Blade Director to Adapt 'Akira' For Western Audiences

dswensen writes: "According to the Sci-Fi Channel web site, Steven Norrington (director of Blade) is going to write and direct an adaptation of the classic anime Akira. Norrington says his story 'preserves the tone, the visual and the epic scope of the original, whilst telling a somewhat more accessible story [to Western audiences]." The article doesn't mention whether the adaptation will be animated or live-action. Given Norrington's track record and the butchery that usually takes place under the guise of making something 'accessible,' it's hard to take this as extraordinarily good news."

Comments

Oh dear...

[Britissippi]

Why mess with it? At all? I don't think that all of Norrington's work is too bad (there are some real stinkers in there though).

But why mess with Akira?

Re:Oh dear...

[xbrownx]

Why not get the director of Blade 2 (Guillermo Del Toro)? His sequel put the original Blade to shame.

More accessible

[Pholostan]

as in simplified story with overobvious plot and a speaker voice that explains things again?

I'm a bit sceptical, I kind of like Akira as it is.

Re:More accessible

[Alan Partridge]

you left out the hollywood ending

just keep the original

[56ker]

and put English subtitles - dubbing always spoils things & why bother making something worse?

Re:just keep the original

[LordNimon]

I've never been able to really watch a movie and the subtitles at the same time. My focus diverts between the middle of the screen and bottom too frequently, and I just can't seem to enjoy the movie as much. Yes, dubbing does tend to remove something from the original, but I just don't think that subtitles are an improvement. I wonder if there's another way?

Re:just keep the original

[56ker]

Yes - learn Japenese - but that's a bit beyond most of us!

Re:just keep the original

[johnpaul191]

first off, i will state i generally prefer subtitles to dubbing. even with something as action filled as crouching tiger hidden dragon.

that being said, Akira has SO much visually going on that you really have to see it a few times (and i am not a big fan of anime). on top of the sensory overload that way, there is stuff you just do not get with subtitles. if you get the recent release on DVD you can get that little white pill to pop up and then you hit magic button. it pauses the movie and translates all the text on the screen. does explain things a bit more when you know what the signs of the protestors say, or can read signs on the sides of the buildings. it added a whole new level to the movie we had missed only being able to read english.

then again, it will probably end up messing with somehting, somewhere. if Sci-Fi is doing it, then it will be geared for TV, right? if they really do it, it will be worth watching but i don't see traditionalists ever liking it. then again it's like with any remake, so whatever. more power to them. maybe it will introduce the genre to a few people that would never plunge in before.

Re:just keep the original

[DickPhallus]

I've watched Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, with subtitles and with the dubbed version... I never find it hard to watch a movie and read the dialogue on the screen and I would wager I'm only an average reader...

Re:just keep the original

[TheKey]

Well, this is mostly true. However, I think they did an excellent job on the new dub of Akira. Not to mention the improvement of the video quality.

Re:just keep the original

[jellybear]

How about trying to stick a fish in your ear? I think I read about it in a book, and it was supposed to work...

Re:just keep the original

[Skuld-Chan]

I'll probably get nailed for this - but to me Akira was an awful bore. I watched it like 4 times I really never did get it - this coming from someone who took several anime film classes (seriously!). And then it hit me - this film is gross, confusing and really pretty poorly written. I don't care what the manga (comic) had to say about it - this is the film version. I think people idolize it because it had a much higher cell count then any other film, but big deal.

BTW - one fun thing to do is read reviews of what the film was all about from film critics - every single one of them tells a different tale of what the story is about.

To make it worse all you have to do is just release the - what was the company called? Silverline Studios? Version - I guess it was edited for content - and the voice acting was pretty bad.

Why not take a more beautful film like Mimi o Sumaseba or Tanuki Wars - and release that in north america? Those films were fun :)

Re:just keep the original

[haggar]

No it's not, I think almost anyone can learn Japanese, given enough time and motivation. Usually we lack both.

Re:just keep the original

[dimator]

for SUBJECT in japanese "rocket science" neurosurgery women anything; do
echo "I think almost anyone can learn $SUBJECT, given enough time and motivation. Usually we lack both."
done

Re:just keep the original

[EvilAlien]

Japanese is a very well organized and accessible language. Much moreso than French, Spanish or English, for example. The problem lies in learning the ideograms once you get past the hiragana and katakana... kanji will make your brain bleed unless you have the opportunity to be exposed to a lot of it during and after learning some.

I don't recommend trying to get too far with the language unless you have friends, relatives, a loved one, or many trips in mind =)

Re:just keep the original

[amuro98]

Bah, just read lots of comics.

This will do two things:

1: vastly improve your reading abilities.

2: cause your sensei to massively freak out. :)

Of course, some comics are easier to read than others, due to level of language, kanji, vocabulary.

Re:just keep the original

[amuro98]

I often hear that about Akira, but to be honest, I really don't understand why so many had problems with this movie.

The first time I watched this movie, it had subtitles. I'd only heard that it "looked really cool", but hadn't read any sort of synopsis or anything.

Yeah, the story isn't laid out in a particularly linear fashion - there's lots of stuff going on in the background that isn't explained until later on.

Still, I had no problem understanding the story after seeing the movie.

I'm rather afraid what they're going to do Akira to make it more "palateable" to Americans... I have images of Keanu Reaves playing Tetsuo, while hitting on Kei, played by Britney Spears (oh yeah - like I'd believe *her* as a political activist/rebel...)

As for Mimi o Sumaseba or Tanuki Wars (Ponpoko?) Can you imagine what would happen to these if they were "Americanized"??

I'm shuddering as I type this.

Re:just keep the original

[Skuld-Chan]

Well maybe americanized is not the right word, but make it so that mainstream people will watch it. Hire some good voice actors - and do your level best to not derail the story as often happens with a lot of japanese animation - even with subtitled works.

Re:just keep the original

[Abreu]

About watching movies and subtitles at the same time, its not hard, but I will concede that most gringos just havent had enough practice at it. They expect all movies to be in their own language.

That said, some movies have so many things going on at the same times (visually) that its extra-challenging to keep track of the subtitles and enjoy the movie at the same time, however a second watching of the scene (or the whole movie) usually solves the problem.

Re:just keep the original

[Tofuhead]

You're thinking of Streamline Pictures, founded by Carl Macek, the man who took Ichijou Hikaru and presented him to the U.S. as red-blooded American "Rick Hunter."

Old-school fans like to punk him at every chance they get. I'm not too much of a fan nowadays (my main hobby is import console gaming now), but old habits die hard, so here goes:

I hope Carl Macek finds himself overdosing on "protoculture" while getting shot down by stray fire from "veritech" fighters in "guardian" mode, piloted by "Ben Dixon" and "Maximilian Sterling."

< tofuhead >

Re:just keep the original

[amuro98]

Have you listened to the re-dub that was released recentally? It's a lot better with regards to translation and voice acting, although I miss the growling general's immortal "Men, we're going to the olympics!" :)

I know all too well that in the past English dubbing of anime suffered from a horrid lack of voice talent, but it's getting better now. Especially when you listen to the English tracks from Big O or Cowboy Bebop.

Re:just keep the original

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell you could go on and on about the name changes in the made for television series (ie. Misa Hayase vs Lisa Hayes, Maximilian Genius vs Maximilian Sterling, Millia vs Miriya, Global vs Gloval). Robotech didn't even follow the same storyline as Macross for TV did (ie. the exclusion of the Notrandi in the American version, they just sort of blobbed the two races together under the Zentraedi name).

But in the end both television series sucked. IMO, It was done much better as a movie in "Macross : DYRL", where everything was condensed into a more serious setting (ie. when Max fights and kills Millia). Unfortunately there are only two options for this movie, buy the cheesy "Clash of the Bionoids" with horrible translation and voice acting or buy (if its even still available) the import (region 2 encoded) DVD "Macross : DYRL Perfect Edition" (although the latter cost me $125 and being completely Japanese has no subtitles).

oh no!

[paradesign]

this is going to suck

prophisized 4-13-2002

can't turn crap into gold

[Anonymous Coward]

Akira was an abismal cartoon, sure you might put up with it in JP but western tastes demand a bit more than big eyed characters over a loose plot dubbed with awful music and voiceovers.

FF* proved you can't turn whats a hit in japan into a hit in the rest of the world, if its crap people will see it for that, no matter how many special effects or $$$ you throw at it

Re:can't turn crap into gold

[gurensan]

Anonymous Coward, huh? You've never even seen it. That much is evident from your comments about big eyes and a loose plot.

Akira *was* a hit in the US, because of its subject matter, the quality of the animation and the dialogue. DragonballZ/Pokemon this is *not*.

Re:can't turn crap into gold

[jad0]

Anonymous Coward, huh? You've never even seen it. That much is evident from your comments about big eyes and a loose plot.

Anonymous Coward riling people up again? Jeez, seems to be he posts in *every* story, a hell of a lot too - I think it's time he started looking for a job.

:)

Re:can't turn crap into gold

[Nicopa]

Yes, we the non-US people often regard you USians as an informed, sophisticated and knowledgeable crowd. Something needs to have very high quality, and hidden and subtle meanings in order to be a hit in the US.

Re:can't turn crap into gold

[gurensan]

Sorry. Every once in a while I forget to browse at +1 and I end up slumming a little.

uhm..

[waspleg]

take a hint: live action sucks
(eg: The Tick)

if they're goign to make a movie based on a classic anime it should stay anime

$.02

Re:uhm..

[rasactive]

here's a hint: kiss my ass.

(eg: The Tick fucking rocked but those bitches at FOX like to cancel everything good they've got going (Family Guy,Action,etc.)

$.02

Re:uhm..

[waspleg]

oh really? they pulled the show so obviously teh majority (in this case, the people who still have any form of taste for entertainment) has spoken..

ben stiller sucks dick, he's the worst actor since brandon fraiser (sp)

get a clue

Re:uhm..

[rasactive]

I'll admit that I exaggerated the funnyness of the Tick.

But what response do you have to them cancelling Action and Family Guy (NOTE: they are only thinking of doing this)? I think those are two of the best shows to be put on television, and they are being put in the same league as Tick.

By the way, I think Ben Stiller is decent. Seen the Royal Tennenbaums (sp?)? I thought it was the best movie this year, but I suppose that is personal opinion. I also thought Zoolander was hilarious. Ditto with Meet The Parents.

And please, don't ever, ever, ever, compare anyone with brendan fraiser (sp?).

so like

[digitalsushi]

more accessible story [to Western audiences]

Tetsuo: Kaneda!!!!!
Kaneda: Tetsuo!!!!!
Tetsuo: Kaneda!!!!!
Kaneda: Tetsuo!!!!!
Tetsuo: Kaneda!!!!!
Kaneda: "I'm getting too old for this [expletive]"

Re:so like

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, that's about what I could understand from the first time I saw it. I was so bored and confused that I never want to see it again.

Re:so like

[minusthink]

you forgot the intermittent explosions.

so it actually should be like:

Tetsuo: Kaneda!!!!!
::motor cycle explodes::
Kaneda: Tetsuo!!!!!
::building explodes::
Tetsuo: Kaneda!!!!!
::tokyo explodes::
Kaneda: Tetsuo!!!!!
::tokyo explodes::
Tetsuo: Kaneda!!!!!
::tokyo explodes::
Kaneda: Tetsuo!!!!!
::kaneda explodes::

Re:so like

[PopeAlien]

Yeah! thats it!

And we're going to have to do something with the end too.

instead of:
"Its.. Its.. Like a cosmic rebirth!"

it should be:
"Sh*t! [explosion]".

..Then the building collapses, and as the dust clears, Bruce Willis crawls out of the debris with a small cut above his right eyebrow.

Hell this is easy, I should make a more 'accesible' version myself..

Re:so like

[Alan Partridge]

I think that it's time you upgraded your brain. The model you have installed is designed for milkmen and forklift drivers.

hi

[Troll McClure]

Im Troll McClure
You may remember me from such Films As
Its a Cartoon superhero festival and japanese films, not just rubbish!

can i Would like to Announce that I am Playing the Part of AKIRA in the new adaptation!

the only thing being rendered more accessible ...

[flufffy]

... is hollywood's access to people's wallets ;)

Four Words.

[Deathlizard]

Why mess With Perfection?

Re:Four Words.

[heideggier]

please mod this up

Norrington?

[Rampant Atrocity]

Norrington told the Reporter that his draft "preserves the tone, the visual and the epic scope of the original, whilst telling a somewhat more accessible story [to Western audiences]."

Akira: dude? where's my motorcycle?

Leave it to Americans..

[Anonymous Coward]

..to fuck up a good thing. About the only thing you can say about some of Norrington's work (like _Death Machine_) was that it was too funny to take seriously. If he tries to modify _Akira_ for the Masses in the US, it's not going to be recognisable. Throw any sense of perspective about the world or evolution out the window, it'll just be a bloodbath.

Re:Leave it to Americans..

[jgerman]

dFuck that, it has nothing to do with being American or not. It's the process of changing any cultural media to fit another culture rather than expecting the audience to learn enough to truly understand it. It happens in every country, and many times isn't intentional. A seemingly benign act of translation can change the flavor of something just by the nature of finding words in a different language to express foreign concepts.
Is it a good thing, no. Is it strictly American, no. Are you a pompous ass, who's comment has no business being marked as insightful. Hell yes.

Re:Leave it to Americans..

[mpe]

It happens in every country, and many times isn't intentional. A seemingly benign act of translation can change the flavor of something just by the nature of finding words in a different language to express foreign concepts.

It dosn't even always need to be translated. There is plenty of US idiom which dosn't make much sense to the rest of the English speaking world. With things such as "Dawn Summers is too young to drink coffee" it's hard to see how translation could help much anyway.

Re:Leave it to Americans..

[Anonymous Coward]

And this is a bad thing how?

Bloodbaths are nearly always good watchin'.

Let the complaining begin

[teslatug]

Really though, I have no idea how they could possibly improve on it. There is no way that they can make a better animated movie, and I don't see how a film could capture the spirit of Akira.

Re:Let the complaining begin

[faboo]

well, as art it wasn't steller - though it could just be that I don't care for that style of animation much. so, they could improve on that.

they could also make it a bit longer and expand on the story a bit - it could be interesting.

they probably won't do that of course, but if faboo were a director....

Why why why?

[da3dAlus]

If it's already a classic in one form, why try to remake it? Making it more "accessible" is just anther way of saying "dumbing down". If the remainder of the Western audience doesn't understand the film (in either the subbed or dubbed version) then why the hell would you bother? The movie is a classic for so many reasons on it's own (artistic style, notoriety, story base, etc). I'm probably just pulling a bit out of my ass there, but my point is, if it's already good leave it alone.

Re:Why why why?

[Anonymous Coward]

If it's already a classic in one form, why try to remake it?

Please see: Oceans Eleven, Planet of the Apes (to name just two). The reason, obviously, is profit!

1. Remake classic film
2.
3. profit!

Re:Why why why?

[PD]

Are you serious? There's hardly anything that can't stand to be improved, and that's what sequels and remakes are for. Take just about any black and white film - they are good candidates for remaking in color. Usually those old films had poor sound too, and that can be fixed with a new film made with modern technology. The attitude that something is "good enough" is about the worst thing to have. We should never settle for that. A great example is Star Wars. Everyone here can relate to that. The original was certainly good in 1977, but today, it stinks. Lucas was on the right track when he added some new CGI for the updated release, but he was a big chicken. He should have bought all the copies that are already out there and just made a new one with nothing but CGI actors. Progress is important, and the process of remaking movies and books, (and even old songs) with the latest technology is part of that.

Re:Why why why?

[Anonymous Coward]

A great example is Star Wars. Everyone here can relate to that. The original was certainly good in 1977, but today, it stinks.

You know, personally, I think the special effects still hold up fine today. The hairdo's stand out more. My main problem upon rewatching the original, which wasn't corrected by the special edition, was realizing just how whiny Luke was in Episode IV...

Re:Why why why?

[Blind Lemon]

Making it more "accessible" is just anther way of saying "dumbing down".

I dunno. I think that maybe making it "accessible" means adding more product placements.

Re:Why why why?

[ameoba]

Shakespeare is as synonymous with "classic English Literature" as Einstein is with "Scientific Genius" for most Americans, and he never wrote an original story in his life; they were all adaptations of older stories. If Akira really is a great story, it can stand to be retold and reinterpreted. If its merits are solely based on the quality of the animation, then a remake is pointless.

As for the 'accessability' bit that keeps getting mocked, Akira is very much intertwined w/ Japanese culture and imagery. Most people would rather not go into an in-depth study of a foreign culture to watch a movie. Saying that altering the 'cultural scenery' to be understandable to people who have been born in raised in North America is akin to labotomizing the film is narrowminded elitism. (I'm very much aware that a majority of /. posters are USian. Feelings of hatred for and superiority over one's own culture are just sad. High-school sucked; get over it. For foreigners making those comments: Fuck you; we've got the bombs).

If the story has any value at all there is a culturally-independant kernel that will remain after the story stops being a "Japanese Story". This kernel would be what a responsible adaptation would work from.

Re:Why why why?

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people should drown in feaces.

Why?

[gurensan]

What's the deal? Why does Hollywood have to take every worthwhile piece of art and ruin it?

Akira wasn't my first introduction to anime, but it was my first experience with anime of its calibre. The music, the story, the animation... it's art.

Re:Why?

[tb3]

Huh? Are there other anime of Akira'a calibre?

I thought Akira was unique. If there's anything else anywhere near as good, please enlighten me.

Re:Why?

[Anonymous Coward]

I also have is high regard "Ghost in the Shell"

Re:Why?

[mpe]

What's the deal? Why does Hollywood have to take every worthwhile piece of art and ruin it?

Partly because there are only a finite number of really good story ideas. Also there are Hollywood stereotypes when it comes to movie making.

Re:Why?

[amuro98]

I'll throw in Wings Of Honneamise.

Unfortunatly, the US DVD release is just awful :(

There's been rumors of a re-release done right, but I'm not holding my breath...

Easily one of the best films I've seen, period.

Re:Why?

[ameoba]

Akira has always had the same effect on me as 2001; they've put me to sleep every time I've tried watching them (at least 5 each). I'm sure there's something great about it, but I don't get it.

Re:Why?

[esper_child]

I would have to say Lupin III: In memory of Walther P-38 and Lupin III Dark Order of Assassination were both better movies. Though this is just my opinion, not to mention I haven't seen Akira in probly 6 or 7 years because I didn't want to watch it again after the 4th time. You might also try almost anything by Hayao Miyazaki (Porco Roso, Nausicaa of the valley of the wind, Laputa, My Neighbor Tortoro, and many others). The Hell Teacher Nube movie was also more entertaining. You should also check out Jin-Roe.

If you really liked Akira you should definately check out the manga for it (should be available in the US, don't know who has the rights though if it is. I don't read much in the way of comics or spend much time looking at what ones are out in the US)

Re:Why?

[StorminNorman]

I just saw Metropolis the other night. This is the new film from (partly) the creative minds behind Akira. It's based on a manga by Osamu Tezuka that was inspired by Fritz Lang's original 1930s film of the same name.

All I can say is, if you think Akira's good, you haven't seen anything yet.

(Just for reference, I have always regarded Patlabor and Patlabor 2 as my favourite anime films of that type, and My Neighbour Totoro as my favourite anime film ever).

Re:Why?

[gurensan]

There are few anime movies with the same kind of power - a few have already been mentioned in some replies, but I'd personally recommend 'Grave of the Fireflies'. Serious, powerful - it's kind of leaves you with the same feel as Bjork's 'Dancer in the Dark', if you can sit through that one more than once.

It doesn't have the same animation, but the story is absolutely beautiful, which, to me, makes up for it.

Personally, I also liked Vampire Princess Miyu (all 4 episodes that I have - there are more under a different name but mine are subtitled), Mononoke Hime (The Princess Mononoke), and, of course, the original Macross stuff even though I don't lump it or Miyu in the same ballpark as Akira.

I do have to say that if an Americanized version of Akira comes out I won't see it. It's not that I'm a purist, I just have a feeling that 'the first cut is always deepest'.

obsession with anime

[Anonymous Coward]

Do the editors of Slashdot have a fetish with anime? :) I'm amazed by the number of articles on Slashdot about this genre of cartoon...

Re:obsession with anime

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you been under a rock? Taco runs http://www.animefu.com as well.

Re:obsession with anime

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I have been under a rock for the past 4 years.

the movie is fine, someone stop this man

[zerodvyd]

seriously, I've been a fan of that movie for years. Part of the anime experience is that good films of the genre usually require a good 2, 3 or more viewings to truly capture. Discussions and arguments rise up due to people's different interpretations of these films.

imho the 'western' world doesn't need an adapted or abridged version of a fantastic film. Akira works on more than just the 'film' level, consider the music, which was put together in such a modular way (check out the special edition DVD's second disc for that, it's really slick!)

i just don't think it'll be able to compare, sure it may appeal to a general audience and gross a bunch of $ due to media hyping it up...but it will be just that another money making scheme from the movie industry.

I had it!

[Anonymous Coward]

I just checked in on www.stallman.org and this guy isn't only a communist, he promotes DRUGS as well!

Again?

[gohansama37]

This seems sort of silly, doesn't it? I'm sitting here looking at my 2001 re-release of Akira in which they re-translated and re-dubbed the entire movie to try and make a more comprehensible copy for us westerners. Unless his plan is to make it live-action (dear God no!), I don't see how this will even be worth a look.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

His plan is to make it live-action...

Inaccessable ?

[bc3-au]

There are plenty of people who don't understand "western" movies.

Maybe some people don't relate to Anime because they just don't relate to it, the same way others don't relate to a lot of the hollywood crap.

Typical holywood!

[SWTP]

Since thay cant create they "Copy" aka "Remake" it. Holywood is basicaly bankrupt in the idea department.

Even when they have an orginal ideas the muck it up. Look at Starship Trooper. Good story horrible movie. Just had too mant bugs in it. ;)

This is a bad thing. The odds are it will be Akria in name only unless they change that also!

Re:Typical holywood!

[Anonymous Coward]

Starship Troopers wasn't an original idea. It's based on a classic SF novel by Robert Heinlein.

Re:Typical holywood!

[Fulcrum of Evil]

It's based on a classic SF novel by Robert Heinlein.

You mean it's based on the back of a classic SF novel by Robert Heinlein, right?.

Re:Typical holywood!

[Anonymous Coward]

Starship Troopers is an anti-war movie, to warn the viewer (admittedly in an kind of amusing way) of war and military government and a plethora of other things.
Sometimes more sublimal, sometimes more obvious.
Good movie if correctly interpreted.

Re:Typical holywood!

[SWTP]

Oops yep the book. The story goes { could be wrong } that the produces of the film want a "Bug battle" movie. But could not quite get it to work { still dident in the end. } Desided to use Startship Trooper for the framework and that they could get the fund's to do it if they used the name. They droped the battle suits { bad idea } and most of the life as a grunt story. Pop in a lot of bugs and dumb relationships. And out pops a real stinker of a movie.

Typical Hollywood thinking. Hollywood just cant get the concept of scifi! It escape there little limited minds. And this next hack will not be any difference I am sorry to say.

Re:Typical holywood!

[mpe]

Even when they have an orginal ideas the muck it up. Look at Starship Trooper. Good story horrible movie. Just had too mant bugs in it. ;)

That's the problem, the book was never really about the bugs. It's really the story of the central character's life.

Re:Typical holywood!

[KH]

Since thay cant create they "Copy" aka "Remake" it. Holywood is basicaly bankrupt in the idea department.

I'd say this is better than blatantly copying ideas from Japanese movies/animes without acknowledgment as certain Mickymouse company does.

Re:Typical holywood!

[mr.newt]

Actually, the first person accredited for producing "anime" was quoted in the NY Times a while back saying that he took all his inspiration + ideas from that "Mickymouse" company you're badmouthing.

the problem with these adapations are..

[vicious_sloth]

THeres a huge culture gap between Japan and America. People here (America) just seem to think that Anime is just a cartoon.. for kids. What i like about Anime is that the author/director person can do whatever they want and achieve impossbile camera angels if they wanted. I guess people here prefer seeing live action, I think Akira is a great anime. Anime is a great medium for storytelling, and cheaper too? ( i dont know how much it costs to produce an anime, but you dont have to pay for location permits and the such, and travel expenses)
So really, is it necessary to have to 'adapt' Akira to the western screen? If you want bring the ture akia experience to western audiences, then you shouldnt have to 'adapt' it. WHen i watched dubbed movies, and then the undubbed version i find that alot is lost in just the way the character says a line, infliction is just as important as the actual dialoge. and alot of times,the dub speech and the expression on the characters face just dont match. just my ¥2

Re:the problem with these adapations are..

[mpe]

What i like about Anime is that the author/director person can do whatever they want and achieve impossbile camera angels if they wanted.

Or shots where you'd have to stop half way through and physically move the camera crew.

Anime is a great medium for storytelling, and cheaper too? ( i dont know how much it costs to produce an anime, but you dont have to pay for location permits and the such, and travel expenses)

Also such things as special effects and non human characters don't cost cost extra. Nor are they limited by available technology or even the ability of actors to wear makeup.

Femme Nikita?

[Matt2000]

Remember when they did the American version of La Femme Nikita with Bridget Fonda or something? They managed to achieve heir vision by removing all elements of style and character, and replacing them with larger explosions.

Great work America.

Fortunately, we recently got the 'pure' version.

[2Flower]

The latest Akira DVD release has a completely redone script / sub track / dub track that's a more accurate translation of the original. That means we've got as perfect a version as we can get (and with decent dubbing, too!). Stephen can go and make his version; maybe it'll be entertaining.

Now, if they pull the DVD off shelves or never released one in the first place, assuming that the watered down hackjob version Mr. Blade is gonna produce is the best one, then I'd be raging upset. As is I'm only mildly amused, but slightly perturbed at what this means for the future...

If more movie hauses decide this is the way to go -- remake rather than port over. Anime's just starting to get a slim toehold on American theatres (Princess Mononoke, Vampire Hunter D) and having remakes shove them aside is not good.

It's not a good sign

[alen]

considering he made Blade. Which I think sucked. I still don't get why people liked it. Stupid story and bad acting.

Re:It's not a good sign

[spinwards]

i loved the movie. not because it was any kind of good movie. like you said bad acting, bad story, but it is a great movie to watch with a binch of friends. the mindless display of (shiny...) wepons is a good way to relax with friends.

good movies, imho, should make you think, even while the entertain you.

Re:It's not a good sign

[Anonymous Coward]

Blade is good in the same way that "The Mummy" was good. Campy, fun, relaxed... and the cast doesn't take itself too seriously.

If you watch either of these movies, and then subsequently watch thier sequels...you'll see what "going hollywood" tends to mean for a storyline/film project...it basically means destroying whatever made the film good, in such a way that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth about the fact that you ever saw the first one.

I'm guessing that this is how Hollywood defends itself against left-field successes like Blade or "The Mummy". They just make a sequel that's so bad it undoes the success of the first film. Then these beurocratic chimps who run hollywood can go back to business as usual.

M$ has devoured countless good software shops in much the same manner.

in answer to your question

[no reason to be here]

$

(this is here b/c slashdot didn't like having just a $).

They are making it for me..:)

[Anonymous Coward]

Or at least people like me
I watched Akira and I liked it I watch anima on a semi-regular basis (1/month) I find most have a common thread. The first 3/4 is great full of plot suspense, cool eye candy. But the last 1/4 of the movie is just bad (I never understand the ending).
I just wish I could watch anima with different ending tacked on. So I am looking forward to it and I have high hopes.
That being said my prediction is that it will probably suck large just because Hollywood manages to screw everything up.

in other words

[Anonymous Coward]

"whilst telling a somewhat more accessible story [to Western audiences]" e.g. making it suitable for idiots.

Dumbing it down

[Trollificus]

"...whilst telling a somewhat more accessible story [to Western audiences]."

No offense to "Westerners" here, but this pretty much translates to, "...accomodating people with short attention spans."

No thanks, I'll stick with the original version.

Oh god, here we go again..

[Sc00ter]

everybody screaming leave it alone, the original was better, blah blah blah..

1. If you don't want to see the new version, don't watch it. Nobody is saying you have to give up your old version of Akira and trade it in for the new one. You don't like it, don't watch it!
2. There's nothing wrong with trying to make something better. Some people might find this new version better, some will like the old version. Not everybody likes the same things.
3. If anything, this will bring the story of Akira to a larger audience, it will get people to wonder where it came from, and they'll seek out the Japanese version of the moive, and the comic books. Then there will be people that will see it for what it was, and they may like it better, or they'll like the newer version better.

To each his own, and if something brings a story to a wider audience, one that would have NEVER seen it otherwise, I say more power too them.

And to the person that brought up La Femme Nikita and the remake (Point of no Return). I saw Point of no Return, thought it was interesting, found out it was a remake of La Femme Nikita, thought it was MUCH better.. and you know what, if they didn't make Point of no Return, I would have NEVER known about La Femme Nikita.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, you seem to have way too much hope in the average guy.

1. Well it's the basic idea that's stupid.
2. MAKE IT BETTER! Wtf are you talking about, they always make adaptations to make somethingbetter and it never happens so why care about that. Nikita is just one example, there's a lot more.
3. Oh no they wont think, it will be presented as something original. It will feature Forrest Gump IQ level speech with bigger explosions.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[majcher]

I've got four words for you: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".

The original, by Eastman and Laird, was an excellent satire of the sorry state of the comics industry, drawn in their own unique style, and was pretty darkly funny. Then came the movies, and the cartoons, and the videogames, and blah blah blah - they had turned an intelligent, insightful series of 30 or so books into a massive tide of crap that completely obliterated the original.

Ask anyone who wasn't a comics geek in the mid-80s what their first impression is of TMNT, and the reaction you'll most likely get is, "oh, wasn't that that crappy kid's cartoon?". So sure, they got a lot more exposure that way, but it wasn't good - and I doubt anyone is going to track down the brilliant originals after seeing the shitty remake.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt anyone is going to track down the brilliant originals after seeing the shitty remake.

I am now.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[drinkypoo]

...tide of crap that completely obliterated the original.

Hmm, so what you're saying is that all of that crappy merchandise took up arms, cornered all the old issues of TMNT, and set them afire?

You're full of shit, and the people who up-moderated you are clearly unclued. The crappy TMNT releases don't at all invalidate or cheapen the original E&L works. They don't make them better, either, because they stand on their own merit.

The non-comics-geeks wouldn't get the original TMNT, for that matter. So what do you care if they see them or not? E&L deserve royalty money for their creation, and if selling out and turning out an inferior product (alongside the original, not as a replacement) is how they do it - let them make money.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[Sc00ter]

"and I doubt anyone is going to track down the brilliant originals after seeing the shitty remake."

I did, and fell in love with the comic series, as did a few of my friends at the time. Another great example of something I probably never would have looked into if it wasn't for the more mainstream version.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[Kris_J]

Hmm, so what you're saying is that all of that crappy merchandise took up arms, cornered all the old issues of TMNT, and set them afire?

Don't be a twit. What he's saying is that a dark and astute commentary is unlikely to reach as many people because their first (and second, and third...) exposure to the brand will be a tedious, unenlightended experience that they won't wish to pursue.

The TMNT work after the comic books and RPG is homogenised mainstream crap - dumbed down by Hollywood execs that think comics are only for kids. "Ooo, a popular comic book, lets make a kid's movie out of it".

Look up "Brand Dilution".

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[drinkypoo]

That's nonsense, because the good TMNT comics are only (generally) found in comics shops, and the bad stuff is found everywhere. Only people who go into comics shops will see the good ones anyway, and even if they see the crap first the counterperson will enlighten them more often than not.

You can try "brand dilution" but it's not even the same thing, as it's not really sold in the same markets (or to the same people.) It might dilute the name, but since the name had zero power outside the comic fan community, it really does nothing of the sort. Meanwhile we got some action figures and whatnot which we would otherwise have been denied due to lack of interest.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah yes 'brand dilution' is what happened... now if hollywood/whoever had embraced the true brand and worked with it to create a larger audience and understanding of the original intent behind TMNT we would have some real entertainment and enlightenment. But of course that was seen as too difficult to pull off in the then current marketplace. Bad branding and 'brand dilution' is simply the result of laziness and ineptitude.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[jonnystiph]

and I doubt anyone is going to track down the brilliant originals after seeing the shitty remake.

I have to admit that I would not have found the old comics, had I not put up with the shitty cartoons.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[Abreu]

But less people would be inclined to search the originals if the only thing they knew was the crappy merchandise. Thats the whole point

The TMNT brand was diluted. Eastman and Laird never got the diffusion they deserved.

Re:Oh god, here we go again..

[croanon]

Maybe it was better if you did not know about it La Femme Nikita at all with your walnut sized american brain. Sorry, but you asked for it. ;

Two words

[Anonymous Coward]

Traci Lords. Too bad they killed her off in the opening scene.

If they can tell more of the manga's story...

[neutralstone]

Then it might make sense. It's not a cultrual thing: I've spoken to Japanese people who found the ending of Akira (the anime) to be a little confusing until they read the manga.

But hey...it's Hollywood. They'll probably find some way(s) to muck it up.

I can just see it now..

[happyhippy]

...a love interest added to get the women in, more explosions to get the men in, and the story rewritten so it occurs in neo-LA.

Hollywood - just recycling ideas.

Here's a scary thought-

[Mulletproof]

"Fist of the North Star Live action"

Yeah, I'm real hopeful about Akira... ~sigh~

Re:Here's a scary thought-

[happyhippy]

I laughed my way though that film. Soooooooooooooo bad.

Re:Here's a scary thought-

[Nickovsky]

I actually liked the live action Fist of the North Star =p

Re:Here's a scary thought-

[G-funk]

Hey, come on. Fist of the north star sure isn't a great movie, but it's pretty true to the anime. Let's face it, the anime sucked balls, and personally I found the live action version more entertaining.

Plus they all had such great mullets!

This is great- last thing Akira needs

[dfenstrate]

Is the director of "Blade" making it 'more accessible.'

Pardon me, but Blade was an entertaining but pointless and trite movie. It was not something to be considered an artistic acheivement, in terms of films.

And this guy is going to remake Akira?
Right. It'll be shiny, and ready for the lowest common denominator audience, I'll give him that. But He'll probably toss out everything that seperates "Akira" from a well drawn saturday morning cartoon.

Re:AOL Anime

[JonWan]

Sorry dude too late... DBZ and Poke'Mon have been around for long time now.

Accessability compromises quality

[wdnspoon]

The latest akira DVD release is great. English, japanese, or subtitles. The translation is quite good and accurate, plus the dialogue is well synced. If they try and go any further they will only end up either making it more pc, or losing the plot and making it a movie about things being smashed and zooming along really fast. They'll probably take out that scene where the dog gets shot, since there are plenty in the West who will take up arms to stop movies from displaying violence against animals.

Yes but...

[Xapp]

I agree strongly with the majority of responses so far. Akira is fine the way it is. But, Narrington will make money on this flick. It is inevitatble, the Hollywood machine will continue to roll. Marketers will be there to hype the movie. Special effects artists will be there to "improve" the visual aspect of the movie. Etc. etc.. I for one will not watch this movie. But I strongly suspect that I will be able to read a review, here on /..

I beleive I can fly!

Re:AOL Anime

[happyhippy]

How true. Why does the west only get the crap stuff?

godzilla, gaming, anime

[cyberbob2010]

y is it that everytime anything good from japan makes it ove here we have to "westernize" it? Like everybody said, Akira is good as it is. but that's not the only thing we've melted down to make affable to american audiences. Godzilla, Micrsofts forray into the gaming market and the massacering of anime to fit American television standards r all good examples of wut the money gluttons can do to a fine peice of work if they're allowed to get their grubby hands on it!

What _is_ Akira about.

[BusterB]

I challenge anyone to describe the plot of Akira in a way that is accessible to anyone. Come on folks, have you actually looked at the movie? It may be a great work of animation, but the story seems to be:

Kid rides around future city on motorcycle, gets mixed up with big, secret blob monster, girl gets absorbed by blob monster, scary stuffed animals, blob monster dies eventually, lots of gore and squish.

Perhaps this is some ancient Japanese folk legend that I don't know about?

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[James Foster]

The year is 2019, 31 years after Tokyo was destroyed by a top secret weapons project during World War III. Now, Neo-Tokyo has risen from the ashes to become a dark and dangerous megalopolis infested with gangs and terrorists. The government seethes with corruption and only maintains 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 - Akira!

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[Da3m0n]

fuck you, did you even try to understand the movie. Maybe they do need to adapt it for idiots

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I'd say that the movie plays out more like:
Punk biker gang encounters deformed child escaped from lab...which sparks the latent abilities in one of them. He starts to develop his powers slowly, exhibiting less self restraint (all the while distubring his best friend)...eventually to be captured by the organization who has the children. Friends try to rescue him, but he's now enstranged. Said company accelerates his powers, he becomes uncontrollable, listens to the voice in his head to find Akira, the most powerful child who is locked in a vault (all the while destroying anything in his path to get there). He gets the body parts of Akira, who was too powerful ("creation force" or something like that), which gets reassembled...while his powers are taking over him turning him into a blob thingy. The psychic kids and all that fighting and such is too big for this dimension, so the newly reassembled Akira whisks them all away to another dimension for the safety of all.

Haven't watched it in a while though. I do know the main story is basically the seperation of two friends and the confusion and effort to save between them...it just happens to be latent superpowers that seperate them.

An American adaption makes me very wary...I mean, sure, it could work out and be a solid movie and get people to watch the anime...but this is a best case scenario. More likely, studios will spend tons of money on it (when they could have made something else, this is the thing to remember for people saying to just ignore it!) and it'll ruin Akira's reputation. Come on, this was originally something like a set of 8 250+ page comics...it was cut down a bit for the anime *already*....

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[BusterB]

Hey, that was pretty good. Thanks, I stand corrected.

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[AnalogBoy]

Don't bash the dolls, man.

You haven't been frightened until you've had a nightmare while staring your childhood "teddy bear" in his newly befanged face, while "Dolls Polyphony" was mysteriously playing.

Of course, my teddy was actually a rabbit. Which didn't make it any better.

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[Anonymous Coward]

Amen. The emperor has no clothes.

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[jinushaun]

What do you expect when you try to condense hundreds of pages of manga into 1 hour? Steven King can't even do that! He has like four episodes for one book. And Akira is probably more complex than anything SK has written.

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[AndyChrist]

Comics typically compress, time-wise, even worse than novels. Books have to describe everything that is happening visually. Comics only take more pages to do that if there is lots of fast action being shown in detail.

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[mshurpik]

I challenge anyone to describe the plot of Akira in a way that is accessible to anyone. Come on folks, have you actually looked at the movie?

Yet another person who watched half of Akira when he was fifteen and walked away thinking that it made no sense. Let me help you.

Akira is a straightforward action-adventure movie. The plot is: Tetsuo runs amok.

Metaphorically, the movie is an ego trip. Tetsuo is so powerful that he can't figure out what to do with himself. So he goes looking for Akira, his only possible match.

The main source of difficultly seems to be the cast of characters, who don't fit neatly into good/bad roles.

You have Kay, who is a political activist, and you have Kaneda who is trying to get in Kay's pants. You have the politicians, who are corrupt, and the military officer who eventually figures this out. You have the mad scientist, who is reckless, and you have the mutant kids, who are trying to fight Tetsuo.

As for "actually looking at the movie," I showed it to a stoned teenage girlfriend of mine, and she understood the whole thing on the first pass. She's not an anime fan either. Accessible? I would have to say yes.

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or perhaps it only looks deeper to you because you want it to. Its actually quite common, you start to enjoy anime because there is something in it that relates to you or even because you like the art. As it has a small but loyal following it makes it very easy for people to become completely engrossed in it. Becuase its different from the mainstream you begin to ask why so few other people enjoy it, and the most natural reaction is that you are somehow better than other people, and it is deeper than the mainstream. This causes you to completely loose track of reality, and in the end you're finding depth in something at the same level as "Eraser".

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course she understood it, she was stoned.

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[randombit]

I challenge anyone to describe the plot of Akira in a way that is accessible to anyone.

I agree, the movie's plot is a bit hard to follow (ok, understatement there). I highly recommend reading the manga, because:

a) It's looks incredible. Some of the best art I've ever seen.
b) You can finally understand what happens in the movie. The movie is basically books 1-3 with the very end that's either made up, or taken from book 6. I'm not sure, as book 6 hasn't been published yet (it was supposed to be out last month but I haven't seen it around yet).
c) It's all around good. I mean really good.

The funny thing is, I'm think the original Akira did about all it could to describe the plot. I mean the plot is convoluted, and the manga is easily over 1000 pages long. Telling that in an hour and a half to two hours and having it make sense is something well beyond most directors, including, I'm pretty sure, this one.

Re:What _is_ Akira about.

[mshurpik]

Of course she understood it, she was stoned.

I've gotten pretty used to explaining Akira to people, but in this case I stopped about 15 minutes in because I realized I was being condescending. She got it, no question.

I was stoned too, the movie made more sense than ever before. I hope you're not being sarcastic and implying that people can't grok stuff when they're stoned. The best way to describe pot is that it limits your attention to one thing. If it happens to be the TV, you can pierce Akira like a knife.

It's hit or miss. I watched Barbarella stoned and I don't remember a damn thing. In this case, we both hit. It was nice to have an Akira newb there to independently verify this. If it was myself alone, I might have simply chalked it up to the 17th viewing being better than the 16th.

Oh well, AC, you probably won't even read this.

An adaption of an adaption?

[barberio]

I wonder if this will be an adaption of the manga, or an adaption of the anime.

The anime was created while the manga was in its early issues with a lot of plotline unresolved. It didnt make an atempt to follow the manga except for use of some set pieces and characters.

A live action adaptation sounds interesting. Unfortunatly, thats 'Street Fighter', 'Gyver' and 'Final Fantasy' interesting. And for me, having run an anime soc, having seen Akira many many times had sucked all the enjoyment out of it already. So I worry that Hollywood will try to suck more.

Re:An adaption of an adaption?

[EboMike]

The manga consists out of 26 parts IIRC (well, depending on the country in which you bought it) and had a lot of style and depth. The anime OTOH was a big mess to me.

I hope (and doubt) they'll base it on the manga - but then, I couldn't imagine how they'd want to fit this huge storyline into a 100-minute movie.

Re:An adaption of an adaption?

[Mathness]

It didnt make an atempt to follow the manga except for use of some set pieces and characters.

Which they had to since the Akira manga is about 3000 pages.

Compare this with the Ghost in the shell manga, which is about 260 pages, of which roughly 100 pages where used for the anime.

Which explains the somewhat hard to follow plot/story of the Akira anime, and the insight/understanding which follows in reading the manga and then re-watching of the Akira anime.

No Problem

[Aknaton]

Those of you who don't want a live version of Akira don't have to watch it. Besides, there are many people out there who will not watch a animated feature because they have a bias against such things.

Also, does anyone own the new DVD version of Akira? They redid the english dubbing and I it sucks. I miss the dub from the original US release.

Re:No Problem

[Anonymous Coward]

the original dub sucked goat gonads..think that's stupid? Some of the translation in that dub was stupiter! :)

Oh shit

[Da3m0n]

Akira is my favorite movie, without question. I watch it, without fail, every single night, and will continue too until the day I die. Now I don't want some hack to come in and destroy the good name and image for those who haven't experienced it's amazing presence. And what the hell anyway could he change to appeal to more "western audiences". I mean the fucking movie is set in Japan, part of it's appeal is that it is "Japanese" and fuck all who would care otherwise. Go watch Starship Troopers if you want a good american sci-fi but don't fuck up a legacy.

Re:Oh shit

[Anonymous Coward]

--"Go watch Starship Troopers if you want a good american sci-fi"

Sorry, but I'm having trouble associating "good" and "sci-fi" with the phrase "watch Starhship Troopers". Replace watch with read and you've got a point. Replace Starship Troopers with Blade Runner and you've got a point. What you actually wrote seems to be self contradictory...

Re:Oh shit

[Da3m0n]

The point I was trying to refer to is the american pop sci-fi genre. Blade runner is almost to good to be refered to as "American" Sci-fi

Sci-Fi Channel?

[L1mewater]

What I don't get about all of this is, why put a remake of a classic anime on the sci-fi channel? I would say a large chunk of their viewing audience willing to sit through their "sci-fi original" movies are already willing to watch an original, Japanese anime. Have they brought back their Saturday anime yet?

Re:Sci-Fi Channel?

[Hott of the World]

Those were My Saturday morning Cartoons!
Demon City 080, Vampire Hunter D, Street Fighter 2 the movie... man I miss those,
but somehow sci-fi channel thought that
"paid programming" would get MORE viewers,
so I have to watch my fansubs and hope someday.

Concerned, but this could be a positive thing

[AmiNTT]

Akira has always held as special place with me. It was the first piece of anime that I saw in Japanese and didn't care that I didn't understand what they were saying. I got it from the visuals.

I've seen Akira on the big screen a few times, and it rocks. I've often wondered if there ever would be a follow up to it, but someone from Hollywood wasn't who I had in mind.

It has always bothered me that alot of anime hasn't been taken seriously for the sheer talent that goes into the story and art. I've always thought that alot (not all) of anime chose to go places that regular film would not or could not (like Akira).

If this project does make it to film, I certainly hope that Norrington doesn't *completely* ruin it. At very least it will bring new viewers to the original version Akira (even if its dubbed in English), and that can't be a bad thing, can it?

I'll agree with most of you.

[Steauengeglase]

Most of the greatness of the film was lost in the english translation. Whenever they "port" a good anime to the west a lot is lost and Akira is a prime example. You have to pause in the middle of the film and toss in the exposition. It just kills the film.

Will the new film be any good? Probably not.

Will it help people appreciate the original. Yes.

Most people view anyone who enjoyed Akira as someone who hasn't seen the light of day for the last 16 years and breaths through his mouth because of hayfever.

Wait a second...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, Mods&Metamods, I call foul.

The above comment just repeats the sentiment already expressed in the original story submission, with a couple of expletives sprinkled in for good measure.

I pretty much agree with that sentiment, mind you, but how precisely does simply rephrasing it rate a "5?"

Has the definition of "insightful" been changed to "agrees with me?"

Re:Wait a second...

[rmitz]

As far as I can tell, that has always been the de-facto definition.

3rd/ 4th generation retelling?

[flogger]

Akira was a great comic series. I was turned on to it during the late 80's when Eclipse Comics was translating Japanese manga into English. The story was compelling and just, well great. I saw the 2nd generation of Akira. At the time I didn't read Japanese and didn't have the original version in the original language. We all know how much is lost in translation. (For some really wild LotR's tranlation check out Here.)
I then found out that there was Movie(!) of Akira. Too cool. I went to see it and I was really flaberghasted. What the hell is with the Tetsuo blowing up into a huge gross ameba?
Now we have someone that is going to Reinterpret it AGAIN? How will it be changed to be made more accessable? Will Tetsuo Just put a gun to his own head and shoot Akira? That'd make accessable sence. Oh well. I will NOT be in line to see this.

The simple answer.

[brianvan]

"Given Norrington's track record and the butchery that usually takes place under the guise of making something 'accessible,' it's hard to take this as extraordinarily good news."

Well, then don't watch the remake. The original is still out there.

Sure, I wouldn't have high hopes for a remake either, but then again you never know. A lot of film buffs have been highly skeptical about certain films (sequels, overbudget blockbusters, strangely-casted movies, remakes, etc.), only to eat crow later on when the film does well / is highly praised / wins some Oscars. Lately that has been happening a lot less, but perhaps they might make a good movie - not spectacular, but good - that would turn a new crowd of people to the original.

Or, the film could suck, and the critics would say "Rent the original, forget the remake". Either way, some of us are destined for some good cinema.

Re:The simple answer.

[dswensen]

Well, then don't watch the remake. The original is still out there.

I'm not planning on it. Despite the fact that I submitted this story, I am actually not the world's biggest fan of Akira. I thought it was very watchable, but hardly great. What distresses me is this constant strip-mining of decent movies, to be repackaged in dull, FX-laden, harmless, utterly forgettable packages, all for the sake of making a quick buck.

I don't believe Norrington can truly bring anything more to bring to this story artistically. There is no reason to "adapt" this story, except pure greed. Granted, this comes as a surprise to no one, but it's very wearying to me to see everything I liked in my younger days being put through the CGI mill and cranked out in a more insipid form.

Just because it seems inevitable doesn't mean I have to like it. And even though I don't worship Akira, at the rate we're going, a movie I do love is going to be next into the crap-mill, and that distresses me. I'm just tired of it.

As a side note, I'm interested by your statement about film buffs eating crow when a blockbuster remake / sequel is anticipated to suck but actually turns out good... I'm wondering if you have any specific examples in mind. The last few (Planet of the Apes, The Time Machine) have been real stinkers.

Re:The simple answer.

[brianvan]

Unfortunately, my example list is going to suck. :)

As far as I know, there's are a definite three "sequel" films that were better than the original: Lethal Weapon 2, Terminator 2, and The Empire Strikes Back. Of course there are some more, but the list is short and obscure.

That said, it wasn't the case that critics dismissed these films heavily before they came out, so these are poor examples. And the general rule is, either most sequels are worse than the original, or the original wasn't that great to begin with. The Mummy and The Mummy Returns are examples of the latter... The Mummy Returns was a superior movie in comparison to the original, but is not a superior movie in the grand scheme of film.

As for remakes...

The remake of "The Fast and the Furious" is a good movie, no matter what anyone says. "Rat Race" is a ripoff of "It's a Mad, Mad... World", but an extremely good one. The "Addams Family" movies were more watchable than the original show. "The Professional" was based on a good foreign film but stands as a good movie on its own.

Then again, most remakes are utter crap. However, most big budget or high profile movies are crap anyway. Critics usually are proven wrong when a few high-profile movies look as if they would bomb and bomb horrendously because of costs/history/reported fighting on the set, but then turn out to be watchable and maybe even good. Examples: "Titanic", "X-Men", "Charlie's Angels". (Ooooh... "Charlie's Angels" is a remake... not an Oscar winner, but a fun movie nevertheless)

I say this because "Spider Man" and "Gangs of New York" are the two movies I'd like to be optimistic about, but no one has any idea if they are any good and some critics are already taking potshots. We're assured that there will be some good movies coming out soon like "Matrix Reloaded", "The Minority Report", and "Austin Powers: Goldmember", but it would be nice if those two movies turned out good as well... if only to prove that comic book movies and big budget epics can be good at times.

And yea, I hope an "Akira" remake would be worth watching, instead of being something like the next "Final Fantasy" movie...

Have you heard the "new" American dub? Ugh.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's reason enough to ask that question. It was absolutely TERRIBLE. Not only did they take out key parts of the dialogue that the original american dub kept, but they added in really cheese parts and lowered the music level by a lot. In a lot of respects, the old VHS Laserdiscs are the coveted versions "to have". It's about the only anime to truely have a really good dub added to it. Subtitle pureists will just scoff though, so my points will go un-noticed for the most part, I think.

It's sad to see an awesome medium like finally get this classic, and the company releasing it screwed it all up. /sigh

New DVD = terrible.

[Anonymous Coward]

They gotta make up for it somehow. They really screwed the dub up beyond belief and the soundtrack was far too quiet than in the original.

This might not be such a bad idea...

[pseudofrog]

Allow me to play devil's advocate and say this might not be such an awful idea, so long as it is clear that it is a redone film and that the original is mentioned somewhere during the credits.

Any American who claims to understand this film entirely is mistaken...the plot and meaning of all of the elements is understandable, but none of us fully understand the culture and context the story exists in. Think about most any American film...it doesn't translate verbatim to Japanses culture. Do they really understand Pulp Fiction? No...the conversations lose their touch when it's not in your native language. Does American Pie translate well at all? Doubt it...their culture is very different than ours.

I'm expecting nothing spectacular, but it might be good. I wish him luck!

Matt

More good stuff ruined

[Anonymous Coward]

OMG not again, Hollywood ruined so many foreign movies with these "adaptations"!
They seem to think the average American is too stupid to care about something if it's not labeled USA (which might well be true I'm afraid...).

Akira? Pfttt!

[Daimaou]

I know this is blastphemy, but I have seen Akira in dubbed form, subtitled form and in the original Japanese form (yes, I do speak Japanese) and I really don't find it to be the amazing film that everyone else seems to. I think Japan has much better animated films to offer than this one.

I will say that the Japanese version is much better than the other two since translators never can seem to get things quite right; or at least the nuances don't seem to make it through to English to me anyway.

I do agree with other sentiments here though that remaking Akira in a more accessible==dumbed down version is not a good thing.

This is horrible!

[Psx29]

I hate dubbing which ruins the directors original vision of the movie(usually...there are some exceptions where directors re-dub movies) let alone changing the whole thing around! This is bad bad news...hopefully not a sign of things to come(all major anime dvd releases will be 'westernized')

I don't think that it could be done

[heideggier]

Even with modern computer effects, and a hugh production budget (which this guy wouldn't get) I think that a live action version would be impossible.

Apart, from the opening motorcycle chase, everything in the movie is big, your talking about massive riots (one of the themes of the movies is about society tearing itself apart), a military crackdown, and a climax where one of the leads turns into a hugh bloated mess.

Ofcourse, I thought that bringing lord of the rings to the big screen was impossible as well.

If you, really, want to do a live action manga then your best bet would be that Perfect Blue, being a movies which would work well as a thrillar. Not that I saying they should do that either.

Re:I don't think that it could be done

[mpe]

Apart, from the opening motorcycle chase, everything in the movie is big, your talking about massive riots (one of the themes of the movies is about society tearing itself apart), a military crackdown, and a climax where one of the leads turns into a hugh bloated mess.

The expensive bits to do live action are things like riots, actors need paying, they also need costumes and makeup. All too easily you end up with trick shots to make it look like 20 people are several hundred.

Re:I don't think that it could be done

[heideggier]

Thought thats what I said dude. Normally when you try to do a crowd in cgi, you take a picture of a few people and composite that around the scean so it looks like a few hundred, Or you use a standard cgi modal (gungan ork or whatever) and create a few hundred of those. In the case of Akira this would be impossible because most of the riots happen in shopping malls, city etc, plus human all look different limiting the modal approach.

My point is that you would need a lot of extras, well out of the budget of a scifi live action special (like what they did with dune) which I think is what this guy is planning, so he should give up and just remake a 60's show or something

Wring, wrong, wrong, wrong.

[Anonymous Coward]

The new soundtrack not only took out key parts of dialogue that the ORIGINAL American dub had, they also toned down the soundtrack to the point of totally ruining it.

It's Too Late

[Arnos]

Unfortunatly, once this film IS made, people will go see it due to hype, hearing you talk for years about the original, or just to support sci-fi.
It will make millions and the precedent will be set to mangle/destroy/dumb-down other anime because it CAN make money.

Re:It's Too Late

[Jaycatt]

Plus, unless it's live action, it will probably supercede the original (and lousy 2001 remake) versions of the film so that it will be the only one you can find to buy in stores.

Re:It's Too Late

[Discoflamingo13]

One of my friends wanted to see a movie on his birthday not too long ago- and the best one he could think of was (and I'm not kidding) "Dungeons and Dragons". All nine of us asked him "wha if it sucked? It's opening night - nobody has said anything about it." He said, "Just wait."

See, my friend knew something we didn't - we were going to see it at the Mall of America on opening night - he was going to pay our way in, for some reason. We saw it, it sucked, but that's not the end of the story. On the way out, we were given an "exit survey" by some studio monkeys about what we thought of the movie. All my friend asked was that we write down what we felt - which was basically, "I want to see more movies in this genre, but this one sucked, and given the opportunity, I would never pay money to see it again." That (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) was actually an option on the survey. When we'd all finished filling out the surveys, my friend said, "Thanks guys, for being nine votes against shitty fantasy movies." Huh.

Making a diving

[fm6]

If it's already a classic in one form, why try to remake it?

As they say in the gangster movies, it's just business. It's all about selling. Somebody sold somebody else on a "project" based on a "classic Japanese comic book". They'll use the same hype to sell the result to distributers, and to con journalists and reviewers into giving the movie air time and column inches. It's absurd from any creative POV, but it moves the product.

Last night I saw a TV rerun that thoroughly illustrates this logic. Diagnosis Murder is probably the most unabashedly clichéd, corny, gimmicky and just plain stupid show in recent history. But I'd wanted to see this particular episode for a long time, every since reading Jenni Ringley's mini-memoir of her stint as a TV murder victim.

If you're a JenniCam fan, don't watch this episode to see a lot of JR. She gets maybe 5 seconds of screen time, plus a B&W head-and-neck "autopsy photo." So why bother seeking out the original Cam Girl for a part that could be played by almost any 20-something female? Business. JR probably got more exposure posing with the rest of the cast for PR photos than she did on the show itself. She was there to help geneate buzz, not to act.

Adapt the anime ?

[tempmpi]

The akira anime is already an adaption of the Akira mangas (comics) by Katsuhiro Otomo.

Will he do another adaption of these mangas or do a adaption of the anime, resulting in a akira movie that hasn't anything to do with the original manga work of Otomo ?

SWEET!

[xeeno]

It should be live action an star the rock.

Re:SWEET!

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Somebody shoot that guy

It's really quite simple

[Mishra2002]

Akira is about a theme that has been touched on by many Sci-Fi authors. That the ultimate form of evolution for human beings will be when we achive Pure energy. Humans will become a conciousness of unlimited power. In akira the government is performing expirements on children in attempts to tap into some of this power. Akira went to far fully transforming into an energy being an the power of his transformation destroyed the city. Tetsuo eventually becomes so powerful the same thing happens. meanwhile though as he's transforming he loses control of his body. Akira returns to help Tetsuo Transfrom, and together they use the energy realeased from Tetsuos Rebirth to create a new universe of which they are the gods, hence the whole Galaxies and Stuff at the end.

Of course this is by no means definative, this is just my take on the movie, that's what makes it so good, that it's open to interpretation.

-Mishra

Re:It's really quite simple

[Silverhammer]

Akira is about a theme that has been touched on by many Sci-Fi authors.

Would someone please mod this parent up? Mishra2002 has described Akira perfectly, but everyone is missing it.

Re:It's really quite simple

[kindbud]

Why bother? Just watch Babylon 5 again. Same theme, more accessible presentation.

Re:It's really quite simple

[gonz]

Evangelion told this story better.
Lain did it worse.

-Gonz

Re:It's really quite simple

[Anonymous Coward]

THIS is why people think otaku are gibbering fan-boys. The movie is a fine exercise in style, but CRAP for narrative exposition. You're NOT cooler for 'interpreting' it. ME? I think it's a take on globalism and the girth of the average japanese male's penis. Similarly summarized "John Katz and his homoerotic obsessions"... not that there's anything wrong with that :)

Here's why adaptations get made.

[Fantastic Lad]

There are three reasons film adaptations get made.

1. Because somebody with more than enough creative power to write and produce their own high grade work, gets electrified by another artist's idea to the point that they are willing to pour their own skills into realizing that work in film.

Examples of this are films like Stand by Me and The Bridges of Madison County and The Terminator.

2. When through a purely accountant driven system, a great foriegn film is decided upon as the next studio project. No soul, no creative verve, and nobody except executives salivating to get it made. Point of No Return is a perfect example of such a film.

It should be noted that projects like this, can sometimes turn out well if a powerful creative mind becomes very excited and is given a pivotal role in the film's production, but this rarely happens.

3. When dreamers with only moderate skill or creative talent of their own find themselves in positions of power, and get electrified by a brilliant artist's vision, and set out to realize that vision in film. --The problem is that such creators usually miss the nuances of a work and provide only the surface glitter and an over-amplified approximation of what they were moved by in the original form but did not understand the mechanics of.

These creators are not professional artists so much as they are Fans-boys with budgets. And there are rather a large number of them out there.

Their works include films like, Fellowship of The Rings, and Stargate, which admittedly was not an adaptation, but a wasted idea nonetheless. (The same can be said of any film made by Emmerich and Devlin!), and of course, Blade.

Akira struck me as a very cold film with a lot of neat looking effects and interesting takes on psi-power, but which ultimately had no heart and virtually nothing significant to say at all.

Unfortunately, while there is a handful of rather amazing exceptions, this could describe nearly all of the media which comes out of Japan. A very 'obedient' nation which spends a great deal of energy actively punishing anybody who dares express their individuality, and anybody who comes up with anything even remotely resembling a new idea. Careful shadings of old ideas are all that are acceptable. --According to a few friends who moved away as soon as they were old enough, I am assured that Japan was NOT a fun place to grow up.

-Fantastic Lad

Re:Here's why adaptations get made.

[Anonymous Coward]

So just because you don't understand japanese culture and the subtleties of shinto bhudism, the movie is pointless. Great for you.

It's great to see people dismiss something without truly understanding it first. But then again people are lazy, it's not a sin by any measure. Just a fact of life. There are alot of hidden commentary on post war mentality and Japan's struggle to come to terms with its new role in an increasingly technological society.

Re:Here's why adaptations get made.

[XNormal]

I expect you're going to get flamed for calling Peter Jackson "fan boy". Actually, I agree with this observation, but I still think his film version of LotR is great. PJ's fanboy enthusiasm and dedication goes a long way to make up for the fact that he's not exactly the world's greatest director.

Re:Here's why adaptations get made.

[Anonymous Coward]

What amazes me is that you actually start with making a good point, and then move on to bashing a nation for its culture and ideas.

The entire movie industry is basicly the 3 concepts you just mentioned. Someone publishes a good book, and it becomes a movie. 50 years later, someone sees a movie, and decides it needs a remake. Disney has been chewing on fairy tails the past x years, and recently needed to start plagiating GAINAX (or was it some other anime production house, damn this crappy memory) to get a new story/animation style.

Face it, worthless cr*p comes from any nation from any continent. The very few good things that are made, are immediatly rehashed into other stories. Most people note Babylon 5 to be similar to Lord of the Rings. Babylon 5 wasn't a bad show, but lord of the rings was a kickass book.

Conservatism and the supressing of new ideas happen in Western culture all the time. Look at the catholic Church, supressing scientific ideas in medeaval times. Even now, in modern society, there are more people who look down on gay people than those who don't. This is a phenomenon in all cultures (in some cultures it is even illegal).

If a westerner goes to Japan, he'll be a "gaijin". If an American comes to Europe, he'll be a "cowboy". If an Englishman goes to America, he'll be a "limey". I'm not even getting into what people call the French. Again, not all people share these prejudices, but most do.

Perhaps Japan recycles their story lines all too often, and most anime are either yet another mecha series, yet another "look at his technique" fighting anime, or yet another "I wonder if I cook for him he'll fall in love with me" shoujo anime. But the truth is I can't see any more "Van Damme" or "Schwarzenegger" movies without getting bored. Julia Roberts has lips like a baboons *ss but still she keeps acting in movies just like Richard "carress my ego some more will you" Gere.

All cultures have their established values, and sometimes it takes a revolution to break through these values. Even in liberal cultures like ours, there are still a lot of things that are frowned upon, especially the things that define a nations identity or are currently unpopular ideas.

Heck, some countries still have a king and a queen... When there's talk about removing those archaic symbols from a nation because they're only a taxpayers burdon, people get upset.

Just my 0.02 Euros

Re:Here's why adaptations get made.

[Pope]

It's quite clear that you've never seen a single Peter Jackson film other than FOTR.

I've never read a single Tolkein book, and have never been a big reader of the Fantasy genre, but I like FOTR enough to see it 3 times. You friggin geeks can piss and moan about how every single little detail wasn't in the movie, but a flick doesn't gross a few hundred million dollars on geek appeal: it appeals to a broad audience.

If you want the book in its entirety, read the goddamn book.

Totally agree.

[Anonymous Coward]

They also left out a lot of key parts that aren't in the new dub. The music is also toned down volume wise to the point where you can't just blast it anymore. It really.. really sucks. I am waiting for someone to rerelease the original dub that we all fell in love with. This new one makes the DVD unwatchable (Unless you love subtitles).

Adapt Akira My Ass

[E-Rock-23]

Didn't Anime fans riot when Disney tried to "Americanize" Mononoke Hime? They'll do the same thing if you try that with Akira. Akira is a classic and should NOT BE CHANGED. Anime fans - even those of us who actually like Dubbed titles to an extent - want their titles in their original form.

I don't care what good films this guy has directed. If he even tries to adapt Akira, the resulting Box Office take will make him a laughing stock. If he values his career, he'll back off.

Re:Adapt Akira My Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

its nothing new at all. think of akira kurosawas seven samourai, which became the magnificient seven in the west(ern) version

can be good can be bad, who knows.

the world is made out of remakes

Actually Disney should remake this

[jellybear]

Disney could bring the artwork up to date, giving the characters a more modern, American look and feel. Like they did with Winnie the Pooh and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Robin Williams could add some comic relief. It'd be great.

Re:Actually Disney should remake this

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like they're doing to Pinochio and Cinderella?

Oh, wait...

watch the headlines

[_crunge]

I'm not a fan of this moving being redone.. but just wait till it gets closer to release. I can just see it now it will make all the slashdot headlines...

:/

this sucks

[Satanboy]

What the hell is holleywood thinking?

They had Akira Special Edition play at a theater here recently and it SOLD OUT everynight.

Now how can you beat that?

hmmm lets think.

We will remove the cool motorcycles, the cool explosions, the cool mutations and we will replace them with a "boy meets girl, they fall in love, girl has something bad happen, boy conquers all for love" love story. When you get through with it, it is just Akira in name not the movie.

I guess its not something new, holleywood rewrites things all the time, look how they portray satanists.

What the fuck's supposed to be wrong with us?

[crovira]

What? We've been pithed or sumt'n?

We can't see a Japanese Anime and appreciate it for what it is?

What pisses me off is the assumption that people are morons and need to be spoonfed everything.

That's what keeps us watching crap that our culture has to adapt from somewhere else because we don't reward native original thought.

And you know the financial rewards will all go to the studio and the original artist and creator of Akira won't even get a ticket to the premiere.

FUCK THE MPAA!!!!!

FUCK THIS SPOONFEEDING THE US AUDIENCE PAP AND PABULUM.

I SAW IT IN THE ORIGINAL AND I WILL BOYCOTT THIS FARCE.

Re:What the fuck's supposed to be wrong with us?

[thunderbee]

Actually, most people are morons. 50.1% would be enough for this statement to be democratically true, and I believe it's even worse than that.
Every day I hear the news, and it's getting worse and worse. People suing companies or government because they weren't prevented from harming themselves. People voicing opinions so far removed from reality than it boggles the mind.
We live in a time of mediocrity, and reward mediocrity and incompetence accordingly.
Wake up. It's already happened.

Akira On Ice!

[Anonymous Coward]

He didn't actually say it would be a *movie*. I'm guessing the production is:

Akira On Ice! With Brian Boitano in the lead!

Coming soon to your city!

Re: Money money money?

[Anonymous Coward]

hollywood is running out of good ideas. Movies coming from them nowadays are just flashy special fx, if nothing else. This has nothing to do with art and epic story telling. It has to do with seeing the money bag and grab it.

It costs more money to create new ideas, and has high risk. It's better to "borrow" what worked, change, and call it your own. It costs more money to advertise an unknown product with good risk. It is less risky buying oil companies than to go search and drill your own wells.

If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Except, if it makes money, fix it quick.

Blade runner??!

[Anonymous Coward]

At first glance I thought the subject said the director of 'Blade Runner' was going to remake Akira. I was thinking what an excellent idea. If he just does a high budget live action film with matrix and blade runner elements it would be excellent. However then I re-read it and it was just 'Blade'. A sad day indeed :(

camera angels

[Anonymous Coward]

I think I'm married to one.

I think this is a good idea.

[SnicklesTheElf]

The first movie was pretty convoluted. What was up with Kaneda turning into that blob. The remake will probably fill in all of the plot holes. Japanese people are weird.

-Joe Average

Re:I think this is a good idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

the movie is not that hard to understand; use your mind to fill in the "plot holes"

but to help you out, that blob has a special meaning for americans - it was meant to show that being fat lazy idiots isn't good for us, ugly actually - kinda the way he looked when he was fat...see, when he was FAT, as in a BLOB, he was UGLY, and I'm trying to make a funny by saying that most americans are fat and...oh, fuck it:

see blob.
see ugly blob.
see fat ugly blob.
see people.
see people run.
see boom!

simple enough yet?

Re:I think this is a good idea.

[Anonymous Coward]

you stupid dumbass. what the hell are you thinking? there were no plot holes, it was simply a complicated story, that was the beauty of it all........god damn america.

turtle power!

[zer0*ryok0]

everytime i hear akira + dub
i recall the akira dub VHS i got for 1cent from columbia.

i do believe every voice in that was from teenage mutant ninja turtles

kept expecting someone to say 'gnarly dude!'

Heh.

[autopr0n]

I think the lead up (most of the movie) was pretty cool, but I agree that the ending was kinda lame.

Still an enjoyable movie, for me. I even own it on DVD.

Re:Klerck to widen pages for slashdot audiences

[Anonymous Coward]

Hah.. you got modded the fuck down, Pikachu.

More accessable version

[autopr0n]

right here

Akira is gonna get mangled

[visionsofmcskill]

Akira was really about the Trial of Best Friends being split apart by something thrust into their lives that they couldnt control. It was an exmplary expression of the inherent im-balence between most best friends, showing Tetsuo's Jealousies of Kanada, and Kanada's own problems being an orphan and a kid without direction. The thing thrust between them is of course the military research from WW III... The Akira project. Akira was actualy just another boy like Tetsuo who was injected/exprimented on with brain and mind over matter enhancments... eventually becomming too powerfull for the goverment and himself. The resultant plotline revolves around a de-stabilizing culture still suffering the ravages of WW III, The movie explores the depth of a broken society by using the two main chracters deeply intertwined love/hate relationship that takes them through ALL clases of neo-tokyo, from the impoverished kids and gangs, to the wealthy and corrupt goverment leaders to the rebelious masses who are straining for revolt to the college kids with grand ideas of reshaping the future to the terrorists urging and pushing for a rebelion. Meanwhile Kanada and Tetsua are fighting a very simple battle that most best friends fight constantly, who is the top dog.

The magic of Akira is its ability to Delve into all these areas with phenominal depth while capturing the viewer with a very real and very plain struggle. Think of how many times youve been jealous of your best friend and there you have the center of Akira. It goes back to when we all used to fight with our GI Joe's, who got to be king cobra or Hawk, who got to be optimus prime or StarScream, who got to be skeletor or He-man.

I fear that Norrington will miss and destroy the original films scope by trivializing the story in face of big explosions and not so great Computer Generated scenes. I sincerly DONT believe the movie needs to be made accesible at all... I only speak and understand english and have (in my own opinion) captured and understood the entire movie without any need for westernization (english dub of course).

I also Believe that this move CAN be done as live action succesfully, it would be sheer excelence if directly ported to 35mm, scene for scene reproduction would be excelent to watch... however i fear the movie will be made shorter eliminating the truely great storyline extrapalations and additionaly i doubt the american characters will have the chemistry necesary to discribe how close kanada and tetsua and the others are. It'll probably end up with Kanada a brad pitt looking white guy, tetsua a Chris rock or some other short and loud person, Kay just a beutifull dumb chick with reduced lines and reduced character (like storm from the XMEN movie), and other non-sensical characters.

The beuty of Akira is its reality, all the chracters are distinctly Japenese from Japan, no cross-culture characterizing conflicts, they simply are japanese street kids. I myself am a mulatto american street kid with little resemblance and very minute cultural similarities to this films premise, and what i enjoy most about this film, is it doesnt try to pander to my "background". It simply is a story that tells it like it is (or would be) without trying to be translated into my environment. I can only imagine how horrible an American Akira out of the Ghetto would/could be.... on the other hand... it could be astoundingly good....

But with this guys track record.... looks like Akira's gonna get mangled

Re:Bloat... Bloat

[Anonymous Coward]

It's so true.. it almost made me cry..

Akira was an example

[Anonymous Coward]

of good animation with a fairly obscure storyline - however the quality of the animation was enough to get the attention of crowds.

I could argue that other OAV series since Akira,(Macross Plus for example), combined a much better plot, more interesting characters (that yelled less), excellent animation, and a great score to substantially out-do Akira.

But of course, it was a decade later.

For it's time, Akira was the best, but there are others now which improve upon it considerably.

On the topic of Steve Norrington doing the adaptation, I think that would be fine - I'd still prefer the original subtitle, but it might help bring the genre more mainstream. I really liked the work he did on Blade.

Re: your sig

[xdfgf]

When it comes to The Simpsons Principal Skinner = Armin Tanzarian.

Several seasons ago there was an episode where the real Principal Skinner showed up in springfield (voiced by Martin Sheen). The town discovers Tanzarian as a fraud and kicks him out of town.

There are several other plot points, but its best to watch the episode. Which is actually a pretty good one.

LA.

[autopr0n]

There was a love intrest in Akira, Remember?

Btw, it's so annoying the way it seems every movie seems to be set in LA. That city just seems dull and boring people call it "A giant suburb" New york, Seattle, Hong kong... there are so many more intresting places to set things. bleh.

If they moved Akira to LA it would ruin the movie. What else would they do, replace "bike punks" with Bling-bling steriotypical Gang Bangers? (well, that would be pretty funny, actualy)

Re:LA.

[fenix down]

If they make it in LA it's less work. If you don't have something like Star Wars or LOTR, you're not going to get any big time people to drive more than 20 min. to be in your little movie. Plus, if it's set in LA they can all do their little LA jokes and win a SFX oscar for having Tetsuo blow up Spielberg's favorite restauraunt or some shit like that.

I hate LA, can you tell?

Huh?

[autopr0n]

Also, does anyone own the new DVD version of Akira? They redid the english dubbing and I it sucks. I miss the dub from the original US release.

What are you talking about? The old dub was terrible!

Re:Huh?

[Aknaton]

It wasn't for me. Plus, I was used to the old version.

I think that they missed a chance to include the original dubbing, as DVD supports including it.

Re:Huh?

[GuERnix]

I liked the original dub also, not to say the new one is bad, but I think the main reason myself and others like the original is mainly due to how it is the version that it was first seen as.

I saw Akira at least 20 times with the original dub, and I was quite used to it. When I got the new DVD of it, I was disappointed at first, but I realized that I just wasn't comfortable with it yet. I am now, and I also realize that it is a superior dub. It just takes time.

One cannot improve Art

[Anonymous Coward]

5 Insightful for this drivel?

Art isn't code. Please remember that!!! You don't see remakes of famous paintings do you? Why can't someone just paint a better Mona Lisa or some shit? Why is film not art, especially Anime?

If anything, this will sell negative impressions on the story of Akira/Anime to an audience that doesn't have interest in it in the first place. If dubbed versions of Anime are already poor, what make you think a remake of it has a better chance to bring wider acceptance for Anime? In other words, different cultures have different interest in art.

It's too obvious to state, "if you don't like it, don't use it."

Re:One cannot improve Art

[Anonymous Coward]

When we consider the most important english language works, few would deny that shakespeares plays do not sit near the top.

However few of them are his original work, most are either classical stroies, or dramatic versions of actual events, made into a poetic form suitable for public preformace and modified to appeal to the audience of the day. What came out of this process are some of the most important works in history.

Now i'm not saying that Akira is a historical work, or that this wil be, i'm just saying that your completely wrong.

I'm going to cry.

[shichi_no_bushi]

I absoutly love that movie, and i'm sure i'm just gonna cry like a baby if this actually happens. I own all the Manga and 3 copies of the Moive, (Yes, i'm a loser :-)) But i mean, come on, why mess with perfection.

Are you telling me...

[HunterZ]

Are you trying to tell me that Akira makes sense to Japanese viewers? W*T*F? I swear to God there isn't a coherent plot in there. After much more extensive research into the world of Japanese anime, I have come to accept the fact that Japanese viewers don't see coherent plots or consistent storytelling as a desired feature in anime.

Don't Forget the Soundtrack!

[JWhitlock]

We could also remix the original soundtrack using modern artists! Imagine the Backstreet Boy's new 5-part harmony on "Battle Against Clown"

We could go from the jarring "shokto-HE-Ha-HE-ha" to "Baby, he-haaaaaaa, he-haaaaaaaooo!"

(Pardon my complete lack of knowledge of the original Japanese lyrics, or how to represent them).

Re:Don't Forget the Soundtrack!

[bishr]

(flaimbait?)
I'm a big fan of the movie, but the music was already kind of grating (although, nowhere near as bad a BSB remake).

I can't help myself- my brother and I have a stupid synopsis of the movie-
Tetsuo!
Kenada!
(from the soundtrack, sing it like Beavis and Butthead): DAAAANNNNNN!

Like I said though, I'm a fan, and the DVD had some damn good dubbing (as far as dubbing goes)

Re:Don't Forget the Soundtrack!

[amuro98]

Actually, none of the only lyrics, per se, in the whole sound track are the names of the characters, "Kaneda", "Kei", "Tetsuo", etc.

Otherwise, the voices in the background are various chants based on Japanese Noh (a form of opera.)

The liner notes in the soundtrack, as well as the interviews with the DVD explain this.

Though, your comment about the Backstreet Boys is probably on-target for this "adaptation." Lord knows us 'Mericans don't like music unless it's got words sung by some pretty faces in it.

I mean, who *can't* see Baha Boys' "Who let the dogs out?" playing during the initial scenes with Kaneda and his gang riding through the city?

Derivitive works and Plot

[fermion]

First, any art of sufficient quality will only grow stronger in the face of imitation and adaptation. Slashdot, being a free speech, and sometimes free bear community, should be excited about the adaptation of this fine work. It will expose many people to the existence of this work with the possibility that some may find time to appreciate the predecessor. Additionally, bad derivatives do not adversely affect the quality of the predecessor. Not even Leonardo DiCaprio can tarnish the work of Shakespeare or Tchaicovsky. Remember that it is only fitting to act like a pompous artist if one is in fact a pompous artist.

Second, someone complained about plot. Akira may or may not have a simple plot. It doesn't really mater. Complaining about plot is like complaining that poetry doesn't rhyme; it indicates a lack of sophistication. Any sufficiently advance piece of art is going to have several perspectives, and the plot one takes away will depend on one's perspective. For instance, In The Bedroom might be a film about the failing of children, the unfairness of the legal system, or the tragedy of love. If one cannot find a relevant issue, the movie will not have an accessible plot. BTW, man coming out retirement to save world, man killing many people, man saves world, is not a plot of any consequence.

As we all know, IP must (eventually) be free, and we must have the freedom to advance that IP, even if such advancement seems silly. Peace Out.

Psychology

[cooperj72]

It seems there is a lot of agreement here that
an altered version of Akira could get really
screwed up.

But don't you guys think a lot of people shouting
here may only be worried that there
precious nitch culture in
America, that is Anime, is in danger.

Many people who love Anime are in love with
it because most Americans don't get it.

What if this adaptation of Akira just rocks
so much and people like it better than
the Matrix or some other popular western film?

What if all of a sudden future Anime works changed just
slightly so that everyone got it?

Scary thought?

For the record, I love a lot of Anime, but a lot
of it is a reach to understand without a
bit of replay. Which I am more than happy to do of course :)

Re:Fortunately, we recently got the 'pure' version

[Anonymous Coward]

I dissagree, the DVD they just put out is VERY good and is alot closer to the origional japanese release than the origional american release.

I've compaired the origional japanese version and the new DVD version (english dubbed) side by side (yes i'm a geek)and the differences are very minimal. but the picture on the DVD version and the soundtrack are drasicly improved.

Oh yes i remember that

[Edmund Blackadder]

That adaptation was pretty damn terrible. the silliest thing is that someone actually believed that La Femme Nikita was not accessible to american audiences.

The cultural rift between the US and France is not that great you know.

Re:Oh yes i remember that

[Anonymous Coward]

> The cultural rift between the US and France is not that great you know.

Yeah, you're both full of rude dimwits who think you have something called "culture" and refuse to realize that anything good about your contry died in the last world war.

Re: Shinto Bhudism

[Fantastic Lad]

So just because you don't understand japanese culture and the subtleties of shinto bhudism, the movie is pointless. Great for you.

It's great to see people dismiss something without truly understanding it first. But then again people are lazy, it's not a sin by any measure. Just a fact of life. There are alot of hidden commentary on post war mentality and Japan's struggle to come to terms with its new role in an increasingly technological society.

Bullshit.

If you liked the film, then that's fine. But don't go making up some baloney to justify a 2-dimensional director scrabbling to look deep and thoughtful beyond his measure. --Who, while no doubt influenced by the current psychological state of his culture and the 'Subtleties of Shinto Bhudism', was almost certainly not trying to make any points about it any more than most American film makers try to jam kitsch Christ imagery into any given Western pop culture film. --At least I hope not, because that WOULD have been a desperate bid for substance.

He ripped off the ending from 2001, for crying out loud! This film was pretty graphics and a violent, depressing, boring, say-nothing story.

The only thing which Akira DID achieve, (beyond it's technical excellence at the time), was to replay certain interesting ideas about human transformation which just happened to be a helluva lot closer to the mark than most people are willing to or capable of admitting. Too bad it was all presented with flat, unlikable characters and an over-arching sense of, "This Is A Very Important Movie, So It Must Be Treated With The Utmost Seriousness."

Yawn.

Not much different from "Ghost in the Shell", or "Wings of Whateveritwascalled".

It's like, the moment a film goes over a certain budget in Japan, the script doctors feel compelled to bore us to death with fake intellectualism.

Newsflash: Being 'Smart' in no way means it can't also be 'Entertaining'.

Kurosawa knew how to make a film. Juzo Itami knows how to make a film. Hayo Miyazaki knows how to make a film. Hell, the first ten episodes of Dragonball did more honest & insightful work than Akira! (Before it turned into a brainless and endless WWF style kung-fu showdown.)

Akira was pretty fluff made by a production house terrified of not looking smart.

-Fantastic Lad

Because

[Edmund Blackadder]

Hollywood is just too scared to release completely original material.

That happens less and less nowadays.

Makes perfect bussiness sence - release a movie that has already been seen and already has an audience.

Re:bashing a nation

[Fantastic Lad]

Face it, worthless cr*p comes from any nation from any continent. . . Conservatism and the supressing of new ideas happen in Western culture all the time.

I agree. But I still have problems with a country where there are annually high suicide rates among pre-teens due to classroom bullying.

The plight of the individual in America is NOTHING compared to that of Japan. Like I said, I have a number of friends who emigrated specifically because of this issue. While we in the West have more than enough of our own problems, Japan is specifically fucked up in this way. And I see a direct cause and effect relationship between these qualities and the content of its entertainment media.

-Fantastic Lad

Wait and See, and Then Act

[LightForce3]

Well, this is certainly interesting. I'm not too terribly concerned about it right now, because I know how great Otomo's Akira is. (It was great for me, anyway. If you don't like it, that's fine with me.)

I propose that we wait and see. When the remake is released, one of two major scenarios will occur:

~Scenario I~

John Doe, American TV-Watcher: "That movie was good/great/awesome/cool/etc."

Bob Smith, Otaku: "Since you liked that, why not see the original? If you have any questions about it, I'd be happy to answer them."

~Scenario II~

John Doe: "That movie sucked/was horrible/etc."

Bob Smith: "Yeah, the adaptation was badly done. You might like the original better. If you have any questions, just let me know."

You see, whether the adaptation turns out to be good or bad is less important than what we, the anime-experienced, do to introduce the viewers to the original Akira. The adaptation can be a portal, an introduction to anime for those who don't know about it, or whose knowledge consists of what anime they see on American television (which, if you think about it, is all adapted in some form before it reaches the networks/cable).

goa or psy trance remixes ...

[afxgrin]

goa or psy trance remixes with the original AKIRA music would be killer in my opinion. I swear I heard a track at a record shop being played that had part of the first motorcycle scene's music looped in it.

or maybe i should just lay off the illegal subs*cough*.......

Re:Fortunately, we recently got the 'pure' version

[dimator]

The latest Akira DVD release has...

Can you give the ASIN number?

accessible?

[whizzird]

So is it that we Westerners are too dumb to understand anime?
Or are they going to change "Kaneda" to "Kenny" and "Tetsuo" to "Teddy" so Americans can keep them straight?

I have my VHS of the dubbed version, so I'm not worried.
Note to self: The VHS is getting pretty bad, maybe go pick up the DVD...

Other great anime

[Gath]

Macross Plus - The two hour movie version is awesome. Good characters, good plot, good everything. The series version is also good, but I think the movie was a little bit better.

Evangellion - The first time I watched this I planned to watch one or two episodes. I watched the first seven hours and went to sleep at 6:30 in the morning. The ending is a weird as the one in Akira. You will have to watch it a couple times to catch what's really going on. There were a few bits that really jumped out the second time I watched it. This show has the kind of scope Akira could have had if it was 10+ hours long.

A Wind Named Amnesia was also a good show. It has been a few years since I saw it, so I can't say much about it.

Other shows to try: Record of Lodoss War, Escaflowne (haven't seen it myself), and Princess Mononoke.

Re:Other great anime

[tb3]

I've seen (at least some of) all of the above (I'm an anime junkie), but I've never seen anything with the scope and quality of animation of Akira.

Evangelion is probably my all-time favorite, but the animation is nothing to write home about. The animation in Akira is stunning. Metropolis is probably the closest I've ever seen, but it doesn't quite approach the grandeur of Akira.

Re:Other great anime

[Abreu]

For visuals rivalling Akira: Macross Plus and Escaflowne (particularly impressive since Escaflowne was made for TV, not cinema)

For storytelling rivalling (exceeding IMHO) Akira: Evangelion and Lain

But perhaps you are right, Akira has both strong visuals and a good story to tell.

remake/port from an animation standpoint

[the_march_hare]

The production quality of the original akira movie was extremely high.. even today, when compared to feature level classical animation it is very impressive. From a student of animation (classical) standpoint I would like to see a remake that has the same production level.. if it going to be made in North America maybe style of the character animation and possibly design would change (more pantamime etc.. closer to a "disney style") it would be interesting.. I would love to see James Baxter, Glen Keene etc.. work on a animated "cyber punk" film.. but this will never happen. oh well. I hope there are some classical animation students / geeeks to give insight.
*note Akira is so. good the FX is amazing it was actually lipsync.. the tech design/layout and OMG the crowd scenes!

Of all movies, why Akira?

[atholbrose]

I've never understood the US fanbase's reaction to Akira. It is, at times, a visually impressive movie, but that's aboutthe only thing it has going for it. A story that originally took many volumes of manga to tell is compressed to an hour and a half; it almost requires knowledge of the source material to make real sense of the movie.

There are so many BETTER movies that could be brought over, or even 'adapted' if they have to be... there's just no real REASON to do it with Akira.

Re:Of all movies, why Akira?

[mshurpik]

A story that originally took many volumes of manga to tell is compressed to an hour and a half;

And yet, the movie made sense and the manga didn't. Hmm. Believe me, I would have read the manga if I could. Same for Battle Angel. It was all ridiculous, as are most comics, to be honest.

Re: Shinto Bhudism

[Anonymous Coward]

So basically you've never read the original Akira series, nor have taken time to understand the difference between chinese, shinto and tibetian bhudism. Awesome!

Not understanding is no sin. Afterall, Woody Allen in special about Kubrick said, "when I first saw 2001, I thought, what's so special about it? It wasn't until I watched it again ten years later that I realized I completely didn't understand it. Now I consider it a masterpiece."

Granted, Akira the movie didn't come close to Akira the comic, but that doesn't mean those same themes and elements aren't hidden in there.

website about akira

[YaRness]

this website as very good info. and the flash is worth viewing.

http://www.akira2001.com/

granted i know it's probably paid for as a big ad for the re-release on dvd, but it talks about the story, all the characters, and the comics which the movie is based on.

Why, oh WHY!?!

[Jagasian]

Why do American film producers always see the need to take great anime and turn it into live-action? It doesn't make it better. I mean, if you could turn an apple into an orange, is it a better fruit?

Re:Why, oh WHY!?!

[kindbud]

Ummm... what other great anime has been turned into live-action films?

I said great anime.

Though I do like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Michelangelo is my favorite. "Pizza Dude!!" Simply awesome.

Why don't we try....

[Herak]

Why don't we try getting some Japanese anime creators to "adapt" some American films and TV for a Japanese audience?

Ally McBeal:
"Oh no!! This dancing mutant cyborg baby will destroy us all!!"

LotR: The Fellowship
"Hobbit..... Transformer..... POWER!!"

Friends:
"Mua hahaha... Chandler will think we're his roommates up until the minute we drink his soul energy!"

Scream:
"What's your FAVORITE tentacle movie?"

I could go on forever....

Why destroy the bike?

[Wiwi Jumbo]

Does that mean he'll explain why Kanada rides a bike into a wall???

Everytime I see Akira I'm always dumbfounded as to why......???

Re:Why destroy the bike?

[Anonymous Coward]

See the new translation. He destroies the bike becaues he's sending it to his dead friend (the owner).

Re:Why destroy the bike?

[Anonymous Coward]

wiwi jumbo - you are an A1 grade Muppet - you are dumbfounded as to why he rides the bike into the wall are you...

did you WATCH the film - are you worthy to watch anime - have you watched any REALLY good stuff like Kenshin or Eva or are these out of your limited intellectual ability - you are American right... that would explain things - two short planks spring to mind...

You are condemned to watch the film again and again until your small brain can work out what is going on... hell man how do you even survive - can you work a kettle or a microwave or are you slowly starving to death because you can't get the foil off the top of your pot noodle...

Might be OK

[killersquirrelz]

A live action Akira might be pretty cool to watch. Like some of you have said, the original is still out there for the purists. I just hope it makes Otomo a TON of cash, and he can produce some more really cool work in the future or just sip martinis all day. He's earned it.

Re:fp

[zapfie]

Nope, you didn't. What is exactly so special about it anyway?

Petition for Respectful Treatment of Asian Films

[Anonymous Coward]

Sign the "Appeal to Disney for Respectful Treatment of Asian Films" Petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/warthkf/

Re: Money money money?

[tigga]

Yes, I agree..

I just wonder why they don't read books - there are millions of ideas there.

Simplified plot

[billcopc]

Here's my take on simplifying Akira's plot (since I assume you've all seen it at least once) :

"There's this reject with a serious aggression problem. He meets a radioactive mind-melding kid who gives him some damn good PCP (which we don't see of course). Then the neo-cops try to kill him and cover up a big conspiracy, he gets pissed and destroys everything in sight. Everything else you see in the movie is just eye candy." (c) Billco

My heart is praying that this won't turn out to be true, but I know it is inevitable. Akira is a bizarre movie that reaches deep down into the subconscious psyche and grabs our primal instincts : fear, aggression, domination. It's also very f'ing good animation especially for its time. I hope the director doesn't botch it too much, and knows Akira well enough to do it well. The last thing we want to see is another idiot cashing in on a big name. (Blade 2 anyone ?)

Rollerball?

[billstewart]

There are some advantages to remakes of bad movies :-)

Re: Shinto Bhudism

[Fantastic Lad]

So basically you've never . . . taken time to understand the difference between chinese, shinto and tibetian bhudism. Awesome!

Do you mean, "Awesome" in a hyperbolic, "Good for you!" sense, or as in, "It's astonishing that anybody has not studied Eastern religious phiolosphy to exhaustive lengths as I broadly suggest that I, in my infinite superiority, have done."?

(Though I'm not sure if there is in fact a difference.)

--But I'll go with the hyperbole; Considering you seem to have an interest in one of the more popular 'systems' used to reach enlightenment, you certainly deserve what little slack such an assumption might offer. (Or perhaps not, depending on how serious you are about your studies.)

So how is Bhudism working out for you, btw? Are my dumb-ass barbs proving a challenge, an obstacle, or am I like the 'water which finds no resistance'?

Come to think of it, before you answer that, are you studying as an anthropologist or as an actual student? Are you climbing the mountain or are you just messing around in the foothills taking holiday snapshots?

Just curious,

-Fantastic Lad

No self respect

[Alan Partridge]

first Planet of the Apes and now Akira? Hollywood has been raping French cinema for years, now they seem to have turned on them selves and the Japanese. This is fucking atrocious news, accesibility my arse.

the problem is hollwood

[Kewlhand`tek]

hollywood is out of ideas. Notice they start rehashing cartoons into live action movies.
How many teen movies have the same plot? Cool guy or chick dates geek girl or nerd turns them into cool people. Ever notice how the geek girl looks hot after a new dress and removal of glasses, thats not real life

Inspiration != ripoff

[Abreu]

Osamu Tezuka was indeed inspired and influenced by the work of Walt Disney (Bambi's enormous eyes in particular), however he did not rip off Disney's stories.

Disney didnt make anything like Astroboy or Princess Knight... However there's a certain "Lion King" in Tezuka's filmography

An American Werewolf in Shanghai

[Dr. Cody]

I'll never forget when I was in Shanghai and I first saw it--SUBTITLED IN CHINESE!!!

But seriously ladies and gentlebugs, "Akira" is not something to be tampered with. Anyone who's seen the movie knows *that.*

Peter Jackson?

[Titusdot Groan]

For all of you complaining about Steven "Blade" Norrington remember, Peter "Dead Alive" Jackson made LotR.

I, personally was terrified when I heard Peter Jackson was connected in ANY way with that project ...

Although "The Frightners" was pretty good ...

Anyone remember Voltron [3D]?

[Anonymous Coward]

When Netter Digital Entertainment decided to do a remake of Voltron, they ruined the storyline COMPLETELY!!! The whole show just repeats the same battle over and over with same monster without ANY plot advancement. This guy is complete nuts trying to butcher Akira.

Conformity - East and West

[Tungbo]

The truth of the matter is that 90% of pop culure is repetitive mediocrity, whether it's in Japan, France, or the USA. Look at the pop music scene and television landscape in the USA with its trademark 'individuality'. How often does a truly original work get distributed?

I suggest that the commercial process does NOT fit well for creative talents. Nor does popular culture generally accepts them. Look the furor the 'Sensation' exhibit triggerd in NYC. And that was in the supposedly sophisticated urban area in a mainstream art institution.

As for Japan, if you want to look for popular creative voices, you'd do much better reading manga than anime which costs so much more to produce. It's the same in the US. You may have to work a little harder to find them. But then, you don't expect to find Frank or Sandman in your local 7-11, do you?

Re:Fortunately, we recently got the 'pure' version

[Anonymous Coward]

The new sound track SUCKS. The voices are terrible, they have no life. It sounds like it was made by the brady bunch. You need to remeber that this movie helped create psytrance. The sound field has been intergrated into soo many media and memes that changing for the sake of stupid lazy ignorant jackasses is an insult and a psycic ass-ult to any onewho as seen it over 500 times.

I have no idea what you are basing "better translation" on but I have watched, the movie in all forms Japanes, Japense w/subtitles, dubed, dubbya'd, on LSD, on 2CT-7, DXM, Weed, etc. and nothing beats no sound. just subtutles with a cracked out psy-trance DJ spinning sick 96 Goa with the samples matched to the original dubbing in english.