Toon Zone Talkback - "Akira" Blu-ray: Still Da Bomb After Two Decades

Still one of the best adaptations of a comic book out there. While I enjoy the manga more (not as jam-packed) the movie does an excellent job of condensing it all into a two-hour movie.

The musical score IMO, stanRAB out as one of the most unique and well-composed pieces of music in animation. I still get chills when I listen to Requiem and Shohmyoh.

Too bad the Blu-Ray doesn't have all the features of the 2-Disc set though. It has some pretty extensive stuff in there including a 50-minute documentary.
 
You referring to Requiem? That has a couple of heavy drum poundings at the very beginning of both the song and the movie.

Or are you talking about Tetsuo, the song that has the choir going,"DAAAH!! DA DA DAH!"
 
Akira is one of those movies that I seem to appreciate more and more every time I see it, which isn't as impressive as it sounRAB because I was pretty non-plussed by it when I saw it for the first time in college (my initial reaction as the credits rolled was a much less printable version of "what just happened?"). I suspect part of the reason why is that the new dub/translation is much better than the one I saw (and owned on VHS in a letterboxed version, which was a novel thing back then), but also that I keep finding new things to appreciate about it.

I did spin up the Blu-ray screener before firing it off to Speedy Boris, and was really bowled over by how great the movie looked, to the point where I'm contemplating blowing the extra cash for the disc even though I'm still not a rabid fan of the movie and am perfectly happy with the DTS DVD from Geneon. What really struck me about Akira this time was that it was done well before the age of widespread computer graphics or computer compositing, so I think all the effects on screen were 100% hand-drawn and they still look at least as good, if not better, than a whole lot of feature animated movies, CGI or hand-drawn.

I will differ from Speedy and say that I thought the cpmpanion booklet was a colossal waste of time, full of really strange, overly-praising bloviating from the bits I could stand to read.

According to Bandai, the Blu-ray is already sold out at the distributor, so once the retailers are out of copies, they're going to be out for a few months at least. Subsequent pressings are also not going to include the slipcase or the booklet, although I don't think that's any great loss.
 
It is strange, watching the new dub after all these years though there was a lot of "Hey, that voice!" from watching too much OVA Gundams.

I didn't know Bosch was part of Animaze, though. That group really is my favorite dub team ever.
 
I like the music they use during the motorcycle action set pieces. It has a have a fairly primal quality to it.

I still don't LOVE Akira but I respect it tons. And there's this visceral, savagel quality to it that really gets your adrenaline pumping. It is, in many ways, a movie about mankind at its most primal state. It leans very much on the testosterone side of mankind, but that's its appeal.

And I think it's actually quite a simple, easily understandable movie. There are a lot of claptrap sci-fi details of course (and the manga is more a science fiction story than the movie) but it really is just a transmogrified version of a classic monster movie.
 
Those would be Kaneda and Battle Against the Clowns. Some of the more straight-forward tracks but they're definitely exciting to listen to.

Mutation (the song that plays when Tetsuo is turning into a mass of flesh) is another favorite of mine, its so bizarre.

The only thing I kinda hold against the film is cutting Joker down from being a fantastic supporting character to a cameo. Of course, they have to trim the fat somewhere for the movie to work.
 
I have the release in the tin, which dub is that? If it's the same dub as the blu-ray, then I'll pass. I had to spend a lot of change and agony getting my copy, so no need to upgrade unless there's a difference.
 
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