Tetsuo's Manhood: What Akira Has to Say About Masculinity

Akira is awesome, this has been a well accepted idea for some time now, it's got psychics, motorcycle fights, body horror, lots of violence, it's all pretty great and all pretty macho. But is this masculinity viewed positively in this movie? Well, sort of, kind of, but also not at all.

In a way, everything that goes wrong in Akira results from the existence of a masculine ideal and how it affected Tetsuo. The one thing Tetsuo hates more than anything is being saved by Kaneda, and it has much less to do with actually being angry at Kaneda for saving him but more to do with him being weak and incapable, he puts himself in these dangerous scenarios because he wants to be like Kaneda, he wants to be this strong, brave, masculine ideal but he isn't. Tetsuo's instance to prove that he's strong and, possibly most importantly, independent, because a real man relies only on himself, is what causes his mutation to go unchecked. This isn't that alien of a concept, in the end of the movie the mutation manifest itself in globs of ever changing, growing flesh, something very tumorous and this grotesque body horror becomes very real when you realize how many men die of cancer because they, despite knowing that they are sick, will refuse to get help or even tell anyone about their issues all in service of masculine independence.

The imagery I love the most about this is when his arm begins to change, he instantly tries to hide it with his cape, as his internal pain that he found easy to hide from the world starts showing externally, he keeps this up as long as he can until his arm drops from the weight and he can't hide it anymore. When he starts losing control he starts crying for help but he could feel he was coming to this state beforehand and instead if admitting his weakness he put on a show of strength, like a real man, like Kaneda. It's worth note that Akira doesn't think being Kaneda is bad, Kaneda kicks ass in this movie, he may stupid but he's cool and just, the problem is the societal pressure setting Kaneda as the only type of guy worth being, Tetsuo can't be Kaneda, Tetsuo can't drive as cool, Tetsuo gets his ass kicked sometimes, Tetsuo tends to cry, and that's okay.