Forget the iconic Akira Slide.Today I learned that the massive diagonal elevator lifts that seem to be everywhere in video games and nowhere in real life, can also be sourced to the Akira manga.TMNT, Resident Evil 2, Half-Life, Metal Gear Solid, they’re everywhere, and among game developers in the 90s they were known as “Akira Lifts”
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Yep, funiculars are similar, and probably were the inspiration for the Akira Lift. But the large, non-unenclosed platforms are very rare and many video games source Akira as the inspiration :)
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I mean, yes. The large scale, industrial looking lift in Akira is unique to the manga/anime, but the concept has been around for over a century.
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Those exist in real life, they're called funiculars. But yes, most of the time they're in video games they're a reference to Akira.Most real ones are fully-enclosed, not just a little railing.
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In Hamilton Ontario there was once what was called the “Incline Railway” which went up and down the escarpment before the roadways were built but it shut down in 1936, less elevator like, more train 🤷🏼♀️
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Yep! That was a funicular, which uses two enclosed cable cars that act as counterweights and is operated by pulley and wheel. A little different from what appear to be hydraulic Akira Lifts, but definitely similar :)If that funicular was still in operation I might make the trek to Hamilton more often!
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It wouldn't surprise me to find out that things like this were used in mineshafts. We went on a coal mine tour a few years back in Pennsylvania and it was basically a diagonal funicular like that which took us down.
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Oooh! That looks kinda close actually! I know that funiculars (enclosed trams that are lifted diagonally up a slope) used to be quite common, but I wasn’t aware of anything that looked like an Akira Lift.Although much smaller, these are still a good find!
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Been looking for more, thinking 'surely there must be others', but no, it seems modern quarries are all about the conveyor belts and massive dump trucks! Relic of a bygone age, it seems
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I always thought it was basically a take on Los Angeles' Angels Flight, a very real, and very old, diagonal tram. Making it an elevator is a fictional adaptation, but not that much of a stretch.
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For sure. Angels Flight is a funicular, which are very real and used to be very common. Pittsburgh still has two working funiculars I believe. They probably are the inspiration for the industrial sized, non-enclosed Akira Lifts
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I did a report on this in the 5th grade , been waiting to use this knowledge I have about it for 35 years haha
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There is a huge real-life one at one of the Skagit River dams. It's used to move rail cars up the dam.Not sure it's still in use thoughimages.app.goo.gl/KEjWe…
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There is one version (albeit a bit smaller version) that was built for a NATO facility and is now a tourists attraction in Norway
gaustabanen.no/en/ab…
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You’re right! I believe that’s a funicular, which are similar and probably were the inspiration for the large Akira Lifts.
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That's it! I'm sure they have them in various other hilly places in Europe. Switzerland?
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Wait? Seriously? My first thought when seeing this pic was RE2. Btw, closest I've seen this in real life is an elevator at Hudson Yards on the 7 line in NYC. They have an elevator that moves diagonal.
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Yep! Those small diagonal elevators are called funiculars, and used to be very common. But the large, non-enclosed lifts originated with Akira
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I worked in a warehouse from like 1912 that had one. It was super sketchy seeming and unlike my coworkers I refused to ride it. I'd load it with pallets, walk up the stairs next to it, then hit the call button to bring it to the second floor.
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They have something like that in a couple of stations on the Elizabeth Line in London.youtube.com/watch…
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in Singapore, there is a residential estate that uses these funicular lifts for residents to get to their individual units
I became an aunt (again), to a little girl 🥰
My husbands big sister had her second baby 🎉FINALLY. SOMEONE I CAN PUT IN DRESSES. I’M GONNA LOVE THE RIBBONS 🎀 OUT OF THIS PRINCESS.I might just steal her💁🏼♀️
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[09.02.2025] Happy 24th Birthday, Ran! 🤗🎂
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Big ups, 👩🏼❤️💋👨🏽
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Woke up early, worked in the morning and then enjoyed a free afternoon in Tokyo with some matcha latte 🍵🖤To my fellow social media managers, what makes you go 🤨 when you work? I’ll let you guess what it was for me this time 👀
alisyasdiaries
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