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The release of “Akira” can be historically linked to what is approximately the height of Japan’s economic boom and sudden ascension in world influence/positionality. The site is heavily associated with death and destruction, marked by the massive and eerie crater left behind. “Old Tokyo” refers to the site of impact and its surrounding areas. While real-world Tokyo, and Japan as a whole, exploded into a thriving metropolis within mere decades of the war, the Neo Tokyo of “Akira” was reduced once more to rubble by the turn of the century. This premise depicts the potential consequences of another nuclear-like disaster.

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” The movie takes place in Neo (“New”) Tokyo 31 years after World War III, during which a new bomb had been invented and exploded over Tokyo. Time-skip to 1988 to the airing of one of anime’s most seminal works: “ Akira. Kinjo questioned what peace really meant when living under occupation and why the lives of people who have hurt others should be defended. They were not truly Japanese but were not American either. The shift in narrative displayed in “Ultraseven” can be attributed to the trilogy’s lead writer Tetsuo Kinjo who grew up in Okinawa, which was under heavy US military control when he was growing up. Instead, they were complex and capable of greater thought and reasoning. Villains were no longer straightforward monsters.

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The show took what had been the standard black-and-white portrayal of good versus evil in shounen (young boys) anime series and turned it all gray. Morally, the themes explored in anime evolved in complexity with the debut of “ Ultraseven ” of the “Ultraman” trilogy. Simplistic though its general plot may be, the show also represents what became a common theme in all of anime: Humans vs. “Astro Boy” is the first anime to have achieved mass popularity and depicts a young robot boy fighting bad guys. Our relationship with Japan in the modern day is heavily influenced by our consumption of their media, which in turn is heavily colored by the history of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and military occupation following the end of WWII. Mushroom clouds appear in just about every episode of “ Time Bokan ,” for example, as the villains blast off into the sky after defeat (think Team Rocket from “Pokémon” ).

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References to and inspiration from the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can be found throughout all of the last 75+ years of animated series and movies coming out of Japan, from “ Astro Boy ,” “ Ultraman ” and “ Ultraseven ,” “ Doraemon ,” “ Time Bokan ,” “ Akira ,” “ Neon Genesis Evangelion ,” “ Code Geass ,” to “ Attack on Titan ,” just to name a few. As a field and art form, however, Japanese-made animation didn’t really take off until the post-war period, and influence from that period of time still reverberates throughout the entire culture of anime to this day.

Western animation first appeared in Japan in 1909, and the appearance of the first Japanese-made animation followed closely behind, in 1915.

Let’s start with the basics, of course: Anime.

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Why am I bringing this up though? Because what better way to contribute to a brand-new column on Inkstick meant to explore the connections between random and fun (or sometimes serious) pop culture phenomena or icons with nuclear weapons and national security than with a brief glance at the medium that’s defined over half of my life so far?Īs much as I want to write a full 50-page thesis discussing the manifestations of the influence of the nuclear weapons age in Japanese anime, I’ll spare you with a superficial history of how Japanese anime got started, a brief look into a handful of titles, and shout-outs to the vanguards of the Harajuku aesthetic and fellows protestors who skip class to read manga and watch anime (myself not included in the skipping class part though *winkwink*). If you’ve been unfortunate enough to follow me on Twitter prior to June of this year, you’ve probably seen anime spam I post on main, but fear not, for I’ve officially moved all cringe-worthy “Haikyuu”-fangirl content to a separate account now.

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If you don’t know what that term means then you’re lucky, but for the sake of public education, it’s a somewhat derogatory term used to describe mega-fans of Japanese comics and animated TV series or movies referred to as manga and anime respectively. Frankweiler ),where we link pop culture to national security and foreign policy, is all about one of the columnist’s biggest passions: Anime. This month’s installment of Inkstick’s new monthly culture column, The Mixed-up Files of Inkstick Media (inspired by From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs.