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Orbital Comics Pops Up in Mile End's Genesis Cinema for Screening of Akira

Published Tue, 19 Dec 2017 03:20:43 -0600

The Mile End Genesis cinema in the east end of London is showing Akira tonight, with introduction and discussion.

Our monthly screening with Nick Walker of Rochester Kino returns with the film that made all of us fall in love with anime, AKIRA. The screening will be introduced by Nick and will be followed by a salon discussion upstairs at the bar where you will have a chance to discuss this great film with fellow fans and first-time viewers!

"In 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019, 31 years after the nuking of the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo's supernatural powers suddenly manifest. A final battle is fought in Tokyo Olympiad exposing the experiment's secrets."

Please note that we'll be screening Akira in Japanese with English subtitles.

But just so that no one forgets what the movie was based upon, Orbital Comics of London will have a pop-up shop in the cinema for one-night-only. Orbital has been running more of these pop-up shops in London cinemas for specific screenings or premieres of movies and it's been a really strong example of comic book evangelism in the capital. And a chance to make money at the same time. More comic stores should try and work with their local cinemas in a similar fashion given the current preponderance of comic book-based movies…

The Genesis is an independent cinema built within the bones of previous cinemas and music hall theatres going back a hundred-and-fifty years.

Akira is a 1988 Japanese animation directed by Katsuhiro Otomo based on Otomo's manga of the same name. It garnered a large cult following since its theatrical release and is widely considered to be a landmark in Japanese animation. It is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest animated and science fiction films of all time.

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