Neo-Tokyo: Distopia Urbana e Cidades Genéricas

Abstract

In Akira (1988) we have a representation of the city of Tokyo (in this case Neo Tokyo) which serves as a valuable historical document about the imaginary regarding the transformations that Japanese culture, technology and cities went through during the second half of the XX century. By dealing with reflections related to the melting pot of socio-economic-cultural thinking in Asian megacities, the film dialogues with Rem Koolhaas' reflections on the formation and characteristics of the “Generic Cities”, exposed in S, M, L, XL, 1995. The loss of the identity of large Asian cities is discussed in this article by drawing a parallel between the texts of Koolhaas and the vision of Katsuhiro Otomo, screenwriter and director of the feature. The first part of this article deals with the importance of Akira in the formulation of a contemporary imaginary related to the city of Tokyo, as well as the capacity that this work has in capturing and representing issues related to the urban Japan of the period. In the second part there is a brief commentary on the Japanese culture and society of this period. The city of Neo Tokyo, itself, is the object of the third part, this dystopia being compared in several aspects to the utopia presented by Kenzo Tange in 1961, in his plan for the occupation of Tokyo Bay. Also in this third part, the aspects that bring the dystopian representation of the Asian mega metropolis closer to those explored by Koolhaas are observed in more detail. In the fourth and final part, there is a final commentary on the reasons why Japanese cyberpunk is so appealing to the Western public and its ability to synthesize and express the problems faced by large Asian cities.