Dangerous Characters: Tetsuo

Happy fourth of July! I hope you'll get to catch some fireworks tonight but in the meantime, as you can see, I decided to celebrate the holiday spirit by introducing a character who is known for his Neo-Tokyo-shattering kaboom. Thanks to him, not only did the city get destroyed a second time (thus the re-christening to "Neo-Tokyo") he also managed to cause plenty of trouble beforehand, destroying anything that got in his way, both as a power-crazed psychic, and before that as a biker-gang delinquent, in the film Akira. It's a call back to a late 1980's cult classic, so allow me to introduce our newest initiate, Tetsuo.

If you aren't familiar with the story, then it can come as a bit of surprise that the title character isn't the one that causes the most damage on-screen. But it's true. At first, Tetsuo is just this bosozoku member who happened to run afoul of the authorities after encountering some strange (and oddly, grey-haired and wrinkled) kid during a motorcycle accident. Because no one figures he'll be missed if they use him for a test subject, the government holds him prisoner and subjects him to some tests that turn him from a troubled teenager into a telepathic, telekinetic, power-crazy psychopath. During the course of the film, he quickly becomes a danger to himself and everyone around him as his power increases. The army is eventually powerless in his wake. Guilty and innocent alike are slaughtered for getting in his way, and the worst part of it is, eventually, he can't stop the carnage, even for people he doesn't want to hurt. Thank goodness he's just a one hit wonder (at least in the movie). Otherwise we'd all be in trouble. If you were unfortunate enough to be in Neo-Tokyo for this film, well...    let's just say you were out of luck in the survival department.

Image taken from Akira.

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