Steven Universe: The Movie Makes Iconic Akira Reference

Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira is one of the most iconic anime and manga works ever, and although its live-action efforts may never get off the ground at least the famous work is living on through slick references in other pop culture media. One of the latest came from a pretty surprising source as Steven Universe’s big film actually had a pretty clever shout out to Akira’s notable bike sliding sequence.

As highlighted by the official Cartoon Network Twitter account, there was one notable sequence in which Connie emerged from a portal while riding on Lion. The resulting slide was a direct reference to Kaneda’s now famous slide, and now Steven Universe joins the long list of franchises paying homages to Akira in cool ways.

Eagle eyed fans of Steven Universe will note that this isn’t the first time the franchise has given a shout out to Akira. Not only does Lion often do a sick sideways slide many of the times he emerges from portals, but there was a pretty notable episode early on in which Steven couldn’t figure out his transformation powers. When experimenting by transforming his fingers into kitties, he unwittingly turns into a living mass of angry cats and the resulting blob was reminiscent of Tetsuo’s fleshy transformation at the climax of Akira.

The Steven Universe team is clearly a big fan of anime productions, and even recruited a Studio Trigger veteran for some of its bigger movie sequences. It’s quirks like this that have garnered such a huge audience for the series, and why it continues to only grow more popular with each new entry.

You can check out our spoiler-free review of Steven Universe: The Movie here, and here’s an excerpt to get you started, “Steven Universe: The Movie is an incredible work of art that combines eclectic, amazing musical numbers with striking illustrations and breathtaking animation to outdo anything the franchise has attempted before. There’s nothing quite like it out there, and the film happily plays to its unique strengths to leave you vibrating on an existential level.”

Steven Universe was created by Rebecca Sugar, who had previously worked on Adventure Time as a writer and storyboard artist. It first premiered on Cartoon Network in 2013 and has since built a huge fan base for its focus on inclusivity and lovely art and music design. You can currently find Steven Universe on Cartoon Network, and streaming through the CN app.