Did You Catch Ready Player One's Slick Akira Easter Egg?

The Ready Player One trailer that was released at Comic-Con International: San Diego was littered [...]

By Jamie Lovett

The Ready Player One trailer that was released at Comic-Con International: San Diego was littered with pop culture Easter eggs for fans to find, but one, in particular, may be of interest to fans of classic anime.

The Ready Player One trailer includes a scene where an intense virtual vehicle race is taking place. One player manages to cut through the madness on a stylish red bike that should look familiar to fans of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira as it resembles Kaneda's iconic red motorcycle. Take a look below.

Released in 1988, Akira is one of the most popular anime films ever in the United States and considered by many to a milestone for the medium. The film was an adaptation of Otomo's own manga series of the same name.

In Akira, in 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019, 31 years after the nuking of the city, Kaneda, a bike gang leader, tries to save his friend Tetsuo from a secret government project. He battles anti-government activists, greedy politicians, irresponsible scientists and a powerful military leader until Tetsuo's supernatural powers suddenly manifest. A final battle is fought in Tokyo Olympiad exposing the experiment's secrets.

Warner Bros. has been trying to get a live-action, westernized remake of Akira off the ground since 2002, though not much has come of it yet. Otomo revealed in 2016 that an anime television adaptation as also being discussed.

In Ready Player One, in 2045, the planet is on the brink of chaos and collapse, but people find salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by James Halliday. When Halliday dies, he promises his immense fortune to the first person to discover a digital Easter egg that's hidden somewhere in the OASIS. When young Wade Watts joins the contest, he finds himself becoming an unlikely hero in a reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical world of mystery, discovery, and danger.

Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel by Ernest Cline, Ready Player One opens in theaters on March 30, 2018.

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