Akira

Rating:
Summary: It's still the best Anime movie, even after 14 years !
Review: July 7, 1988. This was the year when the great lord of corruption known as Akira, unleashed an unspeakable destruction by creating a huge explosion onto Tokyo with his own evil psychic abilities. Now Akira is dead after the end of the destruction. His insides are now preserved and kept inside individual canisters. Akira may be dead, but the memories of the great destruction of Tokyo, will never die. And to remember the great destruction caused by Akira, you can see that, from the helicopter view, Tokyo has a carved hole at the same place where Akira caused destruction in July 7, 1988. It resembled the shape of one of Akira's insides, and it's still there in the year A.D. 2019, 31 years after World War III (yeah...like that ever happened in our time). Now Tokyo is known as Neo Tokyo. Everything has changed since then. No corruption and definently no wars have occured. But it was soon discovered that 3 kids, who possesses the same power as Akira, still exist. But these kids were not evil like Akira. Unlike Akira, they know how to manage their powers without anger, but still, they considered Akira as their friend. When Neo Tokyo thought the corruption is over, they were wrong. A motorcycle gang of youths battle it out with rival gangs, known as the clowns. An over-tempered teenage boy named Tetsuo Shima soon harnessed the same power as the great Akira, after a few scientists gave him the ability to use psychic powers. Now that Tetsuo is totally out of control with his new psychic powers, will his friend, Kaneda, be able to stop Tetsuo from causing destruction ? Finally after four years of ignoring the hype of the movie, I finally came to my senses and started to purchase the movie "Akira". At first, I thought the animation was going to be crappy like in some old series, but I was dead wrong ! The animation stunned me with it's extremely high detail and cel animated motion. Though some characters look a bit unstylish with their striped panty hoses, over-curled hair, tight pants, leather jackets, and head bands (this movie was made in 1988, so what more do you expect), but the character detail looks great. Heck ! The motorcycles look cool, including Kaneda's bike ! It's almost like watching an anime from our generation. The voice acting is brilliant. Barely any flaws over here. The only irritating voice that seems to annoy me, is Kai's screechy voice. The guys who did Kaneda and Tetsuo's voice really sounded great. What do you expect ? They're the same guys who played as Vash and young Knives from Trigun ! The action is great. Do not expect any martial arts action coming from this anime. Just pure gang and military style action with lots of shooting, gang fights, and police brutality. This movie is extremely violent, so I wouldn't reccomend it to younger audiences to view this movie. Geez ! No wonder Ebert & Roper gave Akira "Thumbs Up". I didn't know that an anime movie like Akira would be this popular. I didn't think that a famous movie critic like Roger Ebert would actually give this movie a good rating. If you're looking for an anime with comedy, violence, and pulse pounding animation, look no further than Akira ! This is no doubt the best anime movie of its time !

Rating:
Summary: It has already begun...
Review: Akira is among the father's of anime. As the two main character's scream out each others name in a fast paced conflict, your heart will probably be racing as fast as mine. Akira deal's with, and answer's, one of the question's that has become a paradox...what if we had the power of God at our disposal. The ability to destroy, create, protect, and become invincible.

Tetsuo is a youth that is plucked from his biker gang and surrendered to test's in a secret experiment that date's year's into the past. His cell's coincide with a powerful force known as Akira, a hidden entity buried within the guts of a submerged vault. These experiments with Tetsuo prove to be a deadly mistake.

Growing up within the boundaries of Neo-Tokyo, Tetsuo and his best friend Kaneda have developed into teens that spend their lives wandering blindly through a daily struggle of survival. The gristled street's are plagued with ultra-violence, radical anti-government agencies, religeous cult's, gang rape, and conspiring political's. Within these form's are the molding's of these two central character's. Kaneda has spent his life protecting Tetsuo, and has developed into a hardened product of the system. A secret agency kidnaps and inspect's, Tetsuo. His body is subjected to test's and penetrating scans while he floats within the confines of massive prodding machine's. Once they determine his wave count is unusually high, the lead professor makes the decision to insert a power, known as Akira, into him.

As the implanted power invade's Tetsuo's mind he uses the strength to act out forces of violence on the society that created him.

Kaneda must decide whether friendship runs deeper than control, and discover's the reason's behind the three mysterious being's that share Tetsuo's power. Akira is a gorgeous pandora's box of tragedy, power, and violence. What would happen if you had the ability of God, and what would be the result? The answer is found within Akira.

Rating:
Summary: AKIRA-review
Review: Basicly this is the greatest anime in the genre. With the added extras like interviews, stills and a new voice tracks it gets overwhelming the greatness this addition gives.

Rating:
Summary: New Script Ruined The Finest Movie Ever
Review: For this DVD edition, the producers decided to not only redub the film, but also rewrite the script. So any dialog or plotline that is inferred by the original script is actually spelled out for you. And thenew voices make it sound like a Disney movie. I love this movie, but it is unwatchable with the revisions. I hope to return it and find a copy with the old script. So disappointing. (as an added beef, why didn't they put both dubs on the same dvd? there are few added features, so there is sure to be plenty of free space on the disc).

Rating:
Summary: The benchmark in anime.
Review: There isn't much you can say about Akira Special Edition that hasn't been said above. The animation is fantastic, the music is great and the plot is interesting and easy to follow (which is where most anime films fall down I think). I thoroughly enjoyed watching the re-mastered version of this classic with its crisp picture and crystal clear soundtrack. I would reccomend buying the special edition of Akira to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Dubbing is evil
Review: All I've been reading lately in these reviews is about how people dislike the new dubbing. Well i have something to interject. Who cares about dubbing, the whole reason i wanted to get this DVD is that the original japanese dialogue was included. If you have that, then who needs dubbing. I mean the original dub for Akira was campy at best. Dubbing was created for a weak minded culture such as ares. People who say they can't watch a subtitled movie are the same people who say they can't watch a black and while movie. So to appease these dim witted cretins, dubbing and colonization was born. so, come on people, grow a brain and watch it subbed ;)

Rating:
Summary: New Voices = Bad Acting!
Review: I decided to start with the 2nd disc because it seemed to have the most material on it. It took me about 3 days; on and off to pretty much see everything the disc had to offer. That alone makes this DVD truly worth the purchase. Unfortunately, they descided to mess around with the the movie; (disc 1). Big mistake! The audio was superb but, the new voice-overs had me screaming at the TV., "If it's not broken, then don't fix it"! I found the new voice "actors" to be EXTREMELY irritating and without NY. style accents. They were able to successfully suck the energy out of the film. Over all, the movie looks the crispiest it's ever been. I strongly suggest if you've never seen Akira before to pick it up. For the rest of us, whether you get it for the interviews, story boards, and trailers on disc 2 or just as a great collectors purchase, be forewarned, and please for your own sanity, turn ON the subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: Master Piece
Review: You all know this film I'm sure, but this DVD version finally gives us a cleaned up close to Japanese theatrial release experiance.
The Big complant people have about this DVD was that it didn't have the original english Dub. Trust me don't complain, i imported this DVD as i am a massive Japanese animation fan (especially with the big budget ones like this) and wanted the tin case and all that, but not long ago i also bought the local Australian (local for me) release of the DVD as i noticed it had all three audio tracks on a single DVD.
Now i think i watched about 30mins of the original dub until i decided i remembered it to be better than it actually was. Now whenever i watch it, i always watch it in Japanese, overall everyones voices are better, especially Tetsuo's, who in Japanese truly sounds emotionally erratic and at times psycotic, it also gives the film a truer feel as it is the original language of the film.

A well earnt 5 stars. Everyone must see this film, especially now that this DVD has arrived to show it in its true form.

Rating:
Summary: AKIRA
Review: I'm not going to go on and on about how great Akira is since I'm sure most of you reading this are already fans.
The the new dubbed english edition is okay but I only wish they added the old voice overs as well. They simply could have placed it on the Language selection menu along with the new english bubbing and the original Japanese.
It's not that the new dubbing is bad, per se, but as someone aldready mentioned, "some very cherished memories of the film's original English dubbing."

But otherwise I'm happy with my purchase.

Rating:
Summary: New Dubbing Leaves Last Star Behind
Review: Akira, as it was for many, was my first introduction to the world of Japanese Anime. It has always held a special place in my collection, and I'm still searching for the anime production that compares. Needless to say, I wholeheartedly recommend this film.

As for the review of this release, it is much like the old ivory soap ads.....99.44% pure. I love the original Japanese dialogue. I loved the feature that translates graffiti and other writing. I loved all the behind the scenes extras thrown onto this disc. One thing that I cannot understand is the decision not to include to original english dialogue.

While I understand that some people weren't happy with the original dubbing, I must admit that it was one of the things that drew me to the movie originally. Yes, it didn't hold as closely to the Japanese translation as the new dubbing does, but if I wanted the real translation I would have happily watched the subtitled japanese version! Fortunately, I like the Japanese language version, because that is now the only version that I can bring myself to watch. To watch it in English without the old voices that I'm used to is like trying to watch new muppet productions....Kermit just doesn't sound like Kermit! I'm sorry, but it's all I can focus on.

Bottom line: If you've never seen Akira, or if you've only seen it once or twice, this version will surely please. But if you grew up listening to the Colonel say, "It's not a soldier's job to make policy. I follow my orders," you may be disappointed by the new english dialogue. I know I was.