Akira | The Defining 25
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- "Amebas don't build houses and bridges. They just devour all the food around them."
SPOILER WARNING: While the series does not go out of its way to discuss spoilers, the videos are written with the assumption you have watched the film before.
The Defining 25 is a video series analyzing the 25 most influential films in my life to discover why these movies meant so much to me in the past, and what they mean to me now. Coming up next: American Psycho.
Captions will be updated within 48 hours of the video being uploaded.
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The Defining 25: • Playlist
I genuinely can't believe you don't have that many views, honestly of the best videos I've ever see. Your Mr. Freeze video brought me here and i definitely plan on staying and sharing your videos with my friends
Thanks, that means a lot and is always appreciated.
superb content Select Screen. I killed that thumbs up on your video. Keep on up the superior work.
Thank you for your contribution.
I'm like dubs not subs
I cherish every second of this movie. The soundtrack in particular complements the visuals so well, I wish today's movie composers would try stuff like this more. Definite advantage of an audiovisual medium, although I also love the manga, but for different reasons. Good Video!
Forget the haters man I love the Akira dub to this day!! Literally had Ichigo as Kansas, can you get any better than that? I had to do quite a lot of research to answer my many plot questions so I’m excited to rewatch Akira. Keep up the good work man, loving your stuff and excited for the other defining 25 videos!!
"haters".. Everyone can watch whatever they want to. But the original japanese voice actors are better 99% of the time. They take the job more serously I feel, and the japanese language has quirks that works so well for voice acting. I feel that some people just have this initial dislike to watch something that is not 100% in their comfort zone. So they go for dub and never look back, even though the difference is night and day sometimes.
I think it is worth noting that the film was made while the manga was still being created by Otomo. Making the film changed how the manga ultimately played out. With Otomo greatly expanding the middle section of the story to flesh out the world, characters and story. The manga also does a much better job of laying the gorundwork for the more heady elements. I found reading the manga allowed me to appreciate the film more. Especially in how it handles all of the characters and tells the core story in such an economical way. Also it helps that the manga is one of the most beautiful comic books ever created.
Yes, the fact that the film actually came out in the middle of the manga's production is definitely an interesting wrinkle I wish I could've fit into the final version of the video. At one point I did try to put it in the rough draft, but the video already goes in so many different directions, it ultimately felt like too much. It's pretty obvious why Akira is one of the most talked about anime films and manga of all time, because there is just so many different things to dissect.
There’s nothing to forgive your younger self if he preferred dubs. It’s just a preference.
I lost count of how many times I watched Akira a long time ago. I used to have it on VHS (I still have it on DVD) and I watch it every time it's on Netflix (I don't know why it comes and goes). I watched for the first time in 1989 (I think) while I was reading the manga and I love both. If you like the movie that much, and if you ever have the opportunity, you should give it a try. It is amazing!!!
Gosh, how I miss traditional high budget 2D animation.
I usually roll my eyes at the phrase, "they don't make 'em like they used to", but in this case, I feel like that is sadly very fitting sentiment.
@@SelectScreen I still enjoy today's animated movies but it is kinda sad that the attention to detail, fluid and smooth hand drawn animation is pretty much a thing of the past at this point with only few exceptions
That movie looks pretty cool.
Interesting thoughts on adaptations too.
Great opening/closing music btw.
I've seen the movie and I've read the manga. The manga is hella long and has impressive artwork, but I think it lacks a couple of things that made the movie special: One is a less pronounced accent on the emotional relationship between Kaneda and Tetsuo, which I think in the movie is fantastic. Second I think it paints Kaneda as someone more sympathetic and moral, while in the manga he was very much a self-serving prick. The central theme of the manga is less Kaneda-Tetsuo's teenage angst, but more about a bunch of kids(the bikers), inheriting a city that's been nuked and where all the adults have died, and are left to themselves to establish a new (despotic) society and order. It's Lord of the Flies. It's very bleak and nihilistic, unlike in the anime where in the confusing ending you at least get some semblance that Tetsuo found his resolve and peace. The manga has a ton of new characters that are way more fleshed out, but the whole experience is just unlike Akira the movie. If not for the title and the art style, I could have sworn those two were completely different universes.
So you are very much correct to praise the film for being its own thing, because it is, and it really shows that Otomo put his heart and soul into it, and he still had years to go before he could finish his already overlong and tiring manga.
That's an interesting take, as I was able to touch on in the video itself, I think the main thing that separates Kaneda from Tetsuo is power. At the start of the film Kaneda has more of a sense of "social" power over Tetsuo, and that begins to flip once Tetsuo begins manifesting actual super powers. But the thing I didn't get to touch on as much in the video is that at their core, I think Tetsuo and Kaneda are both the same kind of punk kid. Even though he is a lot more likeable, Kaneda is still not very traditionally heroic, but there is a certain charisma to his performance, both by the voice-over and the animation, that makes me root for him. Similarly, the film paints Tetsuo in a way that still makes him sympathetic (or at least morbidly relatable) but not necessarily likeable. And I really like this duality, which is why I'm glad Kaneda doesn't disappear for large stretches on the film like I am told he does in the manga.
Oh yeah, he definitely does disappear. The manga doesn't really have one single character that's the audience surrogate, per se. Certainly not like the film. Every single character in the manga is both the main character, and a background tertiary one. It's so non-biased, which is ultimately one of its strengths.
Hmm, which is why I feel like even after reading the manga, I would still prefer the film, because that is something I think I would really miss. Some day I'll get around to actually reading it so can test this theory out for myself.
Bout time this video was made watchable again
(Gonna download it so I can put it up incase it ever gets blocked again. I'll give credit btw)
That simplified version of Akira exists. It's called Chronicle.
I love your videos! You put a lot of passion into making these kinds of video essays and it shows.
Fantastic Video! You really described the magic of AKIRA
do you happen to remember where you heard that it was shot mostly in 2's? Most of the production notes I've heard cited elsewhere suggest it was done completely in 1's(but I'm not sure if those are 100% accurate, or may just be confusing the 24 fps to mean it was on 1s and missing that there were duplicate frames)
I could never find definitive confirmation that the entire movie was shot on 1's, at least based on the literal definition of the term. The best I could find was multiple assumptions that it was at least shot entirely on 2's with likely many sequences bumped up to 1, which is why I erred on the side of caution, and phrased that part like I did. But I think part of that assumption is based on the idea that it just wouldn't be practical to shoot the entire film on 1's, and as we all know, I would hardly call the production of Akira practical, so that could be wrong as well.
I mean just look at it. The proof is in the pudding. A lot of AKIRA I see is 12fps with a few moments of 24fps, but idk if people have the ability or the trained eye to distinguish between the two. Who Framed Roger Rabbit used silky smooth 24fps every time cartoon characters would interract with live-action ones, though, for understandable reasons, but even it had 12fps dips during the Toon Town sections I think.
I definitely agree, even to the naked eye you can tell that the movie is at least shot at 12fps, instead of the more common 8fps you'd see out of a cheaper anime series, especially at that time. It did seem to me like there were definitely scenes that were only at 12fps and not 24, specifically some of the more mundane dialogue scenes where it wouldn't be practical to do them at 24fps. But as I mentioned, I don't have the same kind of trained eye as someone who might do this for a living, so I tried to default to what seemed like the safest assumptions I could find online.
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(spoiler alert if you have not read the manga) I personally have read the manga before I had even heard of the movie, so I had a different mind set when entering the movie. To me, all of the scenes with the scientist working on the corroboration between Akira and Tetsuo made sense to me and built some of the main ideas of the manga like Tetsuo having the same powers as Akira and therefore being connected and that was why he was able to automatically know where the parts of Akira were. I think some of the most important stories were of the riots because of set it provided. Thanks for providing the Ameba scene because I did not remember that part, and it seemed to give more answers of what was going on during the movie. Overall, I found your synopsis to be very interesting and it provided some interesting ideas!
Yeah, the ameba scene was one of the few things that stood out when I watched it this time. I hadn't noticed before just how much it really lays out basically the whole underlying conflict of the story. Once I watched it I knew it had to go in the video. Thanks for watching.
I couldn't stand the movie when I saw it. The story and world made no sense and felt incomplete.
I read the manga and absolutely loved it. I have yet to go back and rewatch the movie since, but I probably should.
It's worth noting too that while the mangaka did write the movie, the manga itself wasn't even finished when the movie was made. He didn't have the full story to adapt or even his real ending to work with.
The manga is really worth a read.
Personally I'm still in that conflicted stage with Akira.
Logically speaking, I should absolutely love it. The animation is the best of the best. The slow burn and cryptic story are both things I love and appreciate. The somewhat convoluted world building, where you know there's more out there but the movie doesn't explain it all, is also right up my ally, as it adds to the mystic and mystery of it all. And on and on and on. There's so much about it that I fully recognize as being, well, a masterpiece.
However, even though I've seen it multiple times, there's just something about it that makes me feel... "meh." I understood the story, I appreciated the art, score, and acting. I just don't know what it is.
It's so odd because I fully recognize it as a masterpiece, but somehow don't really like it. However, I get a bit fonder of it each time I see it. Perhaps I just need that one situation where everything lines up. It's happened to me before with a few other things. The right mindset, the right environment. Who knows.
But I'll welcome it, because I want to fully love an amazing film that I already love... but... I don't. Lol.
Yeah, I've definitely been there too, it's definitely a frustrating feeling at first. Maybe you and Akira will eventually synchronize over time, but even if you don't, that's okay too. Sometimes, for whatever reason, certain works of art just aren't for us even if it seems like they should be, but at least there's even more stuff out there for us to discover and enjoy. Thanks for watching.
Damn, if you keep doing videos with this argumental quality your channel will grow big. Just wanted to show you respect and support from Spain. Really enjoyed your interpretations this far. And it just keeps geting better on each video! Not really a big fan on commenting on UA-cam but it annoyed me the fact that you have not as much subscribers as I had expected to. Also, love when you talk about the things that helped you grow as a person, it'll help other people grow too with your example, me included.
My first rewatch of akira was a letdown, where i realized how much of my appreciation for the movie was based on my awe at the smoke and debris animation going on. There is SO much of it. Much of the experience of watching the movie akira, can also be replicated by going through every entry of it on sakugabooru.
Akira is only popular because its Japanese , weebs have a tendency to do that
Watched the entire thing, thank you for making content like this. I’m pretty new to analysing film and your video was super easy to follow yet still perfectly informative and interesting throughout. I hope to see more videos of yours in my sub box :P
Thanks for the kind words, and good news, there are tons of great film video essayist out there that have been doing this a lot longer than me, so if you liked my video there is a bunch more good stuff out there to go through as well. Thanks for watching.
I've watched Akira once and frankly was quite bored , it bored me to the point where I can't even muster strength to watch it again. Sage Benneth vindicated my view when he said he found it to be a bad movie because I do as well, Matrix 1 has thought it's possible to have a mind bending movie that's bizarre and still be good while this movie proves you can make bad movies and have people be obsessed, fun fact the same way you feel about this film is the same way I feel about MoonLight the more I watched it the more I became obsessed with it
it's more of a companion to the books, even though the film's popularity far outweighs the books.
Ah yes, the man who didnt even bother trying to watch the movie in it's intended form and and didn't even bother to try and understand the plot
What an amazing source for opinions that are in no way solely created so that he can make jokes for his audience at the expense of the film