MovieChat Forums > Akira (1988) Discussion > Reason behind the cover art?

Reason behind the cover art?

posted 12 years ago by snakeye355
7 replies | jump to latest

first let me say that i fully understand the movie and i think of it as classic...took me a while (seen it multiple times and read peoples opinions and exlpanations on the forums) to get it but i still have one question to ask and if anyone can answer it please do so...why is the cover art for Akira of kaneda and his bike? you would think the cover would feature the akira chamber or tetsuo but they went with kaneda whom testsuo feels inferior to...what is the significance to this?

[–] Brokenail22 12 years ago

What do you remember from Akira, boy ?

[–] putowithcheese 12 years ago

Because he's the character the target audience of mostly young adult men admire and relate to. His design has immediate impact. Pretend you're just looking at the cover and you've never seen the movie before. You see Kaneda confidently striding toward that bike and you know right away what kind of guy is. He has a determined swagger. Tetsuo isn't designed like that. He is juvenile in an off-putting way, like an overgrown kid. You don't know what to think of him. Even after his powers awaken and he has that long feral hair and the red cape, he still doesn't look effortlessly cool like Kaneda does. He just looks like a kid playing dress-up for a part that's too big for him. His awkward design fits his personality and his role within the story perfectly, but it makes him a bad poster child.

[–] snakeye355 12 years ago

wow thank you for explaining that...makes so much more sense now since you explained it flawlessly..I should've known after all that it was kaneda that was the root of all tetsuos insecurities and problems...he always aimed to top him but never could, even with all his powers

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Etherdave 12 years ago

This promotional art is derived from the original manga. The capsule jacket and red electro-bike are iconic images of the series.

[–] HalBanksy 10 years ago

Because it looks awesome.
It's eye-catching and iconic, without giving away anything about the film.
One of my favourite cover art designs.

[–] twofacetoo 9 years ago

Personally, I think it's for two reasons

1. Kaneda is basically the main character. He's the one that we follow for most of the story, and we see most of the events from his perspective. Tetsuo is just the main character's friend, Kaneda is THE main character.

2. The bike can be described as a symbol of Tetsuo's desires. It's established several times how much he likes it and wants to own it, and in the finale Kaneda even says that if he wants the bike, he can have the bike. It's a symbol for Tetsuo and how, in the end, he's greedy. He wants things, he wants power, he wants control. Maybe not enough to kill people for it, but one he starts mutating, there's nothing to stop his greedy desires from becoming his ONLY desires.

At least, that's my interpretation of it.