Current Events > Have you ever seen Akira?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Akira is still a landmark and continues to shine as a titan of animation. For those unfamiliar with Akira, it takes place thirty-one years after an explosion led to the start of World War III. ... Akira was made during the Cel animation days, meaning there were no computers that created the look of the feature.

and is frequently cited as one of the most influential anime of all time

No, not a huge fan of anime beyond 1980s Lions Voltron, Wolf's Rain, and Disgaea.

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yea.

the animation was great, and it still holds up, but besides that, I wasn't a fan.

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Classic

I saw it but I started falling asleep in the last 20 minutes when things got really crazy and trippy so I dont remember how it ended
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Akira is still incredible looking thanks to all the work that went into hand-animating everything. There's a part of me that would like to see a modern adaptation that doesn't try to condense like 10 massive books into a single movie, but given how shit modern adaptations seems to be nowadays (looking at you, Berserk), it's probably best to just leave it be.

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It honestly still looks amazing. Heavy Metal does too

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Crazy, Im listening to the Wizard and the Bruiser episode on Akira rn, apparently they created over 50 new colors just to produce the film.

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g0ldie posted...

yea.

the animation was great, and it still holds up, but besides that, I wasn't a fan.

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yes, i really cant see why its so beloved. i can think of at least 10 old anime that are much better.

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It is still near the top of the class from a technical perspective. It is gorgeous and I dig the setting. However I find the characters and plot to be pretty average. I havent looked into anything else Akira other than the movie.

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@Scotty_Rogers
Fam?

Absolutely so

s0nicfan posted...

Akira is still incredible looking thanks to all the work that went into hand-animating everything. There's a part of me that would like to see a modern adaptation that doesn't try to condense like 10 massive books into a single movie, but given how shit modern adaptations seems to be nowadays (looking at you, Berserk), it's probably best to just leave it be.

I see no reason whatsoever to continue nor remake Akira ^.^ On that note, Tetsuo: The Iron Man has hugely the same vibes. Man becomes cursed with a peculiar power, slowly mutates and goes insane, and ends up fused with another character in apocalyptic visions of the flesh. Not to mention that there is a character named Tetsuo in Akira XD




Granted, Akira is an animation. Tetsuo is not. In Akira, Tetsuo is the villain. In Tetsuo, he is not. Tetsuo is more of a graphic body-horror thing, with that insane sex scene death involving a drill. Akira has a happier ending, for sure, where everyone doesnt basically die. Still, if I were to really recommend anything following Akira, its this. Im not the first one to draw the comparison either.

I wonder if they share a common source of inspiration somewhere.

Tetsuo : More like Eraserhead tbh
Akira: the kind of movie you watch when youre going through a Ghost in the Shell phase XD

Day one, Tokyo Japan. 1988.

It was standing room only, which they did in Japan in those days. I would say edge of my seat, but there were no seats.

Saw it day one in L.A. the next year. Otomo was there.

Every other year or so, I still watch the DVD.


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I watched a video on the animation of it -- have yet to see it tho

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Many times. I also have the Manga (only 6 big volumes, so you can actually read all of it).

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Some people want to live adapt it.

I would be perfectly content with an old school style JP PC game, using snippets of the animation & lots of text dialogue.

Xethuminra posted...

wait, Tetsuo the Iron Man is a part of the Akira franchise??

I did not know.

I might have to check it out one of these days.

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Its practically the Yin to their Yang.

I wonder if Tetsuo was inspired by Black Sabbath's Iron Man which came out nearly 20 years prior. Reading the wiki, the plot even kind of matches the song lyrics (with the time travel being replaced by visions)

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Akira = Aki Ross ?????????

I haven't seen Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I've just seen some of the stills and always assumed it was adapted from the same material Akira was.

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The_Yahtz09 posted...

I haven't seen Tetsuo: The Iron Man. I've just seen some of the stills and always assumed it was adapted from the same material Akira was.

Looking at the synopsis, they're not even close.

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Tbh, bio-mechanical material like that became very common in Japan somewhere. Post Alien, post Star Wars, sort of stuff. Post Disney, post Fantastic Planet with the animation. Sort of emulating The Twilight Zone a little bit. Seeing what clicks, and what doesnt. Etc

Guyver

Bubblegum Crisis

Patlabor

Vampire Hunter D

Robot Carnival

and yeah, as another poster pointed out, its entirely possible that Tetsuo was written by a fan of the manga, and some execs encouraged a simultaneous development. You see how popular Soulslikes are? We kinda chase the same flavor of content. People love the Berserk references in Souls, so it may be that sort of thing, or maybe not. Maybe its a coincidence.

The anime is a masterpiece of japanese cinema (its influence is beyond animation), but the manga is what is really awesome.

Yep, I got a nice blu ray copy a few years ago.

I love Testuos rampage.

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Tetsuo!!!!!

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Strider102 posted...

Tetsuo!!!!!

Kanade!!!

I came across it by chance when I was like, 10. Shit blew my goddamn mind.

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If you like Tetsuo & Twin Peaks

give Eraserhead a shot

The animation is some of the best we've seen in anime history... with that said the movie itself makes little to no sense and the ending was offputting where Kaori gets abused, almost raped, and ultimately dies a gruesome death at the end.

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g0ldie posted...

wait, Tetsuo the Iron Man is a part of the Akira franchise??

I did not know.

I might have to check it out one of these days.

No, it is not. However the three Tetsuo movies are great.

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Yes.

Like Evangelion, it was oversold to me tremendously before I saw it, so it didnt live up to my expectations. Still good, though.

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Yes. Read the manga though. It's so much better. I was surprised just how much the film omitted stuff from the manga series. Like you only get to see 20-30% of what the manga had on film.

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I saw parts of it as a very young kid in the 90s when my aunt rented it. For decades, I've been trying to remember what the movie was. I really couldn't remember anything from it except an arm transforming into something huge and grotesque. A few months ago, I finally made a thread on reddit with this exact info and said I know it's a long shot in the dark, but was hoping someone had ideas. Within minutes, someone guessed Akira and I looked it up and it was it. All these years of searching and I finally found it. Ended up watching it.

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Sheiky-Baby posted...

Yes. Read the manga though. It's so much better. I was surprised just how much the film omitted stuff from the manga series. Like you only get to see 20-30% of what the manga had on film.

That probably plays a big reason why so many things in the movie didn't make sense.

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Prestoff posted...

That probably plays a big reason why so many things in the movie didn't make sense.

Yup. Blew my mind when Akira was actually alive, and going round and about normally in the manga with Tetsuo. But in the film, he was just a flashback, and a brief appearance near the end.

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For its time, especially.... Akira is an incredibly gorgeous manga.






I dont think Marvel or DC or anything had anything going on quite that beautiful & profound.



I remember when I first got to see the entire movie in full, it was a really life-changing experience. It was one of those movies I had always wanted to watch, but never got around to for whatever reason, or only got to see bits & pieces of it with other people. Sometimes, its best to just sit down by yourself & have a nice private viewing of media. ~ Then, maybe come & congregate with others, like in this thread, and share in the what-have-you & discuss the elements, the appreciation, the mystery, etc

I think Akira was the most expensive budget anime of all time at the time too, iirc

The story was decent at best, but the animation holds up to this day as some of the best ever put to film.

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Not until the mid-late 80's, but DC had Dark Knight Returns, and The Sandman

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Frank Miller was absolutely on my mind. Glad you said something!

Gaiman too ~~~~

Good animation, and a slightly interesting story in the first half, then it takes a nose dive.

I noticed a trend in many highly regarded anime movies and series, they often start good, with original and interesting setting and imaginative concepts, and you can't wait to see how it all ends.

But then, directors or whoever in creative control goes crazy with the story near the end, twists which doesn't make sense, pretentious long monologues, over-the-top set-pieces, and best of all : " the ambiguous ending" ( which often actually means: I can't finish this story I started, hopefully the hardcore fans will do the rest for me).

You try to argue that the ending sucks ass, and the usual replies are:
"You need to read the 212 manga chapters to get the story"
"The Wiki has all the answers you need"
"Maybe it's too complicated for you, watch the Care Bears instead"

I recently had 2 similar experinces like that, Perfect Blue & Neon Genesis Evangelion. Both are great up until the end, where they have very unsatisfying endings. I think many people mistake nonsense pretentious pseudo-intellectual
stories (like in previous examples), with actual good smart complex ones (like in the first Ghost in the Shell).
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One of my favorites movies of all time. I agree they did the 2nd part poorly and tried to throw probably an 30 minute to 1 hour explanation into a 2-5 minute explanation, but overall I love it.

It's a movie that for all intents and purposes shouldn't even exist. I can nerd out about the movie all day. It has its reason of why it's widely given praise and I would say that it will remain a classic for as long as movies are a thing.


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Watched it a long time ago. Pretty enjoyable.

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Watched it a couple of years ago. Enjoyed some of it but kinda was like. This is Akira? Hmmm

maybe one day ill rewatch it and appreciate it more.

now the animation and scenes were good but the dialogue is what kinda got me

also Like one poster said. This does hold up as well as Heavy Metal

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KFHEWUI posted...

No, it is not. However the three Tetsuo movies are great.

thanks for the clarification.

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Not from start to finish.

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Dabrikishaw15 posted...

Not from start to finish.

Yep.

Thats how it was for me for the longest time.
You can probably find it online for cheap-cheap.

Give it a whirl, why not

I think you can stream Akira on Tubi, which is free.

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