Well, I realy don't know what to call this...

Many people have asked me, "Where did you come up with an idea like this?" Well, it's an odd story. It all started in 1996 as I came back from Beaumont after my parents had a messy divorce. While we stayed in Beaumont, I was constantly being hastled about religion by some of my relatives. I guess it got on my nerves after a while.
After returning from Beaumont, I got back together with some of my old friends (and lost some others). But one fateful day, my friend Bryce showed me the movie Akira. Needless to say, it changed my life. But, I didn't know it at the time.
Shortly after words, the chanting of Lady Miako started to echo into my mind. Especialy the speach given during the middle of the movie...

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"Beware those who distort providence under the gueise of Science. Under the guiese of Development we find waste after waste. Under the gueise of Culture we find desolation of the human heart... The time to repent is near, the time of the great Akira's awakening is near. Are your hearts prepaired? The time is near... Akira comes!!"

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This was, by far, one of the greatest speeches I had ever heard. It seemed wrong that it had come form such a thing as a cartoon. (Boy, has my taste changed since then...) But, never the less it stayed in the back of my head. One day, as a joke, I made a flyer with the logo of the musical group that had made the soundtract. It read: "The government is lying to you! For years the government has been conducting tests to create a super powered human. An artificial god...." Basicaly, it was a flyer describing the background story of the movie. At the bottom I wrote, "This is a public service brought to you by the Shrine of Akira"
I gave some copies of my flyer to some of my friends. They all liked it. People started walking up and asking me for copies. Then an idea hit me, "Why not turn this thing into a religion?" Of course it wouldn't realy be a religion. I decided to use it as a joke and as a Science Fair project. Something to the effect of, "The effects of introducing a new religion onto an unsuspecting town." I talked my idea over with Bryce and some of my other friends. It seemed like a good idea, it would work. And it would kill a lot of time. So, we set to work creating and refining the Shrine of Akira.
Unfortunitly, I wasn't the only one with thoughts like these. Someone thought of doing the exact same thing that day, and had gone around creating chaos in the classrooms. Akira sightings started flooding in. Now, my idea was destroyed, because to go to the office with my project would mean confessing to the disruptions...

However, word of the Shrine continued to grow. By the end of the month, people began to swamp me with request for info and membership into my little Shrine. The story and the mission of the Shrine began to alter it self and grow before my eyes. The end result? Well, your looking at it. The Shrine of Akira progressed into a full fleged mock cult. We have flyers, posters, computer programs, web sites, the works. People, total strangers, have been trying to join us! I supose we owe alot to the Akira Committe for it's inspiration and lack of legal action. (That's a joke, please don't sue us!!) But most of all we have the public to thank for it's support.

As a side note. "What is an Akiric?" and "Why did you pick the name Akira?" Well, this is fairly simple to answer. That was the name of our original group. When we re-did all of our information, and our little Shrine, the name just kinda stuck. In all honesty the real shrine is my closet door. It got the nickname the Shrine of Akira before anything else. But, if nothing else, the name shows just how much we care for that movie and, "all related characters."

4/47/98 Jason Skaggs (aka akira_shrine@yahoo.com)