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Akira represents everything awesome about 80's anime

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It was a cornerstone on anime animation and acceptation overseas. Until Akira everyone thought (myself included) that anime could only be about things like Dragon Ball or sacccarinated stories for girls. Boy how much wrong we were. Still, the movie is very flawed. It didnt made sense or whatsoever, it was just a sequence of insanely cool scenes with little or no relation among theirselves. You simply cannot traduce such a long and complex story in such a short movie, and it showed.
 
I've always hated Akira as it was mediocre in it's story. It always felt more like flash than substance. On top of that it always seemed like casual watchers or new people to anime loved it and thought that is what anime was about. It was about the only thing they've seen. Well that and Ninja Scroll at the time. Real anime fans didn't bring up Akira when talking about anime. It was Macross, something by rumiko takahashi, or something like that. It was a way of telling who watched anime from someone who saw Akira once and said anime was cool.
 
A thread about awesome anime needs more Cyber City: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo1gm4pC1ck
and Angel Cop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVpwJbLLivU
and the video that sums it all up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwb2r1vLtxM

Need that Akira blu-ray (no UK release yet) but darn why did they m,iss out the extras? Now I gotta keep one of the DVDs still. Also: I never got an answer in other topics about this but which dub does the blu-ray feature? The old streamline pictures one or the later Pioneer one?
 
Some of you guys need to move on from starter anime like akira. Seriously, there's so much more anime out there to watch and gush over. I'm tired of running into people who claim to love anime and only talk about Akira and Ninja Scroll :lol
 
polyh3dron said:
What does your moon money have to do with a claim of EIGHTY GOD DAMN DOLLARS?
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That's about eighty goddamned dollars. Well, a bit less but still.
 
Gantz said:
Some of you guys need to move on from starter anime like akira. Seriously, there's so much more anime out there to watch and gush over. I'm tired of running into people who claim to love anime and only talk about Akira and Ninja Scroll :lol
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Who said some of us don't watch some newer stuff too? Mind game and Dead Leaves FTW. Mind you, not a lot of the most recent stuff interests me all too much, except Kemonozume and Kaiba.

No matter what way you spread it though Akira is still and incredible feat animation wise, even if the story was broken up. There's barely been anything as slick and elaborate as it since, and with barely any computer assistance either (just the odd special effect like that hologram graph thing). The film is infinitely better if you've read the manga too, though.

Oh, and that soundtrack is still one of the most unique I've heard in a anime movie. Ghost in the Shell came close, but..
 
Gantz said:
Some of you guys need to move on from starter anime like akira. Seriously, there's so much more anime out there to watch and gush over. I'm tired of running into people who claim to love anime and only talk about Akira and Ninja Scroll :lol
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:lol
You know exactly how I feel! It's those exact two that people mention and exactly what I was trying to get at in my post above yours.
 
I started expanding my anime horizions about 18 years ago. Doesn't mean I still can't have a soft spot for Akira :lol
 
chase said:
I guess 80s anime isn't very awesome.
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Yeah, it pretty much universally sucks.
I'm amazed that anime's rise in America wasn't pushed back another few decades when people saw Akira.

Aside from Ghibli stuff, everything I've watched that dates back before the 90's has been a huge disappointment.
 
Akira isn't a starter anime anymore.

That was in 1995.

Naruto, Death Note, and Dragon Ball Z are your starter anime.

Akira has become somewhat obscured by the "anime boom" of the early part of the decade.


So it's cool to like it again. Get with the times.
 
Slavik81 said:
Yeah, it pretty much universally sucks.
I'm amazed that anime's rise in America wasn't pushed back another few decades when people saw Akira.

Aside from Ghibli stuff, everything I've watched that dates back before the 90's has been a huge disappointment.
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Eh? Some of my favorite stuff is pre-90s. Macross(Robotech), Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers), Ranma 1/2, Kimagure Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura, Grave of the Fireflies, and Bubblegum Crisis just to name a few.
 
SonicMegaDrive said:
Akira isn't a starter anime anymore.

That was in 1995.

Naruto, Death Note, and Dragon Ball Z are your starter anime.

Akira has become somewhat obscured by the "anime boom" of the early part of the decade.


So it's cool to like it again. Get with the times.
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I think I'd rather be 'behind the times' than watch those over Akira, ta.

Also: Dragonball is just as old as Akira, is it not?
 
I would add Rose of Versailles to that list. One of the all-time greats.

gagaman said:
Also: Dragonball is just as old as Akira, is it not?
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It is, but remember, we didn't get Dragon Ball until the late 90's, and even then it didn't take off in the west until the early 00's, alongside Pokemon and others. Akira came out in 1988, a year before DBZ, but it came out to America almost instantly and became in instant success. So it preceded DBZ in popularity by nearly a decade.
 
Duck Amuck said:
Really? I like the dvd version more.
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The original dub kept the background sound effects when characters were talking.. This made it much more atmospheric.

Then again, the DVD release didn't sound like they hired the cast of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to voice the dub.
 
Now, now. It was just one actor. And Cam Clarke is awesome.

Besides, I'll take the 'cartoony' cast of the original Akira dub over the dull and lifeless cast of the modern one.

It just felt like they were speaking their lines, and the lip-synching wasn't really any better.
 
SonicMegaDrive said:
I would add Rose of Versailles to that list. One of the all-time greats.



It is, but remember, we didn't get Dragon Ball until the late 90's, and even then it didn't take off in the west until the early 00's, alongside Pokemon and others. Akira came out in 1988, a year before DBZ, but it came out to America almost instantly and became in instant success. So it preceded DBZ in popularity by nearly a decade.
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I'd still rather 'start' anime with a movie than a 300 episode series. :P

Come on guys, which dub is on the blu ray? Does anybody know? :(
 
Gagaman said:
I'd still rather 'start' anime with a movie than a 300 episode series. :P

Come on guys, which dub is on the blu ray? Does anybody know? :(
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I'm 99% sure it's the Pioneer dub. I don't believe you'll be seeing the Streamline one again.
 
Akira represents everything awesome about anime

fixed. There has never been a better Anime film. I've seen a few come close, but Akira will always be the pinnacle when Anime and Art House meet. most anime is garbage compared, especially that crap on Cartoon Network.
 
SonicMegaDrive said:
I'm 99% sure it's the Pioneer dub. I don't believe you'll be seeing the Streamline one again.
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Shit. So I have a DVD with extras, and a DVD box set with one extra and both dubs (but to hear the streamline dub you gotta watch a crappy non-widescreen version), and the blu ray has no extras and the new dub so I'll hold out on buying that for a bit and just watch it for the sub. The original dub is just so much more memorable to me, the new one didn't sound right at all.
 
It's funny how polarizing this movie is among anime fans. Most seem to really like it, but there's definitely a lot of vocal people who apparently think it's complete dogshit, like more than for other popular movies.

I just saw it again last week (for the first time in Japanese w/subs) and so naturally I went to the imdb forums. The dissent was surprising, even as imdb poster go.
 
It isn't dogshit to anybody outside of those strange anime fans who are past the state of casual, but not yet at the stage where they can accept the fact that something that's 'popular' can also still be good.

Akira was a groundbreaking movie from over 2 decades ago that even 20 years later, has some of the best animation seen in a Japanese movie. The quality of the story is strictly relative to your tastes or how much you feel it is faithful to it's original source material. It cannot be argued that the overall production is very high quality, however.
 
Don't think it's the greatest movie ever it was merely OK. That said I just bought it off Right Stuff to show my support for anime on BluRay that's not 100 dollars.

I do think that there is a point to be made that for many it was their newbie anime and my argument against that is really "so the fuck what?" That's like some 70 year old scolding me for having just discovered Get Smart on Nick at Night, who fucking cares? So I really hate the eletist attitude that some have when talking about the movie, but it really was far from great but far from total dog shit as well.
 
Totally disagree here.

The only awesome thing about Akira is the animation. The characters aren't very likable and the story doesn't even make sense; I want to punch the guy who said it makes Blade Runner look like Disney World.
 
The characters aren't meant to be likable. They are flawed people with jealousies and self-esteem issues (among other problems typical of adolescence) that are given an extraordinarily deal of power.


The problem with the story is that the film was made before the manga was finished. So the latter half of the movie is rushed beyond the usual film adaptation issues.
 
Gagaman said:
Shit. So I have a DVD with extras, and a DVD box set with one extra and both dubs (but to hear the streamline dub you gotta watch a crappy non-widescreen version)
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What exact dvd version do you have that has the Streamline dub?

SonicMegaDrive said:
It isn't dogshit to anybody outside of those strange anime fans who are past the state of casual, but not yet at the stage where they can accept the fact that something that's 'popular' can also still be good.
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This is correct.
 
Duck Amuck said:
This movie has:

- explosions
- butt kicking
- riots
- people getting shot up
- mother fuckers getting MURKED
- amazing action scenes
- cyberpunk
- great music
- KANEDA! TETSUO!

:bow :bow 80'S ANIME :bow2 :bow2
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- disastrously horrific storytelling and plot bordering on nonsensical

Which is also pretty standard for late 80s/early 90s anime, particularly of the hyper-violent variety. :D
 
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