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Akira (Special Edition) Actors: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo Number of Items: 2 Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Running Time: 124 minutes Studio: Pioneer Video Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2001-07-24 Buy from Amazon |
 "Some things shouldnt be changed"I must say that whilst all the options for the dvd are great, the change in the english voice acting wasn't done for the better. The original english voice acting had much better quality than the new version. Plus the new english acting didn't mix well with the original soundtrack and sounds. It sounds just slightly off. Really took away the enjoyment of it for me. Some things should NEVER be changed. Hopefully I can find an unchanged version of the dvd.  "Depth in anime..."To do the lengthy Akira graphic novel series complete justice would require a Peter Jackson-like effort in a series of movies. Nonetheless, this anime does a decent job of taking us into the world of Neo Tokyo. Much oif the overall story is missing, but I did love the direction of this film. I saw this movie when it was first released in the US years ago and even today I still fondly recall those flashback scenes of Tetsuo and Kaneda growing up together, best friends always, yet doomed to their tragic conflict. I'm the kind of fan who always opts to watch anime in the original Japanese with English subtitles. You get more of the intended emotions from the voice actors that way I find. Past editions of Akira in English were down right boring because of the dubbing. The new edition is better, but I still prefer to watch it in Japanese.  "Legendary anime, crappy new dub."I saw Akira about two years ago and haven't regreted it since. Fortuatelly, the first two times I saw it were on the Streamline Pictures VHS. When I bought the Pioneer DVD I was extremely mad. To be honest, I can't remember most of the lines from the Streamline tape but I thought the acting and script was alot better than the garbage Pioneer made. I hate Ronska, SharpX13, Matt Peterson, war of the 4, samjohnson123, and Evan Miller for saying the new dub is better than the original. Especially SharpX13 for saying that peter from Trigun did a better job and sounds better than that cool dude from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I have to say otherwise. Pioneer did this because they are a bunch of greedy fat chodes that want to destroy art for the sake of profit. I wish I could find the guy responsible for this and strangle him with my bare hands!! Yes, the Star Wars Trilogy was revised to look and sound better and included extra footage, but its essence wasn't lost in return. They kept the toy X-Wings and Snowspeeders and they didn't change the script. Yes, the Streamline dub was full of life and sounded realistic, the Pioneer one sounds lifeless and played through. The yuppies in favor of the new dub think its better because its more faithful to the original Japanese script and makes it easier to understand. Thats exactly why its terrible!! Great movies are supposed to make you think!! Since this was spelled out for the audience, its makes it no better than Disney crap like Lilo and Stich and Treasure Planet!! Now anyone can enjoy Akira, its not supposed to work that way, only intellectual people should enjoy this!! Down with Pioneer!! Boycott all the Akira DVDs from Pioneer and buy the Streamline Pictures VHS from this site or buy the Akira "Ultimate Collection" DVD from sendit.com. Just make sure your DVD player can play Region 2 DVDs. Heed my advice, you'll thank me some day!! "UGH!"Touted as the greatest anime ever produced my friend and I who are huge anime fans rented this POC (piece of crap)....... Mediocre animation, lousy story.... the best part was close to the beginning when the fat kid gets punched in the mouth and pukes up a bunch of blood..... THAT'S it! Worst Anime I've ever seen!  "Not the perfect release of Akira, but the best for now."This version of Akira was much better than the Pioneer one, soley because of it's original English dub. There were problems with it however; it was cropped down so you won't get the whole picture, the picture was grainy, and it was on tape. However, the dub more than makes up for these problems. I love the acting in this dub, mainly because Kaneda was voiced by Jimmy Flinders (voice of Leo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Maseru sounded like Marlon Brando, and the characters had Brooklyn accents, which gave the characters lots of zest in the dub. I showed this version to my friends and they all said this was alot better than the Pioneer dub. On a lighter note, another positive aspect of the dub is that Kaori (Tetsuo's girlfriend) sounded her age (in the Pioneer one, she sounded like an 8 year old), which made it less disturbing when she was raped by the Clowns. The same can be said about Kay (in the Pioneer one she sounded middle-aged). This version got me into the Akira experience and will remain cherrised along with the Star Wars Trilogy, The Ren and Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, Black Sabbath, and Rage Against The Machine. I found two perfect Akira DVDs; one being the British Akira "Ultimate Collection" DVD, this one is basicaly like the tape but on DVD. The other is the Australian Akira DVD, which has the restored picture and widescreen aspect ratio but with the original dub. I'm gonna get these but I'll keep the Streamline VHS as a colletor's item. Get the regionless DVD player and the DVDs and you won't be sorry!! |
