Hello! Man, Tumblr really likes chewing on my asks for a while...
To answer your question, I would say I'm pretty fond of Berdly. I don't know that I would go out on a limb and call him my favorite character. Deltarune is one of those games where I have a bit of love in my heart for most of the cast, and that includes Berdly. I like that his design faintly resembles Falco from the Star Fox series, and while he may have his moments of being annoying or obnoxious to other characters, he rings so familiar to me as someone who was also an awkward, nerdy gamer as a kid. I see bits of my younger self and other kids I knew growing up when I see Berdly, and that makes me a little nostalgic and appreciative of what he brings to the story.
Kaori births the new universe at the end of the Akira film
This is actually a detail I’m kinda shocked isn’t more well known. A part of the issue might actually be the films English localisations because I’m not sure either of them actually realised what is happening in Tetsuo’s transformation.
Tetsuo's transformation symbolizes the disappearance of the boundary between humans and the environment. The same goes for life and death. Involving/engulfing/warping Kaori was meant to show how small human emotions/concerns are.” -Katsushiro Otomo Quick Japan magazine 1997
“Kaneda: what the hell is this “Akira” thing you keep talking about?
Kei: He said that Akira is absolute energy
Kei: Humans……they do all kind of things during their lifetime,right?
Kei: Discovering things….Building things…..things like houses, motorcycles…bridges, cities, and rockets..
Kei: All that Knowledge and energy.. Where do you suppose it comes from?
Kei: Humans were like monkeys once right? And before that like reptiles and fish… and before that plankton and amoebas….
Kei: Even creatures like that have incredible energy inside of them.
Kaneda: Because of genes, I guess
Kei: And even before that, maybe there were genes in the water and air. Even in space dust, too, I bet. If that’s true, what memories are hidden in it. The beginning of the universe perhaps, maybe. Or maybe even before that…
Kei: maybe everyone has those memories..
Kei: What if there were some mistake and the progression went wrong…. And something like an Amoeba were given power like a human’s?
Kaneda: That’s what Akira is?
Kei: Amoebas don’t build houses and bridges….
Kei: they just devour all the food around them…
Kaneda: That’s what Tetsuo’s doing? You’re saying he has that kind of energy?”
Basically Akira is absolute energy, Tetsuo is consumptive energy and regular people are creative energy. Akira and Tetsuo are cosmic evolutionary anomalies. Kaori is a regular person.
“Kei: What if there were some mistake and the progression went wrong…. And something like an Amoeba were given power like a human’s?” This line is a double meaning it’s also referring to Kaori.
Chainlinked fence scene
“Tetsuo: Let’s runaway
Kaori: where?
Tetsuo: Someplace, Someplace faraway.”
The fact that Kaori is framed as completely see through and unacknowledged and voiceless in the film is deliberate.
Tetsuo is essentially a kind of cosmic parasite that consumes energy until he just explodes. That is why he has his mutation in the climax of the film. Neither Tetsuo or Akira are capable of creation. The birth of a universe at the end of the film is an outright contradiction to what they are metaphysically capable of. Except Kaori is the deliberately unacknowledged missing piece of the films ending. Rewatch Tetsuo’s transformation in the original Japanese voice track and understand that there are actually two personalities inside of Tetsuo after Kaori gets swallowed by the vaginal shaped flesh crevice and the entire meaning of the sequence will change. They are both speaking through Tetsuo’s voice, morphing through his form, feeling each other’s pain. Even the mutation track itself which ritualistically chants Kaori and Tetsuo’s names until becoming a mass of distorted screaming that unionised together. Otomo is a audio and visual genius, Tetsuo’s transformation is a deliberate optical illusion, realise the one detail that there are two personalities inside of Tetsuo after Kaori is swallowed and it becomes an actual masterpiece of abstract dual expression of personalities. Doctor Onishi literally figures out what is happening and is about to comment on it and the film deliberately cuts him off. I’m not sure exactly what Tetsuo and Kaori feeling inside of that transformation but it feels violatory. Kaori is the one showing Kaneda the memories. The film literally tells you because she is framed in the same shot as Kaneda as children in Tetsuo’s first memory.
Kaori’s voice Seiyuu Yuriko fuchizaki is the one who sings the Nemure(rest/sleep) lullaby at the end of requiem, after Neo-Tokyo’s destruction. She says Nemure Akira, Nemure Tetsuo, Nemure Kodomo Mina (children everyone). The final scene of the film is the Big Bang of Kaori’s universe with Boku wa Tetsuo being a line that can be lost in translation. It implies childishness and humbling not absolute power, it does technically translate to I am Tetsuo but the irony of Japanese phrasing is lost, Tetsuo has lost his power to the girl neglected and took for granted.
I just wanted to mention this because not enough people know that this is the actual canonical intended ending of the film.
Kiyoko “Akira’s power exists within everyone”
This ask is in reference to these asks (1, 2, 3), I believe.
Putting my response under a cut since this is already a long post.
Reader beware: This post discusses spoilers for Akira. Read at your discretion.
To avoid repeating too much of what I've said in previous asks, I definitely agree that the English dub lost certain meanings in the localization process. That's the sad thing about translation - some concepts just don't carry over as well into a language or culture that lacks the context for it. Akira is no exception to that. Honestly, it's a part of why I wasn't too excited when I saw those articles about the US adaptation of Akira that's supposedly in the works. Not to say that Akira isn't relatable to Western audiences, but that the losses involved in such an adaptation aren't worth it, in my eyes (plus, I really don't trust Hollywood to do that movie justice, but that's a whole other topic).
Okay, I am so thankful that you were able to recall the name of that magazine! I did a very brief search on Duck Duck Go. If my findings are correct, then Quick Japan magazine appears to still be in publication. You can check out their home page here. What's more is that they appear to have their older issues available for sale, too. Clicking on the "Back Number" option on the home page leads to a catalog of previous issues, going back to issue # 001. According to the site, Quick Japan magazine published their first issue in 1994.
So, if I have the right site, then it's possible to get a copy of that 1997 issue containing that quote! Unfortunately, I'm not fluent in Japanese, and I don't know if they ship outside Japan.
Ugh, it'd be so awesome if someone shared that interview online in full one day. Ah, well.
See, I'm still kinda lost, though. Kaori's fusion into Tetsuo happens during a moment where the lines between people, their environments, life and death are supposedly blurred, yet her fusion is still meant to show how "small human matters/emotions are". Is that to mean that the question of whether Kaori "died" is ultimately meaningless, because she's becoming or is part of something greater (the stream, perhaps)? I don't know. Again, the presentation of her fusion scene gives me pause, but I've already gone over that.
So, to me, that scene between Kaneda & Kei is supposed to be an adaptation of the conversation between Tetsuo & Lady Miyako in Vol 4. Gonna take a minute to revisit that scene.
After Lady Miyako explains the history of the Akira project, Tetsuo tells her he still doesn't understand why Akira is so strong. Lady Miyako then asks Tetsuo to consider explaining where his own power comes from. She says Tetsuo can move or destroy things with only a thought. She goes on to describe regular people as being short-sighted, not able to see the bigger picture - that everyone is part of a larger stream or current. When in the presence of such power, regular people recognize it for what it is and cower in fear. Nevertheless, the current that dwells within us all is one that follows a given path, and that path remains constant. So, to me, what that means is this:
Tetsuo might appear like a disruption in that path with everything that he does in both the film and manga, but at the end of the day, the stream (or the universe) will redirect and continue on its own course. Neither the government, nor Tetsuo (or really anyone) can ever be in control of the stream so long as they exist within it.
To me, that is the meaning of the conversation between Kei and Kaneda - the common thread that is shared between all forms of life can be a source of power. This power has boundless potential because it is dynamic in nature. However, for all that a break in the progression may bring things to a halt (I.e. an amoeba or human being granted the powers of a higher being), the stream will ultimately continue on its definitive path regardless of what those within it try to do.
To get back to what you're saying, yeah, Otomo is a directorial genius for what he pulled off with Akira, and the fusion scene is a key example of that. Between the voice acting, the vocal effects in the background music, the animation, it all comes together beautifully to create this moment in the film that stays with the viewer. The soundtrack to this movie is one of those scores that I can revisit time and time again, and those parts of the fusion track where their voices blend together always gives me chills.
Okay, so you bring up Doctor Onishi realizing what's happening, and I imagine you're referring to that device with the spinning waves that he keeps looking at, right? This thing?
I'm definitely gonna rewatch this movie later this year, because I do want to watch for that again. I have it on Blu-ray, but it's in storage right now.
What I find amusing is that while reading your ask, the thing that got me to reconsider things was the "Boku wa Tetsuo" part. Of the little that I know about Japanese, I know pronouns have these tones or meanings to them. It's definitely lost in English because we don't have gendered distinctions when referring to oneself. So, the "ore wa" vs. "boku wa" is kinda missing (though I do think the tone Joshua Seth delivers that line with is a decent attempt at translating that idea).
As for why this interpretation of the ending as it pertains to Kaori isn't more common among English-speaking fans, I think that comes down to people watching a movie without that cultural context that someone more knowledgeable about Japan, its history and culture might have. Also, buddhism is a religious minority in America, so any ideas coming from that practice likely flew over the heads of many viewers (myself included).
Although I maintain my disagreement, this is a case where I'm happy to be proven wrong if it means Kaori got a more important role in the movie. That's a change that I would welcome wholeheartedly.
Sorry this is the person who told you about Kaori being fused with Tetsuo, I actually didn’t see you respond. Kaori definitely isn’t being killed here, she’s being swallowed or forcibly fused into Tetsuo. It’s weird but the entire stadium sequence uses visual coding of arms to communicate it. Pretty much every single shot or frame of kaori in the stadium even before Tetsuo starts transforming is framed through shots of either her hand/arm or being framed through shots of Tetsuo’s arms. He literally reach’s his arm out to her while calling her name, the film is basically communicating to you to associate symbol with Kaori. The fleshy arm that morphs out of Tetsuo is Kaori in a disembodied fused state essentially trying to crawl herself out of him, she also is the one who drags Kaneda into the singularity. Otomo himself pretty much confirmed that’s what happened in a I think still untranslated interview he did in the late 90s. I forget the magazine name but this is the quote, I think it’s from 1997.
“I wanted to express the blurring of the boundary between person and environment, life and death. That’s why I had Kaori be swallowed. She doesn’t simply die—she becomes part of the thing Tetsuo is becoming.”
—Katsuhiro Otomo
She basically becomes a merged Yin-Yang god with him, she is very much still alive. It actually took me years to figure out that’s what happened to her. Some other interesting details, the film itself outright foreshadows it when they are sitting against the chain-linked fence. The track “mutation”which plays during tetsuo’s transformation has a section where it ritualistically chants Kaori’s name and then the same for Tetsuo’s until it devolves into a mass of screaming where you can actually hear both Tetsuo and Kaori’s screams until their screaming unionises, symbolising their merging. You can also hear both Tetsuo and Kaori join in on the Rasera chant during the reprise of Kaneda’s theme that plays during the credits. Finally I’m pretty sure that both English dubs of Akira also misinterpreted that sequence as they both cut off Kaori’s scream instantly the second she is crushed inside the flesh crevice, but in the original Japanese voice track she keeps screaming even as her blood engulfs her and we cut back to Kaneda, it sounds almost liminal.
Here is the previous ask mentioned.
Spoiler warning: This ask contains spoilers for the end of Akira.
Spoiler-free answer: While I genuinely appreciate your perspective, and the details about the soundtrack that you've shared, I still find myself disagreeing on this being the intended ending for Tetsuo and Kaori in the film. Admittedly, I can be stubborn about things, but there's just some points that keep me from accepting this as the intended meaning. I hope you don't mind if we agree to disagree here.
I tried to find a longer clip, but I'll include the scene with Kaori here. Warning for blood and gore (animated, but still).
I really wish there were clips of this scene in the original voice-over on Youtube. I feel like there used to be more clips available, but maybe they got taken down by Youtube's Copyright ID system.
I mean, I agree that Kaori doesn't die instantaneously. I do agree that her body (and perhaps her spirit/soul/etc.) get absorbed into Tetsuo in this scene. I can see how that ties into the quote you provided from Otomo as well as the vocal effects in some of the music tracks. Her death isn't simply that. There's more going on.
For what it's worth, I don't believe that Tetsuo is necessarily "killing" Kaori as that would imply there is malicious intent on his part to do her harm. I don't believe that to be the case.
However, I maintain that the differences between her absorption vs., like, Kaneda's or the Colonel's are still noteworthy. The blood gushing, body crushing sound effect, and the fact that Tetsuo makes it clear his body is acting on its own when she's being fused into him. Right after Kaori begins screaming, we cut back to Kaneda - who is arguably more enmeshed within the fleshy mass - yet he isn't being squished the same way Kaori is. It's almost as if Tetsuo has barely enough control not to harm Kaneda (I've seen some argue that he's arguably incapable of hurting Kaneda but I digress), yet remains powerless to stop his arm from absorbing Kaori.
(To take it back to the manga real quick - I guess the reason why I didn't make the connection between the remorphed arms and eyes reaching out as being short for "Kaori trying to crawl out of Tetsuo" is because of this scene in Vol 6. Here, we see Tetsuo reform himself after the baby mass is created in a last ditch effort to reach Kaneda. Now, in the film, I will grant you that it might be Kaori. Then again, it could very well be Tetsuo. Heck, it could be both of them. I just don't know if it's as clear cut, you get what I'm saying? Personally, I find the ambiguity Otomo introduced in the movie to be more interesting than the manga scene. Not to say that the manga scene is bad, but I like the extra layer he added in the movie.)
Interesting point about the soundtrack! Again, not how I would interpret the use of "Mutation" in the chain-linked fence scene. To me, the use of that track there seems more like a harbinger than a good omen, you feel me? The reason I say that is because the mutation scene appears to be about Tetsuo losing control of the power, and it's framed as a tragic moment. His hubris has gone too far, and now his body is no longer enough to contain the power. The arms reaching out metaphor, in my eyes, is more about Tetsuo desperately wanting to cling to someone for help as his body moves on its own, reaching for more material to absorb into itself.
To return to the "Mutation" track, I can't help but feel there's this heaviness to it. Like, the way the drums are played along with the chorus, to me, creates this eerie, haunting sense of foreboding. It's a call back to the wish, perhaps, but it feels more ominous than anything.
Also, I can't help feeling like this interpretation of their fusion would clash with the horror and tragedy of watching Tetsuo fall apart. In my opinion, it would be odd if after all the damage he's caused, amidst all this agony and pain Tetsuo goes through while mutating, he then gets his wish of running away with Kaori fulfilled - and in such a morbid way, too? I understand Tetsuo is not deliberately hurting her, but to me that's what makes her fusion into his body even sadder. He fails to protect her during their encounter with The Clowns, and yet, despite amassing unbelievable amounts of power, he still can't protect her. It's similar to what happens in the manga, but in a different way.
While trying (and failing orz) to find that untranslated article you mentioned, I did find this series of interviews with Otomo. In one of the videos, he mentions 2 things I found interesting:
Otomo hadn't finished the manga when they started working on the film adaptation. I hadn't known that before, but I think it's fascinating that he had to work out the ending before he actually drew it.
Otomo wanted to tell a slightly different story from the manga. This falls in line with many of the changes we see in the movie. Ugh, I'd love to find an interview that asks him about the changes he made to Kaori's role, but alas.
So, yeah, these are some more of my thoughts on that scene. Kaori may not be getting shot with a bullet in the back, and there is evidence that Otomo wanted to tell Akira in a different way. Nevertheless, I still think he wrote Kaori as a tragic figure, though with a (somewhat) kinder background story and greater significance in the film. It does kind of seem like he wanted to tell a softer story for her as the series went along, and I really enjoyed the changes he made to the film in that regard.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever realised this, but Kaori doesn’t actually die at the end of the Akira movie she just fuses into tetsuo, it’s communicated in such a bizarre way but it basically uses the visual motif of arms to communicate it, she’s grabbed by tetsuos arm, her arm is the one thing you see when she’s crushed, he says she’s dying but then says her pain is coming into him, he never says she’s dead. you see her arm on tetsuos as he screams plummets up onto the stage, you her again literally fusing into him as the colonel is staring down at tetsuos eye, the arm mass that shoots out of tetsuos when he’s experiencing ego death in an infantile form while the scientist is watching is kaori, basically fused into him trying to drag herself out, again the arm motif is used entirely throughout this mass, it isn’t trying to hurt or consume the kids, in fact it’s actually quite gentle with them, kaori is probably just trying to ask them for help, she does envelope the colonel but only because he’s shooting at her in an attempt to restrain him, she even forms a mouth in an attempt to communicate with him. Finally when tetsuo is getting dragged into akiras singularity, two arms appear of tetsuo one of which grabs kaneda, the cut to tetsuos shocked face shows it wasn’t him, leaving kaori as the only answer. She went with tetsuo, the three kids and Akira to the new universe. “Let’s run away, where would we go, I dunno somewhere, somewhere faraway”.
(Spoilers for the ending of Akira, both the film and manga)
Thanks for the ask, anon! I do appreciate it.
Hm. I see what you're saying. Maybe I'm wrong in how I read that scene. However, I still find myself disagreeing with some of the points you made. I'll my explain my reasons under the cut in case people want to avoid spoilers.
For anyone interested in a spoiler free version of my explanation, there's a cue in the scene with Kaori, the ambiguous nature of the arms that reach for Kaneda, as well as some missing context from the manga that lead me to question some of your assertions. No disrespect intended. I like the idea of her fusion being an echo of the scene where they talk about running away together. I just don't think that some of the points you made are as strongly implied by the film. Again, no disrespect.
Yeah, the bizarre nature of how certain scenes were adapted into the film is just one of those funny quirks it has. There's just so much that happens in the manga that to try and put it all into a full-length feature film is a...tall order, to put it mildly.
I mean, I do remember watching that scene. I recall Tetsuo saying that. Given the gruesome nature of Kaori's "fusion", though (Iirc, I believe she's shown to be bleeding at one point, and a sound effect plays that I understood as her bones breaking due to her body being crushed by the mass), I'm not sure I agree that the viewer is meant to interpret that as "Kaori lives by being fused into Tetsuo". I do agree that Tetsuo starts to feel her pain as his own in her final moments, but given that Kaori dies in the manga (and Tetsuo's attempt at resurrecting her fails), I still feel like we're meant to view that scene as her dying in the film, also.
Another thing I disagree with is the arms part. It's not 100% certain (or implied), in my opinion, that it's Kaori reaching for Kaneda. I'll do my best to explain.
In the manga, while it's not made clear whose arms reach for Kaneda to drag him out of the singularity, I feel that it's implied to be Kiyoko and/or the Espers as a collective. I'm pretty sure there's a line by a disembodied voice in the manga that didn't make it into the film that goes something like "this isn't for you." The implication of that line being that Kaneda isn't meant to join Tetsuo, Akira, and the Espers to whatever higher plane of reality they're going to. It's not clear who says that line, and it bugs me from time to time, lol. I always thought it to be Kiyoko and/or one of the Espers, though I also considered Lady Miyako. Given that Lady Miyako has a different role in the movie, though, I wouldn't consider her to be a candidate for the arms in the film scene. My point is that there are other people besides Kaori who could be reaching out to Kaneda in that scene.
It could be that Kaori's "fusion" into Tetsuo is meant to be, like, a means to adapt the failed resurrection scene, showing that Kaori has left a mark on Tetsuo due to being one of the few people to show him genuine kindness and care.
One last thing - in both the manga and film, you get to see Akira reunite with the Espers. The manga takes it a step further, showing Kiyoko and Masaru reuniting with the...I'm gonna call them the spirits of the kids in their "class" for the Akira project (including Takashi). During the singularity scene, you see Kaneda and Tetsuo finding each other (before Kaneda is dragged back into reality).
Kaori, unfortunately, doesn't get a moment like that in the film. She does not get a chance to reappear as her regular self before Tetsuo, Akira, and the Espers ascend.
For these reasons, I feel that its not certain that we're meant to read that scene as Kaori surviving through Tetsuo and them getting their dream of running away together fulfilled. I would expect there to be some callback to that scene in the film if that were the case, but we don't get that. While that's a nice thought, I feel like the presentation of Kaori's "fusion" would need to be different for that to be the intended reading.
Re ur tags on https://www.tumblr.com/chena-h/813624389389238272 i think ‘spicy bananas” comes from when someone who is allergic to say, apples or bananas or something, the fruit tastes spicy to them because their mouth gets that reaction. They then assume that bananas are spicy to everyone. And taste like that because they’re bananas, not because they’re allergic :P
Sorry In case you still haven’t figured it out The colonels says Tetsuo-o after Tetsuo escape from the facility. Basically Tetsuo has two personalities, Kaori has 1 personality split across two bodies. Kaori and Tetsuo are Akira’s. They are his feline and masculine counterparts embodied as individuals. This is also the case in the manga. Tetsuo’s character is an optical illusion. Listen to the voice overlay of Tetsuo’s laugh when Akira’s chamber is opened. Kaori is a victim but she is as much a villain as Tetsuo’s is.
Hello! Not sure why Tumblr kept these asks out of my notification box.
As you sent multiple asks related to this topic, I'll post my answers under the cut.
That's quite a unique theory. Not sure I follow exactly what you're saying (is feline meant to be feminine, or do you think Kaori exhibits uniquely cat-like qualities in the film, and this somehow contrasts with Tetsuo's masculine traits?). Also, I'm sorry, but I don't really see a connection between The Colonel elongating the final vowel in Tetsuo's name and Tetsuo having multiple personalities.
If we're solely discussing the movie, I don't really think there's much evidence to support the reading of Kaori as a villain, nor Tetsuo as an optical illusion. After all, the destruction he brings to Neo Tokyo is very real, and destruction is one of the main themes in Akira. Unless you're suggesting the movie is depicting a very unique case of mass hysteria in which an entire city is enduring the same hallucination?
While both the movie and manga definitely use strong visuals that, occasionally, evoke certain effects (like speeding around on a motorcycle, or being disoriented while under the influence of drugs), I don't think Tetsuo himself is meant to be an illusion, nor do I see how this relates to Kaori being a villain.
So, I get that Tetsuo and Kaori both have names with the letter "o" in them when you translate their names into English. But, again, I don't see any connection here to the ideas presented in your first ask. Granted, I'm not super familiar with kanji, hiragana, or katakana to know if there's any similarities between the characters for Kaori and Tetsuo at all, so there is that.
Another thing that confuses me about this theory - The Colonel doesn't know who Kaori is by this point (unless you're suggesting she's also a part of the Akira project - for which we get no evidence of that in either the film or manga), and they don't ever talk directly to each other. In the movie, they hardly share any scenes together until the stadium. Even then, in both the film and manga versions of the stadium scene, The Colonel is barely aware of her existence since he's focused on trying to kill Tetsuo. The most I recall The Colonel saying to Kaori in the movie is to get away from Tetsuo as his mutation gets worse.
Okay, so the only video by Supereyepatchwolf that I'm aware of that focuses on Akira is the one titled The Impact of Akira - The Film That Changed Everything or something like that.
I've seen that video, and I don't know that there's any point where optical illusions or the scene where Kaori watches Tetsuo on TV is discussed. The video is more about the film's overall production and its impact on bringing anime to a wider audience outside of Japan. Again, I don't know what the connection is between Tetsuo being an optical illusion and Kaori being a villain.
But in that scene, Tetsuo is talking directly to Kaneda. It's Kaneda being addressed in that scene because it's an adaptation of the scene in Vol 1 where Tetsuo nearly beats a rival gang member to death.
Kaori (who was not originally in the manga version of that scene) is standing behind them, Kai, and Yamagata while she recovers from the attack. After Tetsuo's outburst, though, she walks forward and stops just behind Kaneda to talk to Tetsuo. To me, it seems pretty clear that she's talking to Tetsuo, but doesn't want to get too close since she can tell he's upset.
All in all, I just don't see any of this as evidence that Kaori is actually meant to be a villain in either the film or manga, or that Tetsuo is somehow an optical illusion produced by Akira (who is shown to be dead in the film).
If there's one thing about Akira's story, it's that it's fairly straightforward in its messaging (at least, in my opinion). If Kaori were truly written as a villain, the signs would be a lot more obvious, and the message behind her villainy arc would be clear to understand.
As for what you said about the manga I understand what you mean but I also think it’s perhaps a slight misunderstanding of the metaphysics of Akira’s universe, it very much fictions on Buddhist/eastern spiritualist framework. True death doesn’t really exist in Akira’s universe, in the manga it’s strongly implied that basically everyone transcends to the stream once they die physically, that’s basically what is happening when Tetsuo tries to “resurrect” Kaori. He’s not so much bringing her back to life so much as pulling her essence back from the stream and forcing it back into her already dead physical body and which is why it doesn’t work. Tetsuo’s end in the manga is less one of ascension and one of humbling, he’s not becoming a god he just dies and moves onto the stream the way anyone else would, which contrasts explicitly with the film where he becomes a merged god with Kaori.
(This is a continuation of this ask.)
Spoiler warning: This ask contains spoilers for the end of Akira.
Hello, anon! Now, I will say you have me there. I'm not familiar with Buddhism and what it says about death. I know parts of the conversation between Tetsuo and Lady Miyako about the stream likely went over my head. I would like to read more about it eventually, though, as I do like the spiritual/philosophical elements of Akira, and I'd like to understand it better.
As I said in the previous post, I hope we can agree to disagree on this one. I enjoyed reading your take as well as your reasoning behind it. Peace!
do you know any good metas about arya and the futility of revenge
Hello, anon!
Ah, yes ^w^ my favorite wolf girl.
I got curious and decided to check around to see what I could find.
Youtube only yielded clips from the show. Other video results were mostly Tiktok, but I'm not on there.
The best matching result - in my opinion, at least - is this post on the ASOIAF forums from 2016 titled "WHY ARYA WILL BE THE ONE TO KILL LADY STONEHEART"
I'll also link this older thread from an ASOIAF forum user's rereading of Arya's Chapters titled "Becoming No One: Rereading Arya IV"
This is a lengthy meta post that actually argues against the meaning of Arya's kill list as a wish for vengeance. You might end up disagreeing with OP, but I still found it an interesting read.
Lastly, I'll share this Medium article that discusses her arc on the show.
