The Blackberry Walk

Throughout Akira, Kaneda's bike plays a major role. To Tetsuo, a symbol of Kaneda's prowess and authority. Yet to Kaneda, he merely sees it as a tool as something replaceable and unimportant. When Tetsuo runs off with Kaneda's bike and gets beat up towards the beginning of the movie, Kaneda catches up with him and instead of reuniting with his bike, checks to see if Tetsuo is okay. In stark contrast, Tetsuo rushes to beat up their pursuer instead of seeing if his girlfriend Kaori is okay. This is where the idea of relevance realisation comes in. RR is the human ability to bring into consciousness what is most important in a given situation. According to John Vervaeke, whose lecture series I strongly recommend, RR is strongly linked with meaning making in one's life since in order to have value in your life you must first be able to identify what is valuable. Furthermore insight, which can be cultivated through meditative practices can be described as the ability to perceive what is relevant in a given situation and act upon it. Throughout Akira, Kaneda demonstrates himself to be adaptable like when he picks up a laser gun for the first time and figured out how to use it and skilled at riding his bike which is due to perceiving where one needs to improve and picking up the minutiae of a skill intuitively. Tetsuo is useless at realising relevance. He places all of Kaneda's relevance to him based on his skills, hierarchical position and the symbol of both of those things, his bike. The bike is demonstrative of Kaneda's skill whilst being exemplary of his dominance - not only a complex customised bike but also an eye-catching red (which Tetsuo later dons) in juxtaposition to Tetsuo's childish turquoise. Kaneda, however, realises that far more value can be found outside himself, in other people, in the valuable connections he's made. He's a natural leader because he is charismatic, selfless and protective of his pack. And Tetsuo is exceptionally jealous of this and he is unable to emulate it because he cannot properly realise what Kaneda is doing to achieve such a position. Neo-Tokyo is a city which has lost its way - a myopic city lacking in RR. This post-modern nightmare is devoid of meaning whenever shots are shown. It's no wonder there's a growing spiritual movement surrounding Akira. When a civilisation is starved of culture and starved of meaning, they resort to finding meaning through spirituality and hope. A people who are so starved of meaning, they'll eat anything placed in front of them. Our own society is heading in this direction. Old institutions like churches gave a sense of spiritual meaning to those who could not find their own however now we must fend for ourselves through this chaotic world without a guiding light. Only through improved relevance realisation can we achieve spiritual contentment. Only then can we evolve into a Kaneda.