Akira

Oh noes! What has happened to Ark? Haha

Nice review man and good luck on your last few weeks

I actually watched the movie under similar circumstances… everyone kept shouting at me that it was a movie that every anime fan had to at least see. And I agree, it should be at least seen… but it’s not going to impress people. Give me Outlaw Star over this any day.

1st off, nice “Akira in 5 seconds” bit at the halfway point of the vid…KANEDAAAAA!! TETSUOOOO!! and random stuff getting shot at and “blowed up” covers most of it. For such a seminal and groundbreaking anime (read: this work was usually a component of the “initiation process” for many newcomer otaku–can somebody tell me what the frack happened at the end (without telling me to read the manga–have you seen the ginormous size of those six volumes)? ^_-

And FWIW…yes Arkada, by virtue of watching the Geneon re-release, you saw/heard the “good dub.” The Streamline dub is just wretched. But being Streamline, that’s probably a redundancy!

My brother introduced me to Akira when I was 13 or 14 and I loved it. Of course it was violent, bloody, gory, and had a lot of action so of course the young teen aged me would love it. I watched it again a couple years ago and while I still enjoy it on some level, I agree with your review. Its a fun movie to just turn your brain off to and enjoy random violence for two hours, but if you try to think about it it makes your brain hurt. I have read the first two volumes of the manga and they were enjoyable. I keep meaning to buy all six of them at some point, but I’ve never done so. Every time I go into the comic shop with intent to pick them up I find something like Sandman or Kingdom Come that deserves my money more.

Its not a great movie, but as you said its something that should be watched by any anime fan just to say you’ve seen it. Same way I feel about things like Pokemon and Dragonball Z actually. Not great, but need to be watched anyway.

well going by the DVD you have in the review you got the supposed “good” dub. Apparently in the streamline dub they all have new jersey accents. hell i wouldn’t know i couldn’t get 10 minutes into movie before i gave up.

Read the manga, it may be expensive as hell, but if you get a chance, to buy it, it’s one of my favorites, though I think a lot of that comes from nostalgia, this was one of the first manga that I ever read, so I doubt it is as good as I remember, though I remember it as being really awesome, so check it out.

Yeah, people talk about how awesome the movie was and I shake my head in disbelief, it wasn’t really bad, but it seems like a pale shadow that’s trying to survive on the shadow of its superior brother.

Oh, so THAT’S why Arkada’s gonna be gone for a few weeks. He’ll be in a coma until some random preteen fights through a bunch of impossible to beat monsters with pound signs and at symbols as health. Damn that… unnamed… evil… wtf was the name of the thing that put people into comas, anyway?

On Akira, I haven’t seen it. Every clip I did see of it made me go “Ok, it looks pretty…” but nothing else. Sounds like my guesses may have been right. But I still get odd looks when I say I haven’t seen it, because I’ll point anime-watching friends to obscure shit they’ve never heard of, then say I haven’t watched a mainstream one that “everybody loves.” Awesome review.

*note* i watched the japanese version so i havent seen “a good or a bad dub” just the original.

I thought honestly Akira was very good, sure not everything made sense but still thats not why i watch movies or animes for that matter. I watch for enjoyment and what Akira has shown is that its incredible and it really raised the bar for what anime could be

first off: it used lip-synch, today one might think hah thats easy but at the time it was the first EVER that it was done in an anime production and it even had more than 160.000 animtaion cels, for those that dont know what cels is: it means its freaking hand drawn EVERYTHING and each panel has to be redrawn for where there is something happening and its fluid animation, this is old school with no cutting corners.

for a movie made in 1988 id say this is pretty damn good

story-wise its ok well the last part of the manga from there the movie derailed quite a bit. Akira is in my opinion a kind of a cult classic and this movie is a technical masterpiece of its time

heck they even used the sound of a real harley davidson with a jet engine for the sound of kanedas bike O.o

(what made me see the movie originaly was the poster, i thought it looked simply awesome and had to see what kind of movie it was )

Read the manga, Ark. It’s a thousand times better and will make the whole thing make sense. plus, Kei isn’t a complete pussy in the manga, a contrast to her gun-shy nature in the movie.

Though I love the manga far more and will admit this movie did confuse me a lot, I liked Akira. The music and even imagery is finely crafted and it’s the type of film you need to see multiple times to absorb. If you can’t take having to do that or just don’t like the type of film it is I can perfectly understand.

I would also disagree a bit with movie to film adaptation, the creator of the manga was also responsible for the film. He does a good job re-adapting while keeping important core elements within balance.

As for the music it is strange stuff, the process they went through to create it involves a special pattern and formulation process. Look it up you’d be surprised by how it was made, it surprised me (and I’m working musician). I can say that the music definitely wasn’t catchy or the type of stuff you’d hum, however it is unlike anything else I’ve heard and certainly is memorable.

What really causes the film to be great though I’d have to say is the trippy confusing nature of the film and visuals (which still hold up today quite well). It’s definitely not on the level some other films of it’s kind like Metropolis (my fave ^>^), but I suggest giving it a chance and seeing it again.

You are definitely right. Even before this review I watched Akira for the main reason of watching it because so many people have said it’s “great.”

And I never read the manga so…. friggin lost…… oh well.