Akira

Rating:
Summary: This ain't DBZ
Review: If you want a brainless fight cartoon look elsewhere. Akira is a has a complex plot and is beautifully drawn. Tetsuo and Kanida are friends forced to fight each other when Tetsuo is exposed the "That Ultimate Power," a power the government has been meddling with and can't control. In the end only Number 28 -- Akira can control Tetsuo... But can Akira save Tokyo from destruction?

The DVD has a super feature that provides translations of text and graffiti in the movie via pop up "capsules" Some of this text is important to the plot.

Akira is an essential addition to the collection of any animation or anime fan.

Rating:
Summary: Best Anime of its Generation
Review: Ok, when I bought this, I was into FLCL. The animation was old, which I suspected. What I didn't suspect was the great movie that unfolded before me.

It starts out with the main characters, Tatsuo and Kanada, in a biker gang. As the movie progresses, old Children enter the scene and open the door to god's power within Tatsuo. Next, is Chaos.

Akira was said to be the best movie in japanese animation, and I agree. Released in the US in the Late 80's, it has opened American's eyes to anime, and still does today. If you want a movie with great character developement, animation, and not to forget a mind scrambling plot, then I recomend this with utmost praise.

Rating:
Summary: Poor Action Anime
Review: I didn't like this movie. The end didn't make any sense with the whole infinite power that can't be controlled. The beginnig is really slow and doesn't go with the rest of the movie. The only good action is when Tetsuo gets his powers and fights the army and briefly the three kids. I didn't get into the storyline and wouldn't recommend this movie if looking for 'Ninja Scroll' type fight scenes.

Rating:
Summary: huh?
Review: I was trying to eat a bowl of soup at the beginning of the movie, but by five minutes into it I had to stop with the soup to direct all my attention on the movie. The graphics, the violence, even the rape scene, I loved every single bit of it, and I am the one who tells people to watch their language. It's so great. The whole time I was watching it I had my nails in my cheeks. I am normally very critical of dubbed movies, but even that was good to me(maybe I was too caught up in the story to notice if it was bad). The storyline was awesome. You think you can predict what is going on halfway through, but by the end you are left dumbstruck. I am the type of person to interpret something really easy, but this I don't think I will ever be able to grasp. It's such a fast-paced movie with a super-deep, super-intelligent storyline. One of the rare animes I think is really worth the hype-- no wait, the hype doesn't ever catch up to this!

Rating:
Summary: Best.Movie.Ever.
Review: First off, this is the greatest movie ever. All of you who are whining on and on about how they changed the dialouge, who cares. They just took out a few lines, it still a great movie anyway. I love the movie so much that i would go out and buy every other edition of it, and it still wouldn't make me like it that much more, because it is so great. So, if you haven't seen this movie, go see it. Actually, just buy it, if i could give it a million stars, i would. And it doesn't matter which version you buy, it is still just as good. If your that picky, they released the japanese version on DVD, just get that.Anyway, go buy this movie now and for all of you whiney other reviwers, SHUT UP, WHO CARES. Just go buy it already!!

Rating:
Summary: Worst version of Akira ever put together.
Review: Normally I will not write reviews for items on amazon, in fact this is my first review, but I find it completely neccessary. This dvd is not what you think it is. It says special edition, and as far as I can tell this is the same "special" as in special people. To start with, they draw you in with the selling point that they have translations for all the graphitti on the walls. They do, however the format they deliver it in is horrendous. They call it capsule mode, and it is basically a slideshow gallery of every cell that has japanese figures on it with the english translation. You cannot watch the movie with the translations integrated, you have to watch the slideshow. On top of that they completely ruined all of the dialogue in the entire movie. They "re-translated" every line to make it more understandable to us americans. This was a horrible failure. The lines make the bike gang sound like stupid frat house guys, and generally just take away from the beauty of the film. Aside from the translation, the voice over actors are completely unsuited to the animation. All of the characters sound like rich white kids, and almost as an insult they make the corporal have a black mans voice. Like we wouldn't notice that he is not black! So just save yourself the $40 bucks, and don't buy this dvd. If you want an Akira dvd buy an older one which will save you $20 bucks or so, and save the artistic integrity of the film.

Rating:
Summary: open contemplations
Review: Reading over many of the reviews, it seems that Akira is somewhat of a love/hate sort of movie. I remember back before even the word 'anime' was known to every highschool kid and his grandmother, there wasn't much a debate on whether or not this movie was any good. If you had seen it, you loved it. And you were automatically held in high regard by movie fans for even being aware of its existence. Many people nowadays don't seem to like this movie yet claim to be absolutely obbsessed with anime. Mind you, I don't doubt their sincerity, but I have come across far too many 'fans' who assert their status because they "watch Toonami everyday". *sigh*....Akira, in my opinion is the perfect example of what anime was like in the pre-dragonball era. Most titles were like this. Grim, violent, and always highly original in its concepts. With enough cryptic meanings to instigate philisophical debates amongst any group of movie geeks. Maby it's just nostalgia on my part, but it seems I can pop in this DVD now and enjoy it just as much as I did when I first saw it twelve years ago. If you haven't seen it yet and you're still unsure about this alledged masterpiece, look at it like this: if you liked Ghost in the Shell, there's a good chance you'll have fun with this. If your anime interests consists of whatever is being shown on Cartoon Network this week (which is not bad, mind you), then you're probably not ready for this.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning Animation and Perfect Film to watch
Review: What is ultimately astounding is that the title is still very worthy even today. However, nothing has compared to AKIRA in terms of how much scope, depth, action, and sheer insanity can be packed into 2 hours and 5 minutes. No doubt that other shows have covered similar topics, but ultimately, AKIRA is a masterpiece in that it condenses a huge epic manga into a very short time frame while still being accessible to newcomers. Granted, those newcomers may feel things are a bit muddled, but ultimately that pulls the viewer back in, because by the end the viewer wants to understand the mystery known as AKIRA. It's this mystery, compounded by a rather lousy dub job that toured the US and over fifteen years of speculation and backlash, that has made AKIRA into a misunderstood classic of anime.

There has been a bit of backlash against AKIRA in recent years, ranging from comments about being incredibly violent (which it is) and indecipherable (which may be true for some) to it being inferior to other psychic stories in the anime canon (which I believe it is not.) I believe part of the backlash is due in part to AKIRA's nature--although there are similar anime out there, those who expect all anime to be the same as AKIRA are in for a disappointment, and may not stay interested in the genre. What's also true is that some misguided otaku see AKIRA as the film that opened the floodgates, that showed anime to able to pull a profit in the US and therefore led to its commercialization stateside. This is not a bad thing for most of us, but for those who preferred anime when it was an exclusive club limited to those with lots of money, laserdiscs, and ability to make fansubs, this spelled the beginning of the end.

Rating:
Summary: Please think twice before buying this version of Akira
Review: Too make the long story short. PLEASE think twice before plunking down the money on this SHODDY release of this masterpiece, Akira.

I watched the original English dubbed version released 10 years ago. The sound effects and dialogue was much superior to this new DVD version.

I do not know if they were trying to cut cost or whether they were worried about the US market not appreciating the intricacies of these sorts of animations. They have really dumbed down the dialogue and deleted a few lines. They also changed the voice of a few characters!!!

I really implore potential buyers to stay away from this new copy. They cut away some dialogues and the sound effects are really noticeably worse than the copy 10 years ago. This is definitely not a special edition but rather a hurried rerelease due to the new popularity in animation in the Cartoon Network here in the US.

Unfortunately, I doubt anyone can get a hand on this original copy, but I am sure you can still rent it.

If the readers here are confused to how bad this copy is compared to the original, just imagine Godfather or Star Wars but with slightly different dialogues aimed for a younger audience. It is so sad that this was done to Akira. I think this is probably the main culprit to the bad reviews here due to people not understanding or appreciating the storyline.

Also for those who watched this movie and stated they were confused by the storyline. There are a lot of deeper meanings to what is said and done in Akira especially the dialogue about the power of humans in ameoba. If you watch it enough and pay particular attention to what they say, you will understand what the creator was trying to get at.

This animation is not based purely on shock and awe. Like many independant movies, the story line is deep and should be appreciated. You can't expect another straight forward movie like Lion King or Tarzan. That really kills the main point in Akira. More importantly I think Akira is aimed more for adults and not for kids, like Disney productions do. Again, one shouldn't be expecting grade school plotlines.

My last advise is for people to buy the comic book release. There are only a few volumes as they place 5-6 issues in a book for easier reading. The story is really good and well drawn. You can probably appreciate Akira even better there.

However this new DVD release has been horribly altered. Not even the subtitles do much good as that has been dumbed down as well.

Rating:
Summary: Consequence
Review: Katsuhiro Otomo produced an animated feature which is complex, fast, and amazing. The movie starts with the trouble that develeps when Tetsuo starts to feel uneasy about the way Kaneda always has to rescue him. To re-iterate the obvious, the story is set in a 21st century post-apocalyptic world of psychic forces (akira). This almost gothic post-doomsday fantasy serves as the framework for a story that calls to question the impact of technology as well as presenting a dim view of the future. Akira is said to be the precusor of the bleak Evangelion series.

There are a few questions that still haunt me. Is it appealing because it is edgier than most animation features or because is it seen as exotic? Along those same lines, is this sense of Otherness, the exotic nature of anime is imported and has infused western cinema a sort of western cross polination? What of the influence of anime like Ghost in the Shell on movies like The Matrix Reloaded. Has the Other become the Same?

This highly detailed and often violent animation also calls to question power and corruption. To the critics who are looking for a conventional narrative, they will be disappointed - since the film is utter chaos - but that is the beauty of it. Otomo challenges us to fill in the gaps. In a stark and odd conversation between Kaneda and his female friend, the conversation turns heavy relating to the nature of Akira. Akira and the revelation of what he/she is or is not is somewhat disappointing. Yes, at the end, we still have a very vague notion for the motivations of all the characters. One of the points of the movie is to play out consequence. The movie has to be seen more than once to be fully appreciated.

Miguel Llora