Character of the Month for Flashback February: Tetsuo

Well, ladies and gentlemen, Flashback February is coming to a close.  And what better way to end it with Character of the Month for the first Flashback February.  This will also be the first Character of the Month for this year-as many of you may remember, I didn’t do Character of the Month in January because most of my reviews for that month were re-reviews, and many of the characters have already been Characters of the Month before.  If you haven’t check the title already, or noticed the picture, you can tell I probably let my Akira obsession get the best of me.  Still, this character was definitely worthy of the title, obsession or not.  In any of it, I’ll get to the point and talk about Flashback February’s Character of the Month: Tetsuo from Akira.

I know my synopsis on Akira was pretty long in my review of the film.  Keeping that in mind, I’ll try to be brief.  Though Tetsuo is primarily considered the antagonist for Akira, much of the plot focuses on him.  After being involved in a motorcycle wreck during a biker gang fight, Tetsuo soon develops psychic powers.  He quickly attracts the attention of a secret government organization that deals with people with psychic abilities that is led by Colonel Shikishima.  After undergoing a series of hallucinations caused by a trio of psychic children, Tetsuo tears through the organization to find and kill them.  He then learns of Akira, a child psychic who created an explosion in 1988 that destroyed Tokyo and caused World War III, and goes off to find him.  From there, he rampages through Neo-Tokyo until he reaches the new Olympic Stadium where Akira is located.  However, after unearthing the cryogenic chamber that had been holding Akira for thirty one years since the incident, Tetsuo is disappointed to find only his remains.  Tetsuo later engages in a fight with his former best friend Kaneda, in which he loses his arm thanks to a satellite weapon called Sol.  Tetsuo flies into space to destroy the weapon.  Later on, he retreats inside Olympic Stadium and he slowly begins to lose control of his powers.  He is discovered by his girlfriend Kaori and the Colonel-whom he attacks after offering him to return to the government facility.  Kaneda also appears, and the two fight again.  However, during the fight, Tetsuo loses control of his powers and begins to mutate into a giant mass that looks like a deformed fetus-and a glob.  And seriously, every article I’ve found that talks about this scene says it looks like a fetus.  Kind of annoying, but true all the same.  During this, he absorbs Kaori and Kaneda, and later kills Kaori- Kaneda is able to escape.  Akira is reawakened and creates another explosion similar to the one in 1988, which consumes Tetsuo.  The final glimpse that we see, or hear rather, of Tetsuo comes at the very end in what looks like the creation of a new universe where Tetsuo’s voice says, “I am Tetsuo.”

  

Now I know what you’re thinking, I picked Tetsuo over Goku from Dragon Ball Z.  And your right, I did overlook Goku for my choice.  Like I said, my obsession with Akira over the last few weeks got the best of me.  But consider this, I mentioned in my Dragon Ball Z review that I had only seen so much of Dragon Ball Z.  So it seems kind of unfair to pick a character from a show I have seen so little of just because of his legacy in the anime world.  And besides, Tetsuo really does deserve the title.  First off, it’s so interesting to watch Tetsuo evolve throughout the film from an outcast teen to a psychopath to …uh well, an amorphous deformed Gerber baby-as dark as that sounds, it’s true.  It’s this descent into insanity that makes Tetsuo such a great and memorable character.  And during that evolution, Tetsuo does become something of the badass.  At times, Tetsuo is more interesting than Kaneda.  And Kaneda is the main character!  Also, Tetsuo seems to sit on the fence in a lot of character aspects.  Or to put it simply, he’s in between a lot of character aspects like which side he’s on.  Is he a good guy or a bad guy?  Though it’s a bit of a stretch to call him a villain, he certainly isn’t a good guy.  And though is intentions aren’t evil by any means, his way of carrying them out aren’t good either.  But he’s not an anti-hero by any means because he has an antagonist role.  There are some questions, for me anyway, about where Tetsuo stands as far as what kind of character he is in the film.  And although it’s a bit of a stretch to call him a kid-after all, he is fifteen-it’s pretty impressive for someone that young to have as much power as he does.  And it also makes more chilling when you find out what happens to him in the end.  Overall, Tetsuo is a pretty awesome character -and also one of my favorites!  So go paint the town red- or destroy it along the way- Tetsuo, cause your Hanime on Anime’s Flashback February Character of the Month!

Now before I close, I want to thank all of you who took part in the first ever Flashback February.  It was a huge success and I will definitely be doing it again next year.  Next month will be a regular month, but expect an announcement video in the near future.  Until then, I’m off!  As usual, stay tuned for more!

-Hanime on Anime