Today marks the 35th anniversary of Akira

SJRB

SJRB

Gold Member
akira-bike-slide.jpg


That's it. That's the post.

Amazing anime, insanely influential to this very day with its animations, its story, its music. I watched it as a youngster but it went way over my head. Thought it was weird, made me feel uncomfortable. Probably my first entry into anime in the first place, a style very uncommon in western Europe in the early 90s. Didn't really grasp its concepts until much later and loved it ever since.

The whole thing is just an incredible ride, lightyears ahead of its time.


akira-kaneda.gif
 
Yep, it's a masterpiece. As influential and iconic as Blade Runner (but with a much better story :messenger_tears_of_joy:).

Grab it on 4k Blu-ray. You won't be disappointed.
 
It was one of those movies that started my fascination with Japanese animated cinema, which actually continues to this day.
A groundbreaking work that pushed the industry in the right direction, while still remaining a benchmark in its field.
Just like Perfect Blue, NGE or Ghost in the Shell, it has that "lighting in a bottle" feel, appearing as something that elevates anime to a higher level, inspiring multitudes of creators for decades to come.


Besides, guys, it's not important that you've grown old, what matters is what you've grown old with.
 
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I was barely a few years old at release but I distinctly remember watching it as a kid (maybe around 8 or 9 years old I would say) when my best friends brother and his friend who was a teenager at the time had gotten a VHS tape copy of it.

I was far too young to be watching it at the time and very much remember how brutal it was, to the point where I felt like my parents would be super mad at me watching it, and me being a bit of a bitch at that age I think I got my bike and rode home before we all got in trouble for watching an R rated movie lol.

Memories like that are great to have. I definitely miss the times where movies like this seemed to come out if nowhere and had such a high quality. Honestly felt like my friends brother and his buddies had a new anime or videogame import from japan almost every damn weekend we would all huddle around his tv in the basement to watch. Good times.

the words 'its from japan' would be spoken and me and my friends would immediately be hyped as fuck lol. Whatever it was.
 
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Not a fan of anime but discovered this and ghost in the shell aged around 15. Superb movies. Absolutely reek of effort and talent.
 
The first time I watch Akira it left me confused with the plot. It felt like watching a movie with half the content gone missing so the movie left a bad impression on me until now. Perhaps I was too young to understand the movie when I first watch it.

At least it had fantastic animation.
 
I remember the bike chase scene in Final Fantasy VII being such a seminal moment in that game.

It wasn't until later that I found out that it was ripped off from Akira. 😃
 
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Such a landmark piece in the worlds of film, art, anime, animation, I could go on and on. As Fools idol Fools idol mentioned above, this appeared on the scene when anything that was significant coming out of Japan in such a vein was just "oh look, they are showing the entire rest of the world how to do things the best way imaginable." I definitely felt weird when I first watched this (I think it gave me a pretty good headache) - so much to take in, the attention to detail of all the tiny elements was far and beyond anything I'd ever had seen, and mind you "modern" anime was still a pretty fresh/underexposed concept in the west in those days.

I think I can just sit back and enjoy letting the film wash over me more now, a lot more so than when it was new. In some ways it is disappointing that it's never been touched, not even close, by anything else of this nature (can you correct me, I would love to be educated). About 2 years ago, I finally read the entire mange after all of this time. Also very much worth experiencing, especially if you are any kind of a fan of this film, although it's quite different overall (and can still be confusing/off-putting, haha).

On a side note, definitely check out the film Chronicle if you haven't. It's got issues like any film, but in many ways it has felt like the closest Hollywood has ever come to approximating some of the pivotal stuff that was popularized in Akira.

If you are a fan that is interested in some of the crazy tech underpinning this film's production, you need to watch this brief, incredible analysis
 
Is this movie just overly grotesque?

Never seen it, but curious.

It never seemed, in small previews I saw, it was some kind of gore fest.

But reading briefly now about it, that seems to be the case.
 
0neAnd0nly said:
Is this movie just overly grotesque?

Never seen it, but curious.

It never seemed, in small previews I saw, it was some kind of gore fest.

But reading briefly now about it, that seems to be the case.
Click to expand...
It's got a couple of sequences that are pretty funky, but nothing outrageous I'd say. There is a scene later in the film where a character is mutating rather extravagantly, it's cartoony and detailed and probably a bit upsetting if you are particularly squeamish, but nothing that I think most people would be too disturbed by.
 
0neAnd0nly said:
Is this movie just overly grotesque?

Never seen it, but curious.

It never seemed, in small previews I saw, it was some kind of gore fest.

But reading briefly now about it, that seems to be the case.
Click to expand...
Not at all....just the last 10 minutes. The rest is void of that level of body horror.
 
My girl never watched it so we did a week ago. Didn't even knew that masterpiece was 35. Still holding up of course, but i must be getting old and i'm blending the manga with the movie, there's a lot of scenes i remembered that weren't in the anime version.
 
0neAnd0nly said:
Is this movie just overly grotesque?

Never seen it, but curious.

It never seemed, in small previews I saw, it was some kind of gore fest.

But reading briefly now about it, that seems to be the case.
Click to expand...
There's an attempted rape/sexual assault scene but nothing really gorey besides the body morphing toward the tail end. It's more political thriller than gore.
 
It's a shame we will never have anything of this quality ever again. Your grandkids will prolly still praise Akira and nothing else anime movie wise that released in our modern times.
 
Punished Miku said:
Does it have the original English dub?
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Looks like it. Has both the 1988 and 2001 dubs.

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD (2001 dub), English 2.0 Dolby TrueHD (1988), and Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (24 bit). The release has impressive dynamics. The audio clarity impresses throughout the entire 4K presentation.
Click to expand...

www.blu-ray.com

Akira 4K Blu-ray (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)

Akira 4K Blu-ray Release Date January 18, 2022. Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.
www.blu-ray.com www.blu-ray.com
 
Chiggs said:
Looks like it. Has both the 1988 and 2001 dubs.



www.blu-ray.com

Akira 4K Blu-ray (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)

Akira 4K Blu-ray Release Date January 18, 2022. Blu-ray reviews, news, specs, ratings, screenshots. Cheap Blu-ray movies and deals.
www.blu-ray.com www.blu-ray.com
Click to expand...
Good to hear/confirm
I adore the Streamline Pictures (1988) dub.

I paid $30 back in 2003 for the dvd version and was gutted it wasnt included. Thankfully I found a custom 1080p Bluray torrent with it patched back in around 2012.
 
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In 2019 Otomo announced a new Akira anime series, but there's absolutely nothing about it on the net :messenger_confused:

 
The animation is still incredible.

I also have the Manga box set released a couple years ago.

I once took a "Music of Japan and South East Asia" course and we talked about Akira one lecture.
 
Our local initially intended to show this as a limited screening to celebrate the anniversary, but people keep turning up to watch it, so it's been a fixture for the last few months. Apart from the animation, that mystic tribal music is something else
 
First UHD Bluray I bought when I got a PS5 and OLED. Still amazing to behold.
 
Mr Blobby said:
Our local initially intended to show this as a limited screening to celebrate the anniversary, but people keep turning up to watch it, so it's been a fixture for the last few months. Apart from the animation, that mystic tribal music is something else
Click to expand...

If I recall the lecture correctly it was heavily influenced by some Indlonesian music
 
I forgot to write my post about it.

I dont think Akira is a great adaptation of the manga, not even sure if its that good of a movie. Its very uneven, it starts with some of the coolest setting you can imagine, popping colors, crazy action and otherworldly music and then fizzles itself on a bunch of kids we have no idea who they are, but are certainly not as interesting as a bunch of cool mofos on bikes going around the most beautiful dystopian city ever put on screen. And then it jumps straight to a rushed climax.

Yet, its incredibly entertaining because of a level of craftsmanship and dedication that simply doesn't exist anymore (not exclusive to japanese animation). Nolan has talked a bunch of times about this concept where a motion picture is able to portrary a world that exists beyond the frame. And that's where AKira excels, the city, the bikes, the way the hips of the characters jiggle, how every room has so much texture, how the shades move, how every movement is fluid. Its just so incredibly rich, the audience is engulfed in that grandeur. Which is the result on an enormous labor of very talented people, with their hands and brains working together. Pure skill.

The manga is, imo, a masterclass of action. All kinds, vehicular, man to man, guns, kinetic, all at the same time. Its relentless and Otomo draws it like a storyboard of the perfect action movie(s). While the film doesn't achieve the same heights, as a sensory experience is even more fulfilling.
 
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DGrayson said:
If I recall the lecture correctly it was heavily influenced by some Indlonesian music
Click to expand...

Yes, it's like a blend of Gamelan and Japanese, traditional monastery music. An excellent choice emphasizing cultural uniqueness and expression of social life. What proves the greatness of this soundtrack, however, is how it was combined with images, they didn't throw it there just like that, but they made sure that it introduced the viewer into an ecosystem that, although it never existed, seems neither artificial nor improbable, as if it was some extension of the dark recesses of our collective mind.

Whoever did this, intentionally or by accident, hit all the right boxes.
 
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