Parallels between Tetsuo and Humankind's Flaw

I am not initially sure why, but I had a definite reaction to Akira unlike the previous two Anime films.  Perhaps it is how Akira depicts the darker side of human behavior, as Tetsuo vies to consume all the power he can acquire.  The film contains a strikingly dark, apocalyptic tone.  The city, already ravaged by a third world war, is being torn apart in several regards.  Biker gangs, some consisting of mere delinquent teenagers, attack each other in the streets, politicians and military officials struggle against one another to seize power, and a new esper threatens to lay waste to all in his path.

I thoroughly enjoyed how one of the espers observed that a worm is to a human what a human is to an esper.  She imagines a worm given human strength, wondering what it would do considering a worm knows only to eat everything around it.  This analogy carries over to the espers- humans given higher powers.  Humans only know how to fight and exert their power over others and so would only use their powers destructively, a prophecy which Tetsuo fulfills.  Besides massacring police forces and civilians, he indiscriminately turns on those who befriended him before his transformation.  In this regard, Akira purports that humans can not yet handle the responsibility or caution required to yield higher powers.  Humankind has already revealed their inability to control the use of technological power through fighting a third world war.  Tetsuo and his ravenousness to exert his power represents a flaw in all of humankind.

The metaphorical death of god, or a belief in god, also struck me.  When Tetsuo reaches the inner capsule of the facility underneath the stadium, labeled, "Akira," the bottles reveal there is in fact no Akira alive, no sort of god they previously imagined to purge their world.  They can no longer look up to a higher power for direction, for the higher power is already present in themselves.  Tetsuo possesses higher powers of magical forces and the people possess higher powers of weaponry and technology.  Both must find the discretion in themselves, for the misuse of their ever more powerful capabilities entails destruction.  Nonetheless, they fail to do so.  The people use guns, tanks, grenades, and missiles against one another in riots while Tetsuo loses control of his powers.

I found Akira to be one of the most graphic, vivid depictions of a dystopian world I have seen yet.  I look forward to hearing further analysis of the themes and symbols contained.