Description: In 1988, the landmark Anime film AKIRA, by director Katsuhiro Otomo, defined the cutting edge of Anime around the world. By today's standards, Akira remains the pinnacle of cel animation and retains the explosive impact of its highly detailed animation and its intensely violent saga of power and corruption. Neo-Tokyo has risen from the ashes of World War III to become a dark and dangerous megalopolis infested with gangs and terrorists. The government seethes with corruption and only maintains a token control over the powerful military that prevents total chaos and hides the secrets of the past. Childhood friends Tetsuo and Kaneda plunge into Neo-Tokyo's darkest secret when their motorcycle gang encounters a military operation to retrieve an escaped experimental subject. Tetsuo, captured by the military, is subjected to experiments that make him a powerful psychic, but, unfortunately for Neo-Tokyo, Tetsuo's powers rage out of control and he lashes out at the world that has oppressed him! Nothing can stop the destructive forces that Tetsuo wields except possibly the last boy to destroy Tokyo. Insert: 1) Black BRC response card (regular version).
2) Todd McFarlane Toy Insert (limited to 300,000 total inserts) * Anime masterpiece first time ever on DVD for North American release! * Created and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo. Special Features: * Digitally re-mastered including High Definition film transfer, High Definition restoration. * THX Certified * New English dialogue, new 5.1 mix (on the English audio only), scene access and more. * Disc 2 contains supplementary materials including "Akira" Production Report, "Sound Clip," director's interview, trailers, production materials, Restoration of "Akria", and "Akria" glossary. * Widescreen format (1:78) and enhanced for widescreen TV's (anamorphic). Akria The Special Edition (DVD9, 2 discs)
Amazon.com essential video: Artist-writer Katsuhiro Ôtomo began telling the story of Akira as a comic book series in 1982 but took a break from 1986 to 1988 to write, direct, supervise, and design this animated film version. Set in 2019, the film richly imagines the new metropolis of Neo-Tokyo, which is designed from huge buildings down to the smallest details of passing vehicles or police uniforms. Two disaffected orphan teenagers--slight, resentful Tetsuo and confident, breezy Kaneda--run with a biker gang, but trouble grows when Tetsuo start to resent the way Kaneda always has to rescue him. Meanwhile, a group of scientists, military men, and politicians wonder what to do with a collection of withered children who possess enormous psychic powers, especially the mysterious, rarely seen Akira, whose awakening might well have caused the end of the old world. Tetsuo is visited by the children, who trigger the growth of psychic and physical powers that might make him a superman or a supermonster. As befits a distillation of 1,318 pages of the story so far, Akira is overstuffed with character, incident, and detail. However, it piles up astonishing set pieces: the chases and shootouts (amazingly kinetic, amazingly bloody) benefit from minute cartoon detail that extends to the surprised or shocked faces of the tiniest extra; the Tetsuo monster alternately looks like a billion-gallon scrotal sac or a Tex Avery mutation of the monster from The Quatermass Experiment; and the finale--which combines flashbacks to more innocent days with a destruction of Neo City and the creation of a new universe--is one of the most mind-bending in all sci-fi cinema. --Kim Newman
Manga is better Unfortunately, I decided to read the manga before watching the movie. Although, the movie does get a lot of the main scenes and events right from the original manga, the story was completely butchered. Akira is a 5 book series spanning 1500 pages. There was absolutely no way to make it into a movie and keep it accurate.
A lot of these reviewers complain about the voice-over acting being redone and I have to agree with them although I haven't heard the original. A lot of the time, the voice acting just doesn't set the tone for the insanity that's going on. You find yourself not caring much for the characters because of this.
Great picture, lame English dub Had a chance to look at this Blu-ray release of what is arguably the greatest Anime movie ever created. After the thoroughly disappointing Pioneer release on DVD, I was hoping somebody would have gotten a clue and included the original English audio track (as the Region 4 DVD release does).
Alas, this version only provides the "new" English audio track -- the politically correct version made just for America. What's the point of having 50GB of room if you can't even include the original English track? I don't recommend this for anybody who really cares about the film. 5 stars for the improved picture, but minus 3 for the horrible "new" English audio track being the only option. Wanna produce dubs for repressed Americans? Then start making your own animated movies!
A classic that beats the test of time Looks amazing on blu ray they did a good bit of work to make it look so good
Overpriced, Under Producing. Anyone wanna buy my copy? I thought this would be a great step up from my DVD special edition (tin box). The only thing better was the picture. The sound was terrible. The Dolby 5.1 Japanese was too soft in places and too loud in other places. Sometimes I couldn't hear the voices very well. Yes, I made sure it was the correct Dolby 5.1 track and not Dolby TrueHD. The Dolby 5.1 English track was totally new with new actors... What's wrong with the old English actors? NOTHING! Why on earth did they change the English track? I'm so used to the English voices this annoyed me! I traditionally watch Japanese animes in Japanese, but Akira is the only anime I enjoy in English.
Stay away from this Blu-ray unless you really want the better picture -- maybe play the special DVD on another player and sync the audio.
Note: I don't have an HDMI sound system (Logitech Z-5500), however, every other Blu-ray movie plays fine and I expected this to play fine, too.
The first edition that I'm passing on I own a Laserdisc [Japanese] and DVD [English] releases of Akira and I was thrilled to see that there was a Blu-ray release now available. I was looking forward to revisiting as much as possible the original theater experience I had when it played in art houses on a large screen. The meticulous frame by frame painted artwork on Blu-ray must be visually impressive. Unfortunately I'm going to pass on this edition in spite of what must be the best video transfer due to what sounds like inferior voice acting.
Hopefully another edition will be released in the future. My money is waiting for that release.
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