AKIRA may be known for being rather dark, but as this page shows, there are legitimately moments of levity to all of this.
- As the Clowns run away from the Capsules that clearly outmatch them, one of them ends up trying to speed up and takes the wrong exit. Cue his comrade trying to warn him after he takes the exit, only to face palm himself after the explosion.
- The scene where Kai's bike accidentally explodes, he foolishly tries to put out the flames.Kaneda: By the way, your bike's on fire.Kai: OH SHIT!
- And after Kai tries to talk Kaneda into using his bike to charge the batteries instead, Kaneda distracts him by pointing out that Kai's bike is still on fire.
- The establishing shot of Kaneda's vocational school, focusing on the bronze bust of the establishment's founder before panning upwards...which has been defaced with graffiti, a noose and a frilly pink bra.
- The beginning of the school scene, in which their vocational school's gym teacher, (his nickname is "Jaws" in the manga because of his Jay Leno chin) is less than enthusiastic about the outing that got Tetsuo captured by the military.Principal: Also, even though you are all under 15, if you get more than fifty penalty points on your record, you'll be sent to the regular courts.Kaneda: Ah, bite me! Don't mess with us, you bald old goat!Jaws: ARE ANY OF YOU LISTENING TO ME?!Yamagata: NO, SIR, YOU LOST ME HALFWAY THROUGH!Jaws: DISCIPLINE!! [*SLAP*] DISCIPLINE!! [*PUNCH*] DISCIPLINE!! [*SLAP*] DISCIPLINE!![*SLAP*] DISCIPLINE!!! [*SLAP*] DISCIPLINE!!! [*SLAP*] DIIIIIISSS-MISSED!!!!!!!Group: Thank you very much, sir!
- While the boys are getting their asses handed to them, all the principal does is clean his glasses.
- And after that Kai appears to vomit up a gallon of blood. He was letting all the blood from the coach's beating pool in his mouth, tapped a girl to get her attention, then spat it all out at once just to freak her out. He then gets punched in the back of the head by one of the other boys.
- The first battle between Kaneda and Tetsuo. Kaneda manages to shoot Tetsuo and wound him, but before he can finish him off, the battery on his Laser Cannon runs out.Kaneda: (Throws down the gun and pulls up his left sleeve) AAAAAHH DAMMIT! It ain't fair, Tetsuo! Fight with your bare hands!
Tetsuo: (Makes a You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! face, laughs his head off and stops to catch his breath) Oh, this is funny!- Tetsuo then decides to taunt Kaneda from atop the pile of debris, failing to notice the blue light of SOL getting ready to fire its beam straight down on him.
- Can't forget the scene when Kaneda and his pals were at the police station. It opens with an Officer looking through files with a picture of Kaneda looking angry like he usually does. Then he put the file down and Kaneda, right in front of him has a goofy smile on his face. Then we see this exchange (incidentally, Kaneda's inability to tell a convincing lie is why the police decide his group wasn't responsible for the revolutionary incident; they believe the real perps have got to be much more clever than that):
- From the Pioneer dub:Officer A: All right. The story is, you and your friends went out at night on your bikes to visit your dying mother, and then another bunch of biker hooligans called the Clowns attacked you. They hurt your friend, you lost your temper, and that's why eight of these Clowns, your attackers, are now in the hospital, and that is the truth. (Officer B looks through files of recently brought criminals and a picture of Kei appears on his current page. Kaneda looks over at that picture)Kaneda: Wowee! She's sure hot.Officer B: Hey! This is confidential! (Kaneda chuckles, going back to his seat)Officer A: And how's your mother doing?Kaneda: Fortunately, the worst is over. She cleared the hump.Officer A: She cleared the hump, huh? What's next, a triathlon?(Kaneda and a few of his friends laugh)Officer B: Ah, these bozos couldn't have anything to do with it.Officer A: That goes without saying.
- From the Pioneer dub:
- The bar scene where Yamagata & Kai run into Tetsuo after his escape:'('Tetsuo crouching on top of some rubble, laughing to himself)''Yamagata: It's Tetsuo...Kai: Why are you here...? You did this didn't you!?Tetsuo: Look who's here. (extends out hand, full of pills) Wanna pop one?Yamagata: WHAAAAT the hell are you talking about!? You look like a damn crackhead!!
- During the scene at the temporary police station in the gym, one guy busts out of an interrogation room, pursued by several cops, and pulls the pin on a hand grenade while screaming a "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner. Mass "Oh, Crap!" ensues with everyone scrambling to get away... and the grenade fizzles out. Only three seconds after realizing the grenade's a dud, he gets the living shit kicked out of him by a horde of angry cops.
- Kaneda pisses off the 25-year-old cop by calling him "old man." Right as the "old man" walks away, we can see a cop repeatedly punching a guy in a nearby cubicle.
- About five minutes later, as Kaneda is pursuing Kei, the grenade seems to finally go off at the gym in the background.
- Neo-Tokyo's executive council is so misinformed and disorderly that it comes across as less of a political discussion and more of a poorly-moderated forum.Politician 1: I say we should have put all that money into the welfare program!Politician 2: Shut up, old man!Politician 1: What was that?!Politician 2: You heard me!
- During one of the school scenes, the whole gang is sitting in class, sans teacher, which leads to this:Yamagata: But what about my burning desire to learn a vocation and contribute to society?
- The school is such a disorderly craphole that one student left an engine block on the teacher's podium.
- The anime briefly goes into Life of Brian territory after Tetsuo makes the projectile fired by the tank explode in mid-air. One guy climbs onto a car and proclaims Tetsuo to be Akira, only to be followed an instant later by another guy who declares Tetsuo to be "a false messiah." The only thing missing from that scene is the second guy calling Tetsuo "a very naughty boy."First guy: Look! It's Lord Akira!Second guy (also climbs onto the car, to stand next to the first one): Don't be fooled! This isn't the rapture, he's a false messiah!First guy: Oh shut up! (pushes the second guy off the car)
- The first bar scene ends with Yamagata and the bartender exchanging jibes as the Capsules leave to take on the Clowns yet again, culminating in Yamagata all but saying he'd tell the customers what sort of possibly illicit substances the drinks are spiked with if they weren't regulars.Bartender: Hey, this isn't a dance hall, sport!Yamagata: You got a bad attitude, Pops! Lighten up before your arteries harden. [to the nearest customer] Hey, man! That stuff'll stunt your growth!Bartender: How many times do I have to tell you punks? At least he's a paying customer.Yamagata: Then I won't tell him what's in it, huh?
- In the manga, virtually every exchange involving Kaneda and Kaisuke qualifies.
- A classic one: When Kaneda returns after disintegrating in the explosion of Neo-Tokyo, he and Kei spot each other across a crowd of refugees and run to meet each other, with Kaneda reaching out to catch somebody flying into his arms—only to discover it's actually Kaisuke, who jumped in between Kaneda and Kei in his excitement. Of course, despite Kaneda being less-than-impressed, Kaisuke doesn't take the hint and Kaneda winds up watching Kei longingly over his shoulder for the duration of the scene, since Kaisuke doesn't let go.
- Shortly after this, Kaisuke takes Kaneda to meet his new friend Joker, and gives a passionate speech about rallying together to defeat Tetsuo, who has become the power-mad mutant overlord of Neo-Tokyo. Kaneda announces that, "I completely agree. But first..."
Kaisuke: ...Clothes? You want new clothes?Joker: What the fuck?- After thieving a couple of Joker's bikes to retrieve Kei on Miyako's orders, Kaneda and Kaisuke find themselves in trouble with a guy quite a bit larger than them and his not-so-happy-looking friends. Joker tells them they'd better pay him back, and as Kaisuke sputters for a response, Kaneda places a hand on his shoulder and gently tells him (before taking off running in the other direction):
Kaneda: I have to go.- A later bit with Kaneda and Kaisuke has both of them attempting to escape a tidal wave through a sewer as a result of Tetsuo destroying a good chunk of the moon, both on Kaneda's bike. Kaisuke comments that the bike won't be fast enough with so much weight on it, prompting the following response from Kaneda:
Kaneda: Don't worry, Kaisuke. I'll keep your memory alive, and I'll take care of Tetsuo so you can rest in peace. Now GET OFF!Kaisuke: YOU ASSHOLE!- This is not helped (or greatly helped depending on your tastes) that Kaisuke's protest of this causes them to crash and be swept up by the wave. On top of that, even the guys who were swept up first ended up completely fine, so they weren't in that much danger to begin with.
- At another point, Kaneda manages to snag Akira back from Tetsuo and tells Kaisuke to take him on his bike, with this disclaimer:
Kaneda: Be careful. If you hit a bad bump he might destroy the whole world. - Nearly half of all instances of graffiti in the original manga are crudely drawn penises.
