Akira and Ghost in the Shell (Case Study)

Abstract

Up until the late 1980s, Japanese anime had gone mostly unnoticed in the west and it fell to cyberpunk film, specifically Katsuhiro Ōtomo's Akira (1988) and Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell (1995), to change the western perception of animated films forever. Seen in the west mainly as children's films, adult animated films were not unheard of but never had the same success or 'coolness' that Akira brought to western viewers. As Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell note: "Akira was fundamental in changing audience perceptions of what animation was and, importantly, what it had the potential to be" (9). And while Akira introduced western audiences to adult anime, followed by a wave of controversies regarding violence and overt sexual content, by the time Ghost in the Shell hit the screens, audiences worldwide had become appreciative of Japanese anime.Christopher Bolton argues that Akira "marks the beginning of a Japanese renaissance in long-form theatrical anime for more adult audiences […as well as] the beginning of the latest and largest anime boom in North America" (17). Ghost in the Shell, however, is a "popular and critical