Akira Tadokoro Character Analysis

Intro

Akira Tadokoro is a character from the game Live A Live, playing the role of the protaginist in the Near Future chapter. He's a teenager with psychic powers who lives in the Bright Sparks Orphanage with his younger sister, Kaori.

He's one of my favorite characters from the game, and also the one who is most fleshed out throughout the game. I feel we know enough about him to be able to analyse who he his, so that's why I'm making this.

Psychic Abilities

We do not know how or when Akira awakened his psychic abilities, but we know that it was after his father's death/around the time he ended up at Bright Sparks Orphanage.

His psychic abilities comes with a range of different powers, but they seem to be controlled by his emotion, to a degree. Near the beginning of the chapter, Akira tries to awaken a giant mech known as the Steel Titan, but fails to do so, but after Matsu gets himself killed while controlling it to take on the "god" Odeo, this seems to spark enough rage in Akira to be able to take control of the mech. After the matter, he is once again unable to control it (at least outside of the boss-rush leading to the true final boss of Sin of Odio).

His abilities can manifest as many elements, but they mainly hold some religous imagery. It's likely to mess around with the psyche of the enemies, as in his ultimate skill, he literally shows enemies the end of the world to debilitate them (yes I'm being real, check the description of that move to verify that). Most of his attacks are meant to mess with the enemy, in the end, with Mother's Shame being the only attack to be able to inflict "charm" from all the moves in the main cast.

Whether he is religous himself or just using the imagery of heaven and hell in his attacks as a way to fuck with enemies is not explicitly stated in-game or in any other media, but you can lean either way on the mystery, though he does dismiss Odeo as a reigning god and outright mentions god in his final speech to Oersted (if Akira is the main character). While this isn't enough evidence to outright prove he is religous, it's an interesting thing to think about, and possibly come up with headcanons for.

He also has the ability to read minds and teleport, which aren't the most important to this analysis, but I should still mention them for a few reasons. Throughout the Near Future chapter of Live A Live, you have to use the ability to read minds as a way to figure out where to go next in the story. You can also use the ability to figure out little details about the characters, or just find little jokes in game.

The teleportation is more of just a side detail with a few jokes attached to it, though in the Dominion of Hatred, teleporting away from battles has a chance to send you to the Trial of Heart, the place where you can obtain Akira's ultimate weapon, the Guts and Glory glove (which could either be a refrence to one of the Taiyaki you cna sell, or one of Matsu's lines in battle: "No guts, no glory!"). Otherwise, there are no traditional entrances and exits to the Trial of Heart.

Anger and Aloofness

Akira's powers (as I mentioned earlier) likely depend on his emotions. At many points in the game, he's seen lounging around, including taking a break while raiding the Tsubaka Research Facility (which is one way you can reunite with Matsu in game). His abilites are meant to fuck with the enemies mind, adn doesn't really show remorse for basically breaking someone down to dust, even if it's another person.

After he discovers that LH Combat Unit W1 had the liquified remains of Watanabe Jr's father, he's absolutely livid, with Matsu having to restrain him to keep him from fighting a representive of the Japanese Army, especially with renforcements on the way. He clearly cares for Watanabe, despite how he treats them, and it's likely that he never told Watanabe Jr, probably as a way to keep him happy, with Watanabe still believing his father's alive, and that he will come get him any day.

When Matsu dies while piloting the Steel Titan, all the building rage within him causes him to snap, yelling at everyone to get out, and then he finally manages to take control of it, letting all his rage over Matsu's indirect death by the hands of the Conspiritors, the orphanage burning down, and his father's death in his battle with Odeo.

In his final speech to Oersted, he's the only one of the main characters who shows absolutely no remorse towards Oersted, calling him out on how he blamed everyone else for his own descent into darkness, and how he became Odio basically to spite everyone, even being willing to kill the only person who believed him--a little boy living in Fugalia Village--out of sheer hatred for humanity. He basically said "yeah, what everyone did to you sucked, but your retaliation was 100x worse". He's brutally honest with this entire speech, even grabbing Oersted by the collar at the start of it.

It's important to know that Akira is the protaganist who lost the most to Odio, losing his home, his best friend/older brother figure, and nearly his entire home to Odeo. He's face-to-face with the man who nearly ruined his whole life, and he wasn't planning on sugarcoating how livid he was at Oersted.

Returning to the Near Future chapter and not the Dominion of Hatred, he acts aloof around the rest of the people at the orphanage, likely a trait he picked up from Matsu. While he acts distant around them, he still cares deeply for them, especially Kaori, who he rushes into the burning orphanage to save.

The whole aloof act seems like a mask to me, likely as a way to hide his past from people. Maybe it's a way from keeping people from worrying about them (though that seems to fail with Taeko worrying about his injuries after a run-in with the Crusaders near the start of the chapter). He clearly wants to be seen as a cool badass (one of his victory quotes is literally "Who's a badass?"), but he still cares deeply for those he's close to.

Parallels to Oersted

Akira is the most like Oersted, in a sense. They both endured similar lives, with Akira being seen as a punk throughout his story, and Oersted being a wanted criminal after he's tricked into killing the King of Lucrece. Both of them are revealed horrible info as someone close to them dies (Matsu killing Akira's dad, and Hasshe dying of the plague). Though Oersted had it slightly worse in the losing everything sense, it still doesn't justify his descent into madness and becoming Odio.

Their paths diverge at the point when they snap. Akira channels his anger into saving the city (and possibly the world) from Odeo, while Oersted forsakes his humanity and gives into his hatred, becoming Odio as a result. Oersted failed to forgive everyone, and saw the worst in humanity, deciding to let his hatred control him and go on a time-spanning rampage (through his manifestations). Akira forgave Matsu, even after learning he was his father's killer, because he saw the best in him.

While Oersted was betrayed after years of friendship by his closest companion (I'll go in-depth if I even analyze Oersted's insanity), it still didn't give him the right to become Odio, even if what Streibough did was also unjustified. He became just as bad as Streibough, if not 1000x worse. If the implication that Streibough became the Lord of Dark before Oersted did, then it can be said that Oersted just ended up going down the same path as Streibough, but for different reasons.

Akira didn't see the worst in humanity, and he didn't see the worst in Matsu, especially after he told Akira that he killed his dad. He saw that he tried to atone and change instead of focusing on the fact that he killed his dad.

Akira calls him out directly during his final speech to Oersted, saying "Know what your problem is? You blamed everyone else. Said it was them or gods or fate that made you what you are. But it was YOU! Just you! Yeah, people can suck. We can be selfish—look out only for ourselves. But if you focus only on the bad—judge them at their worst, well... You've already made up your mind, haven't you? Everything else is just an excuse!" He's the only one who doesn't show sympathy towards Oersted, because he went through such a similar series of events, but Oersted succumbed to darkness and only saw the worst, not the full picture.

Beliefs on Change

He clearly believes that only you can change your situation. At the start of the chapter, when he's directly talking to the player, if you answer a question he asks about how your life is going negatively, he says only you can change that.

In his final speech to Oersted, this belief is shown clearly, with him saying "Know what your problem is? You blamed everyone else. Said it was them or gods or fate that made you what you are. But it was YOU! Just you!", telling Oersted that he only had himself to blame for becoming Odio. To him, change in your life is something you hace to do, there's no outside force(s) that control how your life goes, it's only you in the driver's seat.

When he's told that his destiny lies with the Steel Titan, and later on, that he'll be made to serve Odeo, he keeps carrying on as normal (or beating up a giant statue). He clearly believes that destiny isn't real, and by extention based on some of his dialogue, that it's just an excuse to not change. He lives his life how he wants to, no matter how many people talk about destiny. To him, it's just an excuse.

Conclusion

In the end, Akira's a punk with psychic powers who doesn't give a damn about destiny. Despite all that he's lost, he still doesn't give into darkness, and he doesn't just focus on the worst of people. He's still a teenager, in the end. A teenager forced to save the world and fight two different gods, but still a teenager. He cares, but he hides it behind aloofness.

He's just like me frfr