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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 |
 "For the Bored"To begin with, this was suggested to me by 2 friends, both of which praised the story. I read a few online reviews here, thinking it to be an at the very least decent anime. But the truth is, this movie is mostly shock and gore, so I only suggest it if you are a horror film fan. The obscene images, including Tetsuo's gruesome hallucinations like milk-bleeding teddy monsters and tearing open and spilling your small intestine all over the sideway, are far too much for me.Also, I frown upon the post nuclear holocaust setting. You may like it, but I just find stories in that era unbearable. If you're a member of that party, one who reads the above and thinks "Awesome, dude, let's go get this!" then by all means, you and dude can go get it. But if you're a tad more level-headed, I suggest something less, dare I say... mentally puncturing. I left out one very vital piece of my review. If you read some of the reviews around here, you can piece together a rather odd picture. It seems that AKIRA is about: -Violence and attacking anyone who's in your way, as well as those who are not. Does anyone here who is an AKIRA supporter mention Kaori? Do you even know who she is? Kaori was Tetsuo's girlfriend, and she suffered severely throughout the movie. The enemy biker gang sexually abused her, Tetsuo didn't even care about her, and often shunned her. And in the final stages of the movie, he killed her. Yes, I know it's a spoiler, I apologize, but it's worth noting ahead of time. Doesn't that phase you? Did you not see her blood squirt from her like a tomatoe? That was manslaughter, a massacre, an unatoned slaying, pure homicidal garbage. In my opinion, it was perhaps the most--the only emotionally effecting moment in the entire movie, and full worth noting in any review. She's the reason I give this movie only 1 star. It's not my idea of entertainment to watch someone hurt. ... That's all I have to say.  "Incredible Film"You can tell when people put effort and don't put effort into a movie, the amound of effort put into this movie was strongly obvious. The detail in this movie is incredible, the animation is incredibly beautiful. Some may need to watch the movie several times to undertand it though, the story was took from the manga and to be formatted as a movie a lot of chunks were took out. This DVD includes both the English and Japanese versions, and this is one of the few dubs where the English is nearly as good as the Japanese. If you have any liking of sci fi movies, then this one is for you  "MTV Rocks and yeah220 are s***bags, and the new dub sucks."Disney better than Akira? You two stupid slimeballs should be sent to hell and Dr. Weir should mutilate you both!! Disney is for kids and for ignorant young adults on drugs. Akira is for smart adults. Walt Disney just re-wrote a bunch of European fairy tales, and after his death, the company just re-writes a bunch of highly clicheed stories. Katsuhiro Otomo (who made Akira) wrote and drew the graphic novels and made the anime, both of which are very original. Otomo kicks Disney's dead ass anyday of the week!! Back on topic, I hate the re-dub because it sounds so bland, lifeless, tepid, and annoying. I gave this DVD five stars because even though I hate the new dub, I don't have the heart to give Akira less than five, let alone one. If you expect to hear Kaneda's "Leonardo voice" on this DVD, you'll be very mad (I was). The three main actors in the re-dub are Johnny Yong Bosch (Vash from Trigun), Wendy Lee (Faye from Cowboy Bebop), and that little weiner from Digimon. Bosch's voice makes Kaneda sound like a wimp, Lee's new voice makes Kay sound like she's in her 40's (and it's annoying), and the Digimon voice makes Tetsuo sound like a weiner as well. Bosch can't compare to Kaneda's original voice actor, who is the great Jimmy Flinders (Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). He made Kaneda sound like a badass. If you want to have the old dub on DVD, go to [...] and order the Australian Akira DVD (you must have a regionless DVD player to play it, it's region 4). Now to the movie itself (dubs put aside). This got me into the whole anime genre. I first saw it three years ago on VHS (luckily, it had the old dub) and I said to myself "WOW, this is so much better than the crap we have (Disney, Nickelodeon, etc.) now!! It's about this biker named Tetsuo Shima, who is routinelly spat upon by society, who gets into a crash involving a psycic superweapon named Takashi (who looks like a shriveled up blue kid), Tetsuo gains superpowers and after several experiments, escapes the laboratory he's in and calls out for revenge against everyone, including his big brother figure, Kaneda. It has a very involved plot, requires complex thought, has gobs of violence, a dab of nudity, and not for stupid people. If you loved Akira, you should also see Otomo's other anime, which are Robot Carnival, Memories, and Steamboy. "Impeccable DVD release of a controversial Anime classic."This ambitious, multi-million dollar animated adaptation of Katsuhiro Otomo's best-selling graphic novel series is spectacular, both on a technical and visceral level. A lot of effort was obviously put into making the animation as fluid and lively as possible, with stunning results that rivals Disney's finest. Most Japanese animated films tend to have a somewhat stilted frame rate (for economical reasons), but one look at AKIRA and you would definitely think otherwise. It is important to note, however, that this is NOT a Disney/family-friendly kind of film. Neither is it for the squeamish of viewers (or the shallowest of minds, for that matter). This is a gritty, futuristic, post-apocalyptic tale involving juvenile delinquents, corrupt government politicians, and a cautionary message about the misuse of supernatural powers. Trying to describe the plotline may be a bit of a challenge, because at times it comes across as convoluted and difficult to follow. (This can mainly be attributed to the fact that Otomo was trying to compress his 2,000+ page graphic novel into one two-hour film.) It will take more than one viewing to make any sense out of this labyrinthine story, yet there are cautionary messages that one can ultimately take away from the experience. AKIRA is obviously not targeted at young children, but at a more mature audience. Good thing, too, because the film contains an extreme amount of intense violence (and very graphic at that) as well as one brief but very disturbing scene where a female character is almost raped. The really gruesome stuff occurs in the last thirty minutes in which a young teenager (who happens to be the angst-ridden anti-hero of the story) has his arm amputated by a space satellite (with bloody results), gets a metallic replacement, and transforms into a gross, indistinguishable mass of flesh and gore. The latter sequence is one of the multiple "bizarre" set pieces present in the movie (others which include a nightmare in which cuddly, innocent-looking toys grow to enormous size and threaten a medical patient). The obviously frightening aspects of such moments will obviously alienate family-friendly audiences, yet at the same time explode with imaginative, grotesque visuals rarely matched in other films (unless you count Hayao Miyazaki's works). Also worthy of mention is the background music by the Genioh Yamashiro Gumi, an eccentric concoction of percussion, electronics, chimes, and chanting. Like the movie, it thunders through the speakers with an aggressive, fast-forward pace and bizarre, surreal tones, ranging from energetic to mellow. It sounds like an unconventional accompaniment to such a movie, but it works. The film is considered the pinnacle of Japanese animation, yet, as with many of the greatest films of our time, it has had its share of detractors. In particular, it took me more than one viewing to finally accept AKIRA. I first saw the movie when I was thirteen, totally unprepared for such a violent, confusing yet beautiful animated movie. To be honest, I disliked it. When I saw the movie again five years later, it wasn't the bloodletting or the plot that offended me, but the dubbing (not produced, but released by Streamline Pictures), which grated on my ears and ranks as the worst English Anime dub I ever heard. (To those of you who are fans of that dub who may be reading this, I'm sorry, but I absolutely can't stand listening to it again.) But after obtaining this more polished, professional sounding version by Geneon/Pioneer (more on that later), I at last came to accept AKIRA as a remarkable achievement in animation with strong, universal messages resonating within its turbulent, gory nature and multi-layered storyline. Even so, I wouldn't recommend this movie for the casual fan, but for animation buffs and as an exercise in artistry, action, and morality for adults, few films match AKIRA as a worthy contender in that category. As for this Special Edition DVD release, I have to tip my hat off to Geneon/Pioneer for putting a lot into remastering (and retranslating) this controversial classic. The video quality is amazing, but not quite perfect; there are still some specks I could spot on the print, but these are very insignificant considering how gorgeous the print looks. The biggest improvement, however, has to be the English re-dub. Produced by the folks responsible for top-quality productions for shows such as COWBOY BEBOP and OUTLAW STAR, this new version is superior to the original in every way. The new English cast is talented and give it their all, and their efforts are amply supported by a script which is not only more coherent but faithful in spirit and meaning to the subtitles. (Using a direct literal translation in a dub can sometimes result disastrously, but this happens to be an exception.) The only weakness is that the spoken lines do not always mesh with the moving mouth since AKIRA's original Japanese dialogue was, unlike most Anime, recorded BEFORE animation began (hence why the animation is obviously synched more to the Japanese language track). While this new version may not be perfect, it certainly comes close, and everyone involved obviously cared about this legendary film to do it justice. The Japanese language track is included on the DVD set as well, but it's in 2.0 and not 5.1. (Note: A recent re-release has the Japanese track remastered to DTS 5.1.) It's the special features, however, that make this edition of AKIRA deserve its subtitle. There's absolutely everything you'd want to know about this film -- a "making-of" documentary, a 20-minute short on the creation of the music, an interview with Otomo, three excellent featurettes about the remastering process, and a very helpful, informative glossary. There's also a "capsule feature", where a capsule appears once in a while on the screen, and you can highlight it to learn even more interesting facts on the film. Bottom-line: even if you are a non-fan of this movie, you are invited to check out this DVD release.  "Uh...huh?"Now, before I start ranting about how overrrated Akira is, I've got to say this-- Akira has, especially for its time, stunning visuals. I'll give it that. It also boasts a pretty impressive score that fits in well with the mood. I'll give it that. What I won't give it the nod on is plot, story. Y'know, that thing that makes the movie what it is. And before I jump into that, a little backstory on my experience with anime. I've had a lot of it. God knows how many different series' I've seen. I own at least 10 complete one's, and I've seen at least twice that many. So yeah, not as much as some anime junkies, but I've seen my share of anime. What can I say? I love it. Anime just has so much emotion, so much character. And, surprisingly, it's rare you come upon a truly poor anime. Akira is not a poor anime. But, as I was saying a paragraph or so ago, the plot just doesn't work. Convoluted post-apocalyptic storylines aside, it just doesn't make sense. So many questions go unanswered it's incredibly hard to keep up. People are simply willing to overlook the ridiculous amount of plot holes. Above all, the question always remains "What the hell is going on?" Why is everyone worshipping "Akira" and praying for his second-coming, when the last time he came he blew the beejesus out of Tokyo? Or did I misunderstand? It's not hard too when you're immediately thrown into an insane string of events that, with the proper backing, could have developed into an amazing plot. But it didn't. Always, there's an unanswered question that's absolutely essential to the plot-- "Why are they continuing these experiments?" "How did the program start in the first place?" "What exactly are they doing to people that makes them crazy powerful?" I could list tons more, but I'd rather not waste your time. I'm sure I'll get tons of negative comments, but it's worth it. I just don't feel Akira deserves all the accolades it's been receiving, and I had to speak up about it. |
