Corrected entry: Near the end, the satellite SOL shoots its first blast to Tetsuo and harms him very badly despite his great powers (he even loses his right arm). But Kaneda, who is only a couple of meters away from Tetsuo and has no special powers, manages to survive in perfect condition.
Akira (1988)
1 corrected entry
Directed by: Katsuhiro Ohtomo, Katsuhiro Otomo
Starring: Mami Koyama, Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Tessho Genda
Continuity mistake: When Kaneda and the others are being questioned by the police, you can see a colored strip on the interrogator's uniform lose it's color. This happens in the special edition too.
Female in crowd: Those are so fattening.
More trivia for Akira
Question: Can anyone explain the significance of Tetsuo's transformation towards the end of the film? I've been told it supposed to symbolise something but I can't figure out what.
Answer: In effect, it should symbolize (just as the other psionics say) that humanity is not yet ready to control such power; we are mentally not 'mature' enough. And since we are mere 'children', we tend to play with that power without any real sense of responsibility, and before we know it, it goes out of control. In effect, it mirrors the lack of sense that we demonstrate in our real world, with our technical and political power.
Correction: The blast was directly on Tetsuo, so Kaneda probably got lucky and was sheilded by flying debris from the actual "power" of the blast.