Akira (1988)

[Foxbat]

Any thoughts, rants, ideas for Akira?
Please stick 'em here

 

[Tsujigiri]

I'd have to say *yawn* it's too early for this 12:36am here

I enjoyed this film when I was younger, but after a recent rewatch I have to say I found it fairly boring.
The concepts were either completely under or over developed and the animation doesn't hold a candle to modern standards.
I understand it's still a milestone film in manga history, but its old hat to me now

 

[kaneda]

why you yawning for????????????

 

[polymorphikos]

It looks pretty, has lovely explosions, and a campily over-done finale. What is not to like? I first saw it on SBS at a random moment one night when I was thirteen. I had never seen such a movie before, and was, as the expression goes 'rocked from out my stockings'.

 

[GOLLUM]

Polymorphikos, you may be interested in this director's newer film Steam Boy. Just recently saw the DVD version of it and quite liked it, my review of it is in the YA and Film & Television forums.

Didn't realise you were an Aussie, so you from Melbourne or Sydney with SBS?

 

[polymorphikos]

All over, but I reside in Geelong and go to school in Burwood.

I also think Tetsuo's descent into madness is quite well-handled.

 

[GOLLUM]

Cool I live in Blackburn, so you're probably referring to one of the TAFES, colleges or campuses in that area, just think we're practically neighbours.

BTW you may have seen me once or twice hiding in those bushes with a pair of binoculars. That walkie talkie I have is the one I use to communicate with The Master...

 

[kaneda]

BTW you may have seen me once or twice hiding in those bushes with a pair of binoculars. That walkie talkie I have is the one I use to communicate with The Master...

a long distance relationship conducted via walkie talkie - how sweet

the only thing i don't understand properly in the film is the ending (pretty much from when tetsuo blows up on himself) anyone willing to put their view point forward about that.

 

[GOLLUM]

a long distance relationship conducted via walkie talkie - how sweet

Be careful the way you define relationship around here....

 

[kaneda]

you're the one who should be careful of what i consider a relationship to be...

 

[polymorphikos]

the only thing i don't understand properly in the film is the ending (pretty much from when tetsuo blows up on himself) anyone willing to put their view point forward about that.

I think, though it's been a while since I saw it, it was just all his psychic powers going beserk and destroying him in various physics-defying ways due to Tetsuo's inability to cope. Jim Henson had several rules of how to end a sketch when you couldn't think of anything else, and one of them was that everything blows-up.

I wish I could remember the other rules.

 

[GOLLUM]

you're the one who should be careful of what i consider a relationship to be...

HMMM.. things could start to get interesting around here...

 

[kaneda]

I think, though it's been a while since I saw it, it was just all his psychic powers going beserk and destroying him in various physics-defying ways due to Tetsuo's inability to cope. Jim Henson had several rules of how to end a sketch when you couldn't think of anything else, and one of them was that everything blows-up.

I wish I could remember the other rules.

I tried googling it for you, but couldn't find anything

Yer thats how i explain it, but its the introduction of akira to the mix which confuses me, and the beginning of a new world etc etc etc.

 

[Foxbat]

I've not seen a lot of Anime but I have to admit to quite enjoying this one. Good animation (I thought), interesting storyline but overly long would be my one major criticism. Also, I wondered both about the name Tetsuo and the fact that at one point he has a cybernetic arm - a homage to Tetsuo The Bodyhammer perhaps? Or just coincidence?The ending (to me) seemed reminiscent of 2001. He became (essentially) a Starchild and went his own way with his companions. At least that's how I saw it

 

[ravenus]

Also, I wondered both about the name Tetsuo and the fact that at one point he has a cybernetic arm - a homage to Tetsuo The Bodyhammer perhaps? Or just coincidence?

I believe Tetsuo-Iron Man is a sort of spin-off to what happens to the Tetsuo of Akira. The 2 films came within a year of each other. I think Akira was the first.
Bodyhammer is a sequel to that film and came in 1992, 4-5 years after Akira.

 

[ravenus]

• Some cool trivia about Akira, taken from IMDB:
• This was one of the first Japanese anime films to have the character's voices recorded before they were animated. While this is the typical practice in U.S. animation, in Japan the animation is generally produced first.
• The film was re-released in 2001 with a new voice dub and soundtrack, reportedly costing over US$1 million.
• The small, shifty man with the large incisors is named Nezu, which means "rat."

​

• At one point in the 1990s, Sony contemplated a live-action version of the film, but scrapped the idea when the projected budget went north of US$300 million.
• The music for the film was completed before any of the composers saw a frame of film or read the script. The music did have to be edited to fit some scenes though.
• The production budget was nearly US$10million, a record sum in Japanese animation film.
• The movie consists of 2,212 shots and 160,000 single pictures, 2-3 times more than usual, using 327 different colors (another record in animation film), 50 of which were exclusively created for the film.
• Katsuhiro Ôtomo originally created the AKIRA manga as an homage to manga artist Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who created _"Tetsujin nijû-hachi gô" (1963)_ (Tetsujin 28). Both AKIRA and Tetsujin 28 have a main character named Shotaro Kaneda and Akira's no. 28 designation compares with the robot's no.28 designation.
• The 1940s-style song heard following the terrorist bombing is "Tokyo Shoe Shine Boy", released in 1951 by jazz singer Teruko Akatsuki. The song was not included in either the Japanese, or American releases of the Akira soundtrack; however, it had previously appeared on the release of the soundtrack from MASH (1970).

 

[Foxbat]

I believe Tetsuo-Iron Man is a sort of spin-off to what happens to the Tetsuo of Akira. The 2 films came within a year of each other. I think Akira was the first.
Bodyhammer is a sequel to that film and came in 1992, 4-5 years after Akira.

Aah yes. There were two films. My mind must be going in my twilight years.
What made me unsure of any link was the fact that these two are live action if I remember correctly.

PS. Some impressive trivia. I think we should have some sort of Golden Anorak Award for this depth of info

 

[ravenus]

I was hoping that some people would have read the original manga series on which the film is based and help to flesh out some of the more compressed aspects of the film like the origin of the psychic power harnessing program, some more info about the military man who controls the psychics etc.

The imagery in this film is some of the best ever I have seen. The various dreams and hallucinations Tetsuo has make for some truly scary moments. And the other psychics, dried out husks of a childhood lost to terrible experiments in a nation's quest for power, make one truly discomfited at their condition.

 

[Foxbat]

I've never read any Manga but, curiously enough, what little I've seen of
it in Anime I have enjoyed. Perhaps I should hunt some down.
PS. I am working under the presumption that Manga is print and Anime is film. Please correct me if I'm wrong

 

[ravenus]

It was cool to hear about how the score was created before the film was shot...the score is one of the most powerful aspcts of the film and it creates such an aura of tragedy and fear at times like when Tetsuo's hallucinations in the hospital are about him and Kaneda as kids...the lonely flute playing a planitive tune which really makes you feel the isolation of Tetsuo as he looks at his own shadow in the dream and begins to literally crumble.