Most anime fans will have seen, heard, or discussed Akira at some point. But while the film’s impact on anime and the dissemination of anime in the Western world has been discussed to death, the way Akira uses light has not.
As reported earlier by the A.V. Club, it’s the topic for the latest Nerdwriter video which tackles how lighting was handled in Akira and other anime of that era.
It’s an intriguing look into the symoblism of light in film, and also the necessity of adding light into traditional cel animation for dramatic effect.
“When you have to draw light 24 times in every second of a two hour movie, it must be the case that you gain a new appreciation for how [light] can tell a story on its own,” Nerdwriter argues. And it’s worthwhile having that appreciation, not only for light but the other details we often take for granted: sound, colour, framing and so on.
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