Akira Being Rereleased

Quite a number of people have been writing the news that Akira is coming back to the US soon. The proposed release is "sometime this Spring". Akira ^[?] is one of the biggies in anime movies - and was a darn fine comic book series as well.

Comments

Re:Anime gives geeks a bad image

[JabberWokky]

, I have (regretablly) had the opportunity to view several other "anime" movies

Hey! A Troll - and now for some real(ish) content:

Akira is *not* one of my favorite movies, as a dialogue-free build up to Tetsuro the rapidly expanding Swanson family dinner is not my cup of tea. However, it is far better than the "Fist of the North Star", "Dragon Ball Z" genre(1).

So, hell... it's been awhile since the "What is good Anime?" thread started. Here's my contribution:

If you like golden age SF, try "They Were Eleven" (the Manga "2001 Nights" is much better). Cyberpunks like "Ghost in the Shell", the Manga is rather more zany but also much more interesting philosophically. "Serial Experiments: Lain" is good along the same lines (ish). "Cowboy Bebop" is possibly one of the best series released in America: it claims to be the synthesis of a new genre, and pretty much is... winding Jazz, Westerns and Space Opera into tight scripts. And if you watch all of "Neon Genesis Evangelion", then the (as yet unreleased in America) movie "End of Evangelion" is the closest thing to modern art as a cinematic work that I have seen. Abstract and primative shapes and images work to create an emotional thrust that arcs, crashes, and arcs again. Splendid, if you are into that sort of thing.

So, yeah... there are baser Anime out there, but there are some other genres of animated japanese art that are worth considering.

(1) BTW - the actual Dragon Ball saga is very different than DBZ. The live action movie is a hoot, and the plot is actually based on some real folktales.

--
Evan

AICN info

[ajs]

Ain't It Cool News has slightly more news on their site. In general, such items tend to show up on AICN first (from which Slashdot has gotten more than one headline in the recent past).

I look forward to the re-release. There were a lot of things about Akira that might seem minor today, but were HUGE at the time. The two that come right to mind are:

• Akira was the first animated movie to use computer-generated wireframes for all of their perspectives. This is why the obviously hand-drawn cityscapes have perfect perspective through long, and often complex pans.
• This was the movie that convinced the world that animation != cartoons. The level of gore and adult plot you might actually have to think about stunned most non-Japaneese that saw it (I know I was one).

If you want the Real good stuff...

[Lotek]

Then you need ot go to your local comic book store, and have them start bringing in the reprint of AKIRA for you.

Some of you may remember the Epic Comics release of Akira back in the 80's that Hemos referenced... Well, Dark Horse Comics has gotten the rights to this fantastic series, and is going to reprint the entire run, in the form of six HUGE trade paperbacks. Granted, these are not in color, (the original japanese version wasn't either, I think..) but they have a new, more accurate and understandable translation than the Epic run.

Dark Horse is also publishing Trade Paperbacks of the truly awesome Lone Wolf and Cub, another comic that was all over the place in the 80's. This one is the complete, in-order run. (And its supposed to be on the order of 6000+ pages long!) Dark horse is bringing it to america in its a original, paperback-sized format that it was released in Japan. Both of these are not to be missed, and are worth every penny.

A big MPAA lie.

[Greg@RageNet]

'Why would anyone go out and spend their hard-earned money to see a movie when they could download it from the net for free?'

If anything the last two re-releases 'Legend of Drunken Master', and 'Crouching Tiger...' have shown that people will go to theatres and pay for what's been available more cheaply on VHS. Same with Akira. There's value added by seeing something on the big screen or getting inserts / liner notes with DVD's you could otherwise download.

It's pretty clear that open availability of a movie will not drive the movie industry out of business, shooting a big hole in their argument on why everything must be encrypted and propriety.

-- Greg

The entire thread condensed into one post:

[Dirtside]

Akira sucks! It's just overblown because it's so popular, it's not really that great!

Akira was a milestone! Excellent animation, an intriguing, deep story, and more!

Why would you see this for free? You can download it for free on the net!

Because, you dumbass, seeing a movie on a GIGANTIC SCREEN is somewhat more impressive than seeing it on a tiny computer monitor!

Movies suck!

They're making a live-action version of Akira, with Natalie Portman and Leonardo DiCaprio as the blue midget psychic children!

*phew* Glad I saved us all that effort.