifts in power and chaos are constant. The two films deal with many of the same themes, including terrorism and gang violence, and both feature a cool protagonist who wears an awesome jacket and isn’t all that they seem to be.
7 Spriggan
Spriggan had Katsuhiro Otomo on board as a story supervisor, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that this film feels a little like Akira, just like Roujin Z also does. This one even more closely follows the concept of the film, with a similar plot as well as similar themes.
The film follows the story of child soldiers engineered in a secret operation, not unlike Akira. The main character, Ominae Yu, looks a lot like Kaneda, the main character of Akira, even wearing a pretty similar red suit that reminds us of him. This seems like an overt reference to acknowledge the similarities between the films.
6 Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi
This is a much more lighthearted reference to Akira than earlier examples. Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is a story about two young friends who get trapped in a journey that takes them to bizarre fantasy and sci-fi worlds that seem built on one of the characters’ interests in otaku culture. In one of these worlds, they see a collection of science fiction figurines and toys. Among them is Tetsuo’s head. This is a pretty fun and cute reference to Akira and also an acknowledgment of the film as being essential to science fiction anime.
5 Code Lyoko
Code Lyoko is not a traditional Japanese anime as it was created by a French animation studio. Still, the series is clearly heavily influenced by anime, even featuring characters with Japanese names and anime tropes and animation quirks. It’s also hard to deny anime’s influence in it’s very first episode, “Teddygozilla.”
In the episode, one of the main character’s has a teddy bear, which is possessed by the series villain XANA begins to grow larger, a direct reference to Tetsuo’s nightmare in Akira in which a teddy bear does the same thing.
4 Teen Titans
Again, we realize we’re pushing it a little bit on calling Teen Titans anime, since it was a series produced in the U.S. But similarly to Code Lyoko, the anime influences on Teen Titans are obvious from the art style and animation techniques, and the theme song is even sung by a Japanese pop group. Teen Titans has referenced Akira at least twice. In the movie Trouble in Tokyo, the team witnesses a sumo match, and in the crowd is a character wearing Kaneda’s iconic red jacket with the pill on the back. In Teen Titans Go!, the episode “Starfire The Terrible” features Robin fighting a villain while riding a motorcycle. Some of the shots in the scene are shot-for-shot references to a similar fight Kaneda has in the film.
3 Shin-chan
We’re pretty surprised by this one too, but we probably shouldn’t be. Shin-chan is a comedic show full of silly jokes that poke fun at just about everything, so it should come as no surprise that it also worked in a little joke about one of the most popular anime films of all time.
Shin-chan and his family live in Kasukabe City in Saitama, a neighboring prefecture to Tokyo. In a gag in which they go to the future, Kasukabe has become Neo-Tokyo, the name of the city in which Akira takes place.
2 Punch Line
Punch Line is the most recent anime series on this list, having come out in 2015. The comedy adventure series follows a boy with spiritual powers who can possess a great amount of strength if he sees a girl’s panties. But if he sees a girl’s panties twice in quick succession, it brings a meteor down on the world that destroys it. Punch Line takes a comedic look at the same themes as Akira, particularly how having spiritual or esper powers can cause endless destruction and chaos. The main character even dresses in red and has dark hair to make sure we don’t miss that this is a funny look at the same kinds of themes.
1 Metropolis
Metropolis is another one that we just can’t leave off the list. It follows others on this list, Roujin Z and Spiggan as a film that was created by the creator of Akira, and the film shows in its handling of similar issues. We could almost say that Otomo has his pet themes that he keeps coming back to, which all remind us of the work he did in Akira. Metropolis features a futuristic world in which humans and robots live together, until robots realize that perhaps they’re more powerful. A character suddenly finds that she has an incredible amount of power and decides to use it to destroy not just the city but the earth itself. If this isn’t a direct response to the themes at work in Akira, we don’t know what is.