In one of Akira’s most memorable scenes, Shotaro Kaneda skids his 200-hp motorcycle sideways. The skid in the original manga isn’t the iconic showpiece that it is in the anime, but the anime’s scene has been copied and references by numerous anime, cartoons and live-action shows.
Just how many? Let’s try to find out!
The below clip was tweeted out by Twitter user Ichina and shows a handful of homages. As of writing, it has been liked nearly 160,000 times.
According to The Avocado, the earliest reference to the Akira skid is in a 1993 episode of Batman: The Animated Series, with Robin making an Akira-style slide. But as many pointed out on Twitter, there are numerous other homages, which include video games and even TV commercials. For example:
Is this the most referenced anime sequence ever? I’m having a hard time thinking of another anime scene that has been copied so many times.