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Need an argumentative essay on Reading response SF 2. Needs to be 2 pages. Please no plagiarism.

In this process the bodies of the male characters become visual metaphors of masculinity. The ‘machine-like’ bodies or the bodies transformed by the technology provide the signs of masculinity in crisis as the viewers attempt to subconsciously cling to the traditional notions of gender. What is more, the trials the characters face are based on their internal conflicts: the passage into manhood depends on the ways in which the character embraces his patriarchal power, but not on the techniques he uses to disrupt the existing world order (Cornea 116). In this view, Akira redefines the concept of post-apocalyptic reality by portraying masculinity through adolescent’s struggle with the physical and psychological changes of growing up.

Akira lays foundation for the new form of masculine identity that can be described as marginal and different. Early in the anime the viewers encounter the two friends, Tetsuyo and Kaneda, who belong to a youth motorcycle gang. While Kaneda’s masculinity is established in his position of the leader of the gang, Tetsuyo is struggling to find his place in the world of adult men. It becomes evident in the scene showing Tetsuyo’s failed attempt to start Kaneda’s motorcycle. The latter has double symbolism. On the one hand, the bike is the phallic symbol of male authority and power. On the other hand, the bright red motorcycle represents the agent of change. It symbolizes male physical prowess as opposed to the static background of the futuristic urban landscape. Inability to control the motorcycle represents Tetsuyo’s dependency and weakness.

What is more, the fact that Kaneda is protective of his friend symbolically transforms the former into the father figure. Thus, the conflict between two friends takes on the rhetoric of “an assault on established patriarchal power structures, but a related attack on traditional family” (Cornea 116). The episode makes viewers reminiscent of Oedipal