Cinematic Scene Analysis: Comparing Dystopian Futures in 'Akira' and 'The Time Machine' Anonymous 11th Grade

Akira and the Time Machine, despite both being films that deal with versions of the future, contain many similarities and differences in terms of the themes associated with this coming time, due to their stark differences in their production context. Akira is a 1988 Japanese film, that depicts a war-ravaged alternate version of Tokyo, that through its cinematic devices presents themes of the effects of an oppressive government; being inequality, youth and adult disconnect, pigeonholing and decay. The Time Machine is a 1960 Hollywood sci-fi film that follows an inventor from 1900 that goes forward to the distant future, that, through its own cinematic devices, depicts themes the effects of loss of knowledge and being docile; those being deterioration and loss of control.

To begin, Akira, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, deals with a future that, after ravaged by a nuclear weapon many years previous, is stunningly high tech at the top, but deteriorating physically and ripped apart by gang warfare at any point (economically) below. This future raises themes of the effects of an oppressive government, those being; inequality, a disconnect between the adults and the youth, and a constricting and pigeonholing society. These key ideas of...