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Akira‘s theatrical poster is almost as iconic as the movie itself. But who knew that a character walking towards their ride could look as badass as Kaneda?

Katsuhiro Otomo’s science fiction opus Akira is considered by many to be the best animated science fiction movie ever, and the movie’s accompanying theatrical poster is sure to have graced walls all over the world. But more recently, artists have been parodying that same poster by inserting other well-known characters and their rides in place of Kaneda and his iconic motorcycle. Surprisingly, it works really well and each of the artists do a good job of keeping the original tone of the poster but transforming it with new characters. Here are a few of our favorites from this long running tradition.

▼ Cloud from Final Fantasy VII

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▼ Flynn from Tron

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▼ Officer Jenny from Pokémon

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▼ Red from Pokémon

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▼ Panthro from ThunderCats

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▼ Mario and his Mario Kart

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Kamen Rider

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▼ Video game classic, Paperboy

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▼ Goku from Dragon Ball Z

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▼ Rey and BB-8 from Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you can definitely appreciate these homages to the original. Which one’s your favorite?

Source: Cupo
Top Image: TumblrTwitter/JunyaTheSphereRedbubble/Ratigan