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Akira, Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll, were some of my favourites from back in the day. Akira started my journey into Japanese anime properly and I eventually bought the manga as well - which is a 6 book epic - the film would make up about 1 or 2 of the books in terms of story and it continues for another 4 books after Akira returns...
I don't think that's quite right . I could be mistaken , but I think Akira does something more like achieving enlightenment . Doesn't seem to be any indication that he loses bodily control like Tetsuo does .
@@UndrState They literally state that they don't want Akira to happen again. By that they are talking about the person and the incident. In becoming enlightened Akira tapped into an energy that was way beyond anything theorized and vaporized Tokyo.
@@jasonwebb7978 - I agree completely . My point was that Akira didn't become "unstable" ( as OP put it ) like Tetsuo . Obviously something different happened .
It's still hard to wrap my head around the fact _each frame_ was drawn by hand. They even invented 50 colors unique to the film. Always dreamt of getting my hands on one of the cels. Was lucky enough to see this on the big screen first time. Late night showing at the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa. Absolutely surreal experience.
Its a tiny bit misleadng, like yes its was true 24fps but they would stutter the 12/8fps animations for a lot of parts (like when the motorcycles come out the alley, they're one 12s but each motorcycle is offset a bit). But one thing they did do is record the voice actors first so they could animate the lip syncing.
Seeing this in the cinema is amazing - the OST hits so hard my other half turned said at parts bc of the imagery and OST blaring so loudly it felt like a fever dream lol
It would actually take ALL DAY to list the amount of movies, tv shows, anime, video games and comics this movie has influenced over the past 36 years. And the Manga itself is even crazier.
Fun fact, Kanye is a major fan of this movie that it inspired the design for his shoes and an entire music video for one of his most popular songs has a bunch of its elements
It was never a nuke that left the first giant crater in Neo Tokyo, it was Akira - they refer to a bomb, because of gvt coverups, including sealing Akira underneath the crater he made. It's expanded upon in the manga, but the movie also alludes to this fact - Akira was the one who destroyed Tokyo
The way Tetsuo shits from a sympathetic character to a monster and back to a sympathetic character and it all feels nature is true master work in story telling
Okay so my uncle showed me this movie on VHS when I was a kid and, of course, I was TERRIFIED. Took me a lot of years to have the guts to watch it again and appreciate this incredible masterpiece that tackles a lot of important subjects, under the lenses of a post war japan.
There was a publisher in the 90's called "Manga" and they released all these anime movies and OVA's on VHS. My older brother had the whole collection at his home. The first one I watched was Devilman, and then Akira. It was almost exclusively 16+ age rating on all of them and I was 11... It was fun, but I had nightmares for years.
I was exposed to this kind of stuff at a friends house. I was still watching "kid shows"(cartoons) from the 80's in 1992 so I basically went from Tom and Jerry to Akira and had my mind blown. I was 12 at the time.
Anime can be defined by two eras: everything that came out before Akira, and everything that came afterwards. Akira is perhaps the most influential animated film ever made. Its influence can be seen in works from Classic Directors like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to modern day directors like Jordan Peele and Jeff Fowler.
Watching yall squirm at the ending body horror is making me kick my feet and giggle on my break. Haha i remember my first time watching this. I love seeing new people step into this film with little to no context and just enjoy their mixed ride of emotions. Such a great film to come back to once the shock wears off. I always catch something i missed prior both in the sub and dubs.
Yes, the 1988 Movie has the 2020 Olympics set to be in Tokyo but were delayed or cancelled because of the film's ending. In real life, the 2020 Olympics really were going to be in Tokyo, but they were postponed due to Covid. Coincidence or prophesy?
This was my first anime. Walking through Blockbuster in 1989 I see this box sitting on the shelf, had no idea what it was but I thought let me see... As a teenage boy in the 80s this was fundamental in shaping so much of my love in entertainment.
this was my first too, the second one was the world whre everyone lost their memories, a wind called amnesia. Though I think I had see robotech before thie but not a movie.
When Andrew said it looks like the nuclear explosion at the beginning of the movie... That is the thing. It was not a nuke but the first ascension of Akira. Everyone thought it was a nuke and it started WW3. It is not until Akira comes back that you learn that fact.
No matter how serious the moment, when I heard Testuo scream Kanedaaaa!!! it brings a smile to my face, because I remember my friends screaming Canelaaa! (cinnamon!) and laughing when we watched the film.
The behind the scenes of this is amazing. Seeing the artist making each individual window on every building was beautiful. At the same time it was insane to think about how long it must have taken.
What a great surprise!! This movie is so epic and tremendous adaption of the manga, on every level. It has so many levels to analyze. This is the godfather of popularizing Japanese animation in the US. One of my favorite movies...not just anime...of all time.
@@AppleFrogTomatoFace I wouldn't put Alita in there for anime because the anime movie isn't that big, but as far as mangas go the original Alita run in the 90s was absolutely fantastic and influential. It has some great art but where it shines is world building and tone (which is where the live action movie completely fails). It still holds up very well too. They released some deluxe prints a couple years ago and I can't recommend it enough.
@AppleFrogTomatoFace you can in the same way you can invent a number. 103848593043948584929194858483929101010848484848484848484848484847474748484747484848484848 That number has never before been said until now. If I'm the first person to say the number then you could say I invented it. That number is called a Ron Paulson BTW. That's what I named it.
100's of competent animators working overtime on a project in a economy that allowed to basicly throw money at it, and you had the best and crispest animation you'd ever seen in a time where Animation was considered as an Art form and expression and not just a monezy making endeavor. Those where the times.
As an animator I've always loved the look of this. It was animated on the ones, meaning every frame is hand drawn. Animation is typically done on the twos, every other frame drawn.
This movie really blew up anime in the US. It still holds up amazingly after 36 years. Looks better than some anime today. There's no way Lucy wasn't inspired by the sci-fi mind part.
I think Kaori is one of the more tragic characters in the film. Despite all he's done, she still cares for Tetsuo and sees him as redeemable only to be horribly and callously crushed.
This was my first Anime ever. It was a stepping stone into other stuff like Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, and Fist of the Northstar. It’s a really special film.
I remember seeing this in the theater when it came out (English dub). Got to see the English Sub years later. The subtitles made so much more sense. It'd be 10 years (Ghost in the Shell) before another movie approached this.
The bike slide and movie poster is iconic, the film itself is a mindfuck and a half and was groundbreaking for anime as a whole. Its popularity broke ground for anime to be seen as more than just for kids, given how detailed, horrifying, and brutal it could be (Kaori truly didn't deserve any of that), and, much like the Matrix would for the Western world, introduced Japan to cyberpunk themes. The production was a big deal too, it was among the first anime films to have expressive facial movements for dialogue rather than just making the mouth bubble and move akin to dialogue, the more realistic mouth animations were also achieved by pre-scored dialogue, it also had over 160,000 cels to make the motion fluid, it might've been the most expensive anime movie made at the time - though it's not known for sure.
wasnt a nuke it was Akira's first awakening. The story in the manga is way more complex and developped, a must read. I am old enough to have watched it in theatre, the whole andience was silent during the whole time and exploded in applause at the end. I stayed for a second watch. memorable
To be fair, Bladerunner preceded the Akira movie by about 6 years, but the manga (from wikipedia) was serialized biweekly in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Young Magazine from December 20, 1982, to June 25, 1990, with its 120 chapters collected into six tankōbon' volumes. So, they're pretty modern contemporaries to each other.
This movie was created at the peak of Japan's economic bubble, which itself was the peak of the country's economic miracle that began after the end of WWII marked by the two nuclear bombs. Akira -- who is responsible for the two nuclear-like explosions at the beginning and end of the movie -- is a symbolic representation of both the power of catastrophic destruction and the power of phenomenal growth (Tetsuo's transformation) that are latent in humans, which themselves have been latent in the ancient amoebas that Kei talks about. The kanji for the name "Akira" is "明", which means "bright", is a part of the word that means "tomorrow", and is a combination of "日" (Sun) and "月" (Moon), or the daytime light and the nighttime light: in this sense, Akira represents the two sides of energy that shines for the day (creation) and for the night (destruction). (Incidentally: the military satellite that attacks Tetsuo is called "Sol", which is Latin for "Sun"; and, in the manga version, Tetsuo flies to the Moon and destroys a portion of it.)
My uncle owned a video store back when this came out. He had it on Laserdisc at home and told me, a 14 yr old white girl in Texas, to watch this as he put it on “it’s going to blow your mind”. At first I was like “this is some weird Japanese shit, boring!” Then by the end I was like “this is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen”. It not only sparked my love of animation, especially animation made for storytelling, not just for entertainment, but also made me deeply love and appreciate Japanese culture and the horrors they went thru during WWII.
So interesting that you guys watched the non-dubbed version…it’s one of the few anime features where the mouth movements were animated to a pre-existing voice track! You guys knew what you were doing!
Yeah me too. But although I knew what everyone was saying, my eye was STILL drawn to the subtitles! I think that’s why I like the dubs, they leave my eyes free to fully appreciate the animation. I know the second dub is more accurate, but I still love the Streamline dub…I miss those voice actors if I watch the second dub…
The Colonel wasn't a bad guy. He was the only one who seemed to understand the danger and was trying to protect the city. Everyone else either didn't get it or were trying to use the power for their own gain. The elevator was also in Ang Lee's "Hulk". Tetsuo's tranformation was also copied in an episode of both "Ballmasterz: 9009" and a Robot Chicken Christmas episode, the latter even having the little light at the end.
the "angled lift" is also something you find in Metal gear Solid. And yes the COlonel was brash, but he was basicly the only competent one in the governement to understand what was truely at stake.
Yes, but the visuals of Blade Runner, Akira, and other seminal pieces of cyberpunk fiction were all the result of cross-pollination. There was a huge sci-fi/fantasy fiction boom in Japan in the late 70s and 80s which saw a lot of Western novels, comics, and magazines translated and published in Japanese, including the French magazine Metal Hurlant (aka Heavy Metal) that featured the works of Moebius, which became a major inspiration for Katsuhiro Otomo and just about every other SF artist/director active at the time, including Ridley Scott. The Akira manga actually started publication in 1982, the same year Blade Runner premiered, though, again, both were visually inspired by Moebius, specifically The Long Tomorrow, which was serialized in Metal Hurlant in 1976.
⏱️ Timestamps by TimeSkip ⏱️ 00:00:00 - Introduction to Akira Reaction 00:01:53 - Transition to Akira Viewing 00:04:00 - Character Introductions and Exposition 00:05:54 - Visuals and Artistic Quality 00:10:39 - Discussion on Character Dynamics 00:13:00 - Intense Scenes and Emotional Reactions 00:16:33 - Animation Techniques and Style 00:22:29 - Dreams and Nightmares 00:28:26 - Cultural Commentary on Society 00:35:12 - Fascinating Character Dynamics 00:39:22 - Military Orders and Morality 00:42:00 - Power Transfer and Consequences 00:45:36 - Character Transformation 00:49:34 - Destruction and Chaos 00:58:26 - Unsettling Visuals and Themes 01:00:12 - Character Reflections on Akira 01:05:10 - Themes of Power and Control 01:11:23 - Visuals and Animation Quality 01:14:04 - Emotional Depth of Characters 01:18:07 - Societal Impact of Catastrophe 01:19:53 - Trivia and Fun Facts 01:21:46 - Impact on Western Audience 01:24:03 - Final Thoughts on the Film
Surprising you guys never saw it. I’m Japanese with an American name but always took on Akira as my Japanese name. This movie and even some of the Japanese Arcade games in the 80s had that dark immersion into an anime world decades ahead of its time. The plot was always way over my head especially when half the time I didn’t have the English subtitles back then.
Akira will always be a remarkable, landmark film (...not just in anination). Katsuhiro Otomo who wrote and directed this also was the creator/artist of the comic Akira that appeared in a monthly college magazine. In those days, and Akira was one of example, the comic stories were to be maintained and not have an ending. For this film Otomo had years of his own source material to delve into. The release of Akira and the sophistication of the traditional anination lit a fire under the butts of major Hollywood studios and rightfully scared Disney which released 'Oliver and Company' the same year. At that time American hand animation films, Disney as well, was on the verge of collapse and realized they were behind the times because they were putting minimal effort into their films largely directed at the children/youth demographic. In Japan animation films are greatly appreciated and are treated with immense respect, production is shared equally with live action films at the time. Akira was the culmination of artistry, effort, time, budget, music, and writing. As was pointed out in the first few minutes, the music is unlike anything done before and itself a masterpiece. Hollywood has been trying to remake/capitalize on the Akira movie with a few failed attempts to bring it to love action. Most noteably for trying to Americanize the cast and set it in Los Angeles rather than Tokyo. Decaprio was attached to the producer side of things for a while as well as Taika Waititi. Not sure where the live action Akira stands now.
The manga version (which is the source material) goes longer and deeper in quite a different configuration. In the manga version, Akira is not dead, he is frozen alive. The story continues after the destruction of Tokyo that the movie ends with. This destruction is caused by Akira alone without involving Tetsuo. Tetsuo doen't transform yet, he picks up Akira after the destruction, and creates an empire of his own with his cult followers out of the ruins of Tokyo. As this capital of Japan becomes dysfunctional, the US military gets involved, they clash with Tetsuo's empire. The Crown gang led by that brown-skinned man become allies with Kaneda's team to fight Tetsuo. And the big-hair religious leader that appears only in a few scenes in the movie version plays a major and decisive role.
Even today this Anime stands head and shoulders above all the rest. It really has no equal. And the story of Akira is actually quite immense so to adapt it into this timeless masterpiece. I don't know how they're going to adapt the movie script. They should just re release this.
I believe the motorcycle scenes at the start were the first time motion was made to look fast and tense. Akira revolutionized animated speed and motion, among other things
if you've seen this movie a bajillion times as a kid and haven't since or in a while i urge you to get the 4k disc if you haven't already, its like pouring liquid silk chocolate right into your eyeballs truly a beautiful transfer. also this is one of the first anime with an awesome dub.
Tetsu translates to English as Iron and Tetsuo became a metal man. An Iron Man if you will. Obviously the movie TETSUO: THE IRON MAN refers to this too. Also Kaneda’s name is derived from the Japanese word for gold.
For many years people said Watchmen was unfilmable, and they've said the same for Akira. To film the final act of Akira and do it justice it would take a monumental achievement in CGI.
4:30 Remember, every one of those little details, down to every single window, was cel-painted. There's no CG back then 😁 11:44 *_"Akira"_* predicted the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It also predicted that it won't happen because of something catastrophic 🤯 _Fun fact:_ The original English dub of Kaneda (Cam Clarke) is Leonardo of the original *_"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"_* which was super-popular at the time! (And it sounded like him too) 🤗
Akira's soundtrack is one of my top faves, partly because of the fact the composer included 'gamelan' (a traditional percussion/ensemble music from Indonesia), which makes me feel very proud as an Indonesian!! the first time I saw this movie, I genuinely gasped with excitement when I started hearing the familiar sound of gamelan. I loved how they incorporate it with the synth and other sounds. absolute genius of a composer
im watched this in 91 after getting home from a rave . it blew my mind, at that time there were not really any 'adult' animations. the only thing animated was tom and jerry/disney type stuff so this was really shocking . still a fav
As impressive as the movie is, it's just a heavily abridged adaptation of the first two volumes of the manga with an original ending tacked on. The scope is far more grand, there's way more characters, and an entire second half set in the post-apocalyptic ruins of Tokyo with Mad Max style bike gangs, warring psychic factions, and the American army get involved.
I saw this for the first time when I was nine (1992-93) and it started my love of anime beyond kids' shows like The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It also turned me into a sub snob as I first saw it in Japanese and then tried to watch it with the English dub and absolutely HATED it, lol. (I've heard the newer one is alright.) Anyway, it was a formative film for me, seeing it at such a young age especially, and for years afterwards I looked for an anime that gave the same feeling but the 90s and early 2000s were rough on Swedish anime nerds.
Regarding of the music, composer Geinoh Yamashirogumi had only some words and names to start working with, nothing of the plot or anything, so he did his own thing, that's why the soundtrack is so dissonant, you would expect a synth or progg rock for an 80's cyberpunk, instead we have tribal, religious chants that ironically mirror the spiritual tone of the movie. Legend.
Akira & Gits can never go wrong ( highly recommend Jin Roh & Perfect Blue as well ), could not wait for the jaws to drop, jaws were dropped indeed haha
i saw this as my first anime film in Brighton, UK 1992....i had no idea how spoiled i was!!!! A friend was a film major at Uni and we watched this, THX1138 and Metropolis as part of his societal collapse /social control in movies, i was totally stoned and on a rave comedown! Blew my tiny mind. The most amazing visions of the future films i had ever seen!
There's also an anthology movie called, "Memories" which has three short stories directed by Kōji Morimoto (Magnetic Rose), Tensai Okamura (Stink Bomb), and Katsuhiro Otomo (Chief, Cannon Fodder and the director of Akira here). Definitely worth checking out.
The original Akira manga was intended to be just a short, 10 chapter shonen series. It ended up being 120 chapters. The movie represents only a small fraction of the stories in the manga.
11:50 The most recent Tokyo Olympics actually happened the same year as in this movie and people protesting against it (we were still in a rough patch from the big earthquake) put up the protest sign from this film
i saw this back in the summer of 1988 after my graduation at a buddies place with 3 sofa around a 30 inch tv along with heavy metal..i totally figured out the meaning behind akira while on 2 hits of acid watched them both back to back until dawn...cannabis is the way..overgrow overshare overcare overseed everywhere worldwide...keep up the great reactions guys thank you for all cheers
Good way to ring out the year. They made this record budget beast on 70mm film, hence it aged so incredibly well visually. Can you imagine moving all the cell panels around, 24 frames to make a second? Truly worth its legend status - just too bad that this is just the intro to the whole AKIRA saga :D
this film was literally mind blowing when it first came out. i managed to get an excellent pirate copy (VHS videotape, no internet) about a month after it's Japanese release. still got the tape tho' my last video player died about 20 years ago. should be noted that Akira basically revolutionized the Japanese animation industry with almost all the studios being involved at some point, leading to the establishment of a new overseeing company - the Akira Committee. the manga graphic novel tho' is another level and the film basically only covers the beginning and misses out a huge part of the mid story.
At the time, the studio where Katsuhiro Otomo was working on "AKIRA" was located near Studio Ghibli.The deadline was looming, so the Ghibli staff must have come to help out.When Hayao Miyazaki came to chat with him, Katsuhiro Otomo used to say, "If you don't help me, go home!
Anime Titans - Akira, Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, & Macross Plus (2 part Movie) - These were the epitome and inspirations of Anime to the rest of the world. Ninja Scroll is not for kids but watch it.
Fun Fact 2: For the original voicework, they did an version of Mo-cap called Pre-scoring. Where they taped the mouth movement of the voice actor as they ready their lines to match the dialog in the animation.
The Akira manga is FANTASTIC and the art is phenomenal. It also has the complete story. This movie is only about half of it as they made it while the anime was only about half complete (which is why the ending seems incomplete)
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First manga I ever watched 😊
@@Tempus8Fugit ME TOO, i was in hospital when i saw it advertised on a page of my XMEN comic i was reading in bed.
The manga is a better read, the movie pales in comparison.
Pla react to harry pottah
Akira, Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll, were some of my favourites from back in the day. Akira started my journey into Japanese anime properly and I eventually bought the manga as well - which is a 6 book epic - the film would make up about 1 or 2 of the books in terms of story and it continues for another 4 books after Akira returns...
Now you know the origin of the Bike Slide!
Akira is amazing, and I’m so glad it continues to get referenced to this day
The explosion at the beginning wasn't a nuke. It was Akira becoming unstable, just like Tetsuo did at the end.
👆🏾
I don't think that's quite right . I could be mistaken , but I think Akira does something more like achieving enlightenment . Doesn't seem to be any indication that he loses bodily control like Tetsuo does .
@@UndrState They literally state that they don't want Akira to happen again. By that they are talking about the person and the incident. In becoming enlightened Akira tapped into an energy that was way beyond anything theorized and vaporized Tokyo.
@@jasonwebb7978 - I agree completely . My point was that Akira didn't become "unstable" ( as OP put it ) like Tetsuo . Obviously something different happened .
well the artists said it was a nuke so yes it was
It's still hard to wrap my head around the fact _each frame_ was drawn by hand. They even invented 50 colors unique to the film. Always dreamt of getting my hands on one of the cels.
Was lucky enough to see this on the big screen first time. Late night showing at the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa. Absolutely surreal experience.
And at 24 frames per second no less, where the standard for animation at the time was 12 frames per second.
Its a tiny bit misleadng, like yes its was true 24fps but they would stutter the 12/8fps animations for a lot of parts (like when the motorcycles come out the alley, they're one 12s but each motorcycle is offset a bit).
But one thing they did do is record the voice actors first so they could animate the lip syncing.
Seeing this in the cinema is amazing - the OST hits so hard my other half turned said at parts bc of the imagery and OST blaring so loudly it felt like a fever dream lol
I was lucky enough to get a cel back in the 90s. Only just recently got it framed.
The most important dialogue in the movie:
Kaneda: _"TETSUOOOOOO!!!!!"_
Tetsuo: _"KANEDAAAA!!!!!"_
THAT'S 'MR' KANEDA TO YOU!!!
"KAORIIIIII!" Squish noises...
@@TheTurtle. too soon. still too soon.
Even funnier in the first English dub from the 90s. They really went all out.
It would actually take ALL DAY to list the amount of movies, tv shows, anime, video games and comics this movie has influenced over the past 36 years. And the Manga itself is even crazier.
The movie Knocked up was influenced by it I know that.
That motorcycle slide is soooo famous, there's a highlight real of all the shows and movies that duplicated that /very exact/ scene in their own work.
Not to mention they put the actual bike in Ready Player One
I saw that!!Even SpongeBob is in on it!!😂😂😂
Just recreated that scene in Sonic 3
Fun fact, Kanye is a major fan of this movie that it inspired the design for his shoes and an entire music video for one of his most popular songs has a bunch of its elements
Also Jordan Peel reenacted it in his file NOPE with Keke Palmer doing the slide in the film’s climax
It was never a nuke that left the first giant crater in Neo Tokyo, it was Akira - they refer to a bomb, because of gvt coverups, including sealing Akira underneath the crater he made. It's expanded upon in the manga, but the movie also alludes to this fact - Akira was the one who destroyed Tokyo
Akira is one of the best animes ever made. It was way ahead of its time. Love that you guys are finally covering this incredible movie!
@MrArgman Akira was animated at 24 frames per second, making it one of the most smoothly animated traditional animation films of all time.
The way Tetsuo shits from a sympathetic character to a monster and back to a sympathetic character and it all feels nature is true master work in story telling
Okay so my uncle showed me this movie on VHS when I was a kid and, of course, I was TERRIFIED. Took me a lot of years to have the guts to watch it again and appreciate this incredible masterpiece that tackles a lot of important subjects, under the lenses of a post war japan.
There was a publisher in the 90's called "Manga" and they released all these anime movies and OVA's on VHS. My older brother had the whole collection at his home. The first one I watched was Devilman, and then Akira. It was almost exclusively 16+ age rating on all of them and I was 11... It was fun, but I had nightmares for years.
I was exposed to this kind of stuff at a friends house. I was still watching "kid shows"(cartoons) from the 80's in 1992 so I basically went from Tom and Jerry to Akira and had my mind blown. I was 12 at the time.
Anime can be defined by two eras: everything that came out before Akira, and everything that came afterwards. Akira is perhaps the most influential animated film ever made. Its influence can be seen in works from Classic Directors like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to modern day directors like Jordan Peele and Jeff Fowler.
Only in the western world tbh :P
The animation still gets credited to this day hand drawn now that skills
THIS is also the movie that Inspired "Chronicle" Aside from the setting and the origin of the powers, there are MANY parallels between both movies.
Chronicle is such an underrated movie. Easily a top 10 movie for me
Akira inspired many things. As it was inspired by “Blade Runner”
I love that you guys watched this in it’s original language. Good job gentlemen!!!
Watching yall squirm at the ending body horror is making me kick my feet and giggle on my break. Haha i remember my first time watching this. I love seeing new people step into this film with little to no context and just enjoy their mixed ride of emotions. Such a great film to come back to once the shock wears off. I always catch something i missed prior both in the sub and dubs.
What's your favorite CLASSIC anime movie??
Howl's moving castle is my fave.
*Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind*
This movie 💯
Ninja Scroll
The Emoji Movie.
But seriously, _Akira_ takes the top spot. _Ghost in a Shell_ and Studio Ghibli movies afterwards.
Yes, the 1988 Movie has the 2020 Olympics set to be in Tokyo but were delayed or cancelled because of the film's ending. In real life, the 2020 Olympics really were going to be in Tokyo, but they were postponed due to Covid. Coincidence or prophesy?
The graffiti in the scene actually says, "cancelled".
Crazy watching this movie after so many years.
This was my first anime. Walking through Blockbuster in 1989 I see this box sitting on the shelf, had no idea what it was but I thought let me see... As a teenage boy in the 80s this was fundamental in shaping so much of my love in entertainment.
@Daobobs,Same, my second was "Fist Of The North Star" the condensed movie version.
this was my first too, the second one was the world whre everyone lost their memories, a wind called amnesia.
Though I think I had see robotech before thie but not a movie.
Poor Kaori, still feel bad for her more than thirty years after getting the double VHS box set for Christmas! 😞
When Andrew said it looks like the nuclear explosion at the beginning of the movie... That is the thing. It was not a nuke but the first ascension of Akira. Everyone thought it was a nuke and it started WW3. It is not until Akira comes back that you learn that fact.
No matter how serious the moment, when I heard Testuo scream Kanedaaaa!!! it brings a smile to my face, because I remember my friends screaming Canelaaa! (cinnamon!) and laughing when we watched the film.
The behind the scenes of this is amazing. Seeing the artist making each individual window on every building was beautiful. At the same time it was insane to think about how long it must have taken.
Fun Fact: Kaneda's bike is available to purchase and ride in Cyberpunk 2077
Fun Fact+: The bike is also a reference to Ghost in the Shell. Its name 'Kusanagi' is the name of the main character 'Major Motoko Kusanagi'.
@@IceColdKillah133 Are you sure about that? Ghost in the Shell manga came out in 1989. Akira is from 1988.
@@bunyip-ni6ch the Bike from cyberpunk is called "Kusanagi" and is a reference to GiTS, Not the Bike in Akira
What a great surprise!! This movie is so epic and tremendous adaption of the manga, on every level. It has so many levels to analyze.
This is the godfather of popularizing Japanese animation in the US. One of my favorite movies...not just anime...of all time.
That is CRAZY timing. Literelly watched this yesterday cause someone posted it on UA-cam
I watched it the day before yesterday. Lol.
Me too! YT probably pulled it by now.
Now this is a movie film nerds should watch.
The holy Trinity of cyberpunk anime: Akira, Ghost in the shell, Alita
alita? not sure about that one… but then again can’t think of one on top of my head… but feel like there is something better… idk.. lol
@@AppleFrogTomatoFace I wouldn't put Alita in there for anime because the anime movie isn't that big, but as far as mangas go the original Alita run in the 90s was absolutely fantastic and influential. It has some great art but where it shines is world building and tone (which is where the live action movie completely fails). It still holds up very well too. They released some deluxe prints a couple years ago and I can't recommend it enough.
Also recommend CyberCity Oedo - a 3 part series.
Oh this is a treat to all of us anime fans
recommend ghost in the shell , paprika , ninja scroll , vampire hunter d bloodlust , perfect blue , venus wars , jin - roh
Vouch for Vampire Hunter D. Such a damn good movie.
Ninja Scroll is my favorite anime of all time.
Fun fact: for the making of this movie, they had to invent 50 completely unique colors ❤
invent? i don’t think you can’t invent new color…
@AppleFrogTomatoFace you can in the same way you can invent a number. 103848593043948584929194858483929101010848484848484848484848484847474748484747484848484848
That number has never before been said until now. If I'm the first person to say the number then you could say I invented it.
That number is called a Ron Paulson BTW. That's what I named it.
@@AppleFrogTomatoFace the correct term is discovered
Computers will never be able to completely capture the beauty of these 80s and 90s animation.
100's of competent animators working overtime on a project in a economy that allowed to basicly throw money at it, and you had the best and crispest animation you'd ever seen in a time where Animation was considered as an Art form and expression and not just a monezy making endeavor.
Those where the times.
AI will whenever someone gets around to it. Human hands will never do this kind of work again.
As an animator I've always loved the look of this. It was animated on the ones, meaning every frame is hand drawn. Animation is typically done on the twos, every other frame drawn.
This movie really blew up anime in the US. It still holds up amazingly after 36 years. Looks better than some anime today. There's no way Lucy wasn't inspired by the sci-fi mind part.
some? looks better than all anime today by leaps and bounds
This is deff a film you have to watch more then once - and the animation is still better than 90% of movies today
I think Kaori is one of the more tragic characters in the film. Despite all he's done, she still cares for Tetsuo and sees him as redeemable only to be horribly and callously crushed.
the soundtrack is 100% worth buying. It is fantastic.
It's why I bought both the Roland D50 & Yamaha DX7 (Trent Resner of Nine inch Nails)favorite keyboard controller.
This was my first Anime ever. It was a stepping stone into other stuff like Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, and Fist of the Northstar. It’s a really special film.
I remember seeing this in the theater when it came out (English dub). Got to see the English Sub years later. The subtitles made so much more sense. It'd be 10 years (Ghost in the Shell) before another movie approached this.
The bike slide and movie poster is iconic, the film itself is a mindfuck and a half and was groundbreaking for anime as a whole. Its popularity broke ground for anime to be seen as more than just for kids, given how detailed, horrifying, and brutal it could be (Kaori truly didn't deserve any of that), and, much like the Matrix would for the Western world, introduced Japan to cyberpunk themes.
The production was a big deal too, it was among the first anime films to have expressive facial movements for dialogue rather than just making the mouth bubble and move akin to dialogue, the more realistic mouth animations were also achieved by pre-scored dialogue, it also had over 160,000 cels to make the motion fluid, it might've been the most expensive anime movie made at the time - though it's not known for sure.
wasnt a nuke it was Akira's first awakening. The story in the manga is way more complex and developped, a must read. I am old enough to have watched it in theatre, the whole andience was silent during the whole time and exploded in applause at the end. I stayed for a second watch. memorable
To be fair, Bladerunner preceded the Akira movie by about 6 years, but the manga (from wikipedia) was serialized biweekly in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Young Magazine from December 20, 1982, to June 25, 1990, with its 120 chapters collected into six tankōbon' volumes. So, they're pretty modern contemporaries to each other.
Never clicked so quickly… now do Ghost in the shell, the original
This is long overdue for you guys! Glad to see it get love.
03:49 is the video distorted for everyone else too? This seems to happen a lot on here and never been too sure if it's a glitch or not
Yea been seeing it a lot lately
I'm seeing it as well.
Maybe edited to avoid copyright
That's Akira's divine intervention
This movie was created at the peak of Japan's economic bubble, which itself was the peak of the country's economic miracle that began after the end of WWII marked by the two nuclear bombs. Akira -- who is responsible for the two nuclear-like explosions at the beginning and end of the movie -- is a symbolic representation of both the power of catastrophic destruction and the power of phenomenal growth (Tetsuo's transformation) that are latent in humans, which themselves have been latent in the ancient amoebas that Kei talks about. The kanji for the name "Akira" is "明", which means "bright", is a part of the word that means "tomorrow", and is a combination of "日" (Sun) and "月" (Moon), or the daytime light and the nighttime light: in this sense, Akira represents the two sides of energy that shines for the day (creation) and for the night (destruction). (Incidentally: the military satellite that attacks Tetsuo is called "Sol", which is Latin for "Sun"; and, in the manga version, Tetsuo flies to the Moon and destroys a portion of it.)
My uncle owned a video store back when this came out. He had it on Laserdisc at home and told me, a 14 yr old white girl in Texas, to watch this as he put it on “it’s going to blow your mind”. At first I was like “this is some weird Japanese shit, boring!” Then by the end I was like “this is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen”. It not only sparked my love of animation, especially animation made for storytelling, not just for entertainment, but also made me deeply love and appreciate Japanese culture and the horrors they went thru during WWII.
So interesting that you guys watched the non-dubbed version…it’s one of the few anime features where the mouth movements were animated to a pre-existing voice track! You guys knew what you were doing!
Dubbed or non dubbed, I've seen it that many times I can understand it either way
Yeah me too. But although I knew what everyone was saying, my eye was STILL drawn to the subtitles! I think that’s why I like the dubs, they leave my eyes free to fully appreciate the animation. I know the second dub is more accurate, but I still love the Streamline dub…I miss those voice actors if I watch the second dub…
The Colonel wasn't a bad guy. He was the only one who seemed to understand the danger and was trying to protect the city. Everyone else either didn't get it or were trying to use the power for their own gain.
The elevator was also in Ang Lee's "Hulk".
Tetsuo's tranformation was also copied in an episode of both "Ballmasterz: 9009" and a Robot Chicken Christmas episode, the latter even having the little light at the end.
the "angled lift" is also something you find in Metal gear Solid.
And yes the COlonel was brash, but he was basicly the only competent one in the governement to understand what was truely at stake.
Blade Runner was based on a book called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick in 1968.
That and inspired by " The Long tomorrow" by Moebius and Dan O'Bannon ( who wrote also the script for Alien' small world ;) )
Yes, but the visuals of Blade Runner, Akira, and other seminal pieces of cyberpunk fiction were all the result of cross-pollination. There was a huge sci-fi/fantasy fiction boom in Japan in the late 70s and 80s which saw a lot of Western novels, comics, and magazines translated and published in Japanese, including the French magazine Metal Hurlant (aka Heavy Metal) that featured the works of Moebius, which became a major inspiration for Katsuhiro Otomo and just about every other SF artist/director active at the time, including Ridley Scott. The Akira manga actually started publication in 1982, the same year Blade Runner premiered, though, again, both were visually inspired by Moebius, specifically The Long Tomorrow, which was serialized in Metal Hurlant in 1976.
He was referring to the visual style, which obviously the book lacks aside from a futuristic landscape.
⏱️ Timestamps by TimeSkip ⏱️
00:00:00 - Introduction to Akira Reaction
00:01:53 - Transition to Akira Viewing
00:04:00 - Character Introductions and Exposition
00:05:54 - Visuals and Artistic Quality
00:10:39 - Discussion on Character Dynamics
00:13:00 - Intense Scenes and Emotional Reactions
00:16:33 - Animation Techniques and Style
00:22:29 - Dreams and Nightmares
00:28:26 - Cultural Commentary on Society
00:35:12 - Fascinating Character Dynamics
00:39:22 - Military Orders and Morality
00:42:00 - Power Transfer and Consequences
00:45:36 - Character Transformation
00:49:34 - Destruction and Chaos
00:58:26 - Unsettling Visuals and Themes
01:00:12 - Character Reflections on Akira
01:05:10 - Themes of Power and Control
01:11:23 - Visuals and Animation Quality
01:14:04 - Emotional Depth of Characters
01:18:07 - Societal Impact of Catastrophe
01:19:53 - Trivia and Fun Facts
01:21:46 - Impact on Western Audience
01:24:03 - Final Thoughts on the Film
I saw this when I was 10. It got me into anime. Also I’m pretty sure Chronicle was inspired by this.
Surprising you guys never saw it. I’m Japanese with an American name but always took on Akira as my Japanese name. This movie and even some of the Japanese Arcade games in the 80s had that dark immersion into an anime world decades ahead of its time. The plot was always way over my head especially when half the time I didn’t have the English subtitles back then.
Akira will always be a remarkable, landmark film (...not just in anination). Katsuhiro Otomo who wrote and directed this also was the creator/artist of the comic Akira that appeared in a monthly college magazine. In those days, and Akira was one of example, the comic stories were to be maintained and not have an ending. For this film Otomo had years of his own source material to delve into. The release of Akira and the sophistication of the traditional anination lit a fire under the butts of major Hollywood studios and rightfully scared Disney which released 'Oliver and Company' the same year. At that time American hand animation films, Disney as well, was on the verge of collapse and realized they were behind the times because they were putting minimal effort into their films largely directed at the children/youth demographic. In Japan animation films are greatly appreciated and are treated with immense respect, production is shared equally with live action films at the time. Akira was the culmination of artistry, effort, time, budget, music, and writing. As was pointed out in the first few minutes, the music is unlike anything done before and itself a masterpiece.
Hollywood has been trying to remake/capitalize on the Akira movie with a few failed attempts to bring it to love action. Most noteably for trying to Americanize the cast and set it in Los Angeles rather than Tokyo. Decaprio was attached to the producer side of things for a while as well as Taika Waititi. Not sure where the live action Akira stands now.
It was the first anime movie ever saw when I was 16. Very little has lived up to the standard of animation set by this masterpiece.
AKIRA is one of the greatest vintage anime/manga films of all time.
By the way. The genre is Sci Fi -> Dystopia -> Cyberpunk.
The manga version (which is the source material) goes longer and deeper in quite a different configuration. In the manga version, Akira is not dead, he is frozen alive. The story continues after the destruction of Tokyo that the movie ends with. This destruction is caused by Akira alone without involving Tetsuo. Tetsuo doen't transform yet, he picks up Akira after the destruction, and creates an empire of his own with his cult followers out of the ruins of Tokyo. As this capital of Japan becomes dysfunctional, the US military gets involved, they clash with Tetsuo's empire. The Crown gang led by that brown-skinned man become allies with Kaneda's team to fight Tetsuo. And the big-hair religious leader that appears only in a few scenes in the movie version plays a major and decisive role.
One of those movies I wish I could go back and watch again for the first time.
Even today this Anime stands head and shoulders above all the rest. It really has no equal. And the story of Akira is actually quite immense so to adapt it into this timeless masterpiece.
I don't know how they're going to adapt the movie script. They should just re release this.
I believe the motorcycle scenes at the start were the first time motion was made to look fast and tense. Akira revolutionized animated speed and motion, among other things
Macross did it first in the 80s
if you've seen this movie a bajillion times as a kid and haven't since or in a while i urge you to get the 4k disc if you haven't already, its like pouring liquid silk chocolate right into your eyeballs truly a beautiful transfer. also this is one of the first anime with an awesome dub.
Tetsu translates to English as Iron and Tetsuo became a metal man. An Iron Man if you will.
Obviously the movie TETSUO: THE IRON MAN refers to this too.
Also Kaneda’s name is derived from the Japanese word for gold.
For many years people said Watchmen was unfilmable, and they've said the same for Akira. To film the final act of Akira and do it justice it would take a monumental achievement in CGI.
4:30 Remember, every one of those little details, down to every single window, was cel-painted. There's no CG back then 😁
11:44 *_"Akira"_* predicted the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It also predicted that it won't happen because of something catastrophic 🤯
_Fun fact:_ The original English dub of Kaneda (Cam Clarke) is Leonardo of the original *_"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"_* which was super-popular at the time! (And it sounded like him too) 🤗
Akira's soundtrack is one of my top faves, partly because of the fact the composer included 'gamelan' (a traditional percussion/ensemble music from Indonesia), which makes me feel very proud as an Indonesian!! the first time I saw this movie, I genuinely gasped with excitement when I started hearing the familiar sound of gamelan. I loved how they incorporate it with the synth and other sounds. absolute genius of a composer
Tokyo Olympics were supposed to be in 2020, but it got postponed to 2021 b/c of covid? But, yeah, it was just before the Paris Olympics.
im watched this in 91 after getting home from a rave . it blew my mind, at that time there were not really any 'adult' animations. the only thing animated was tom and jerry/disney type stuff so this was really shocking . still a fav
As impressive as the movie is, it's just a heavily abridged adaptation of the first two volumes of the manga with an original ending tacked on. The scope is far more grand, there's way more characters, and an entire second half set in the post-apocalyptic ruins of Tokyo with Mad Max style bike gangs, warring psychic factions, and the American army get involved.
One of the greatest animated films ever made. Influential, iconic and mind blowing!!!!
I saw this for the first time when I was nine (1992-93) and it started my love of anime beyond kids' shows like The Mysterious Cities of Gold. It also turned me into a sub snob as I first saw it in Japanese and then tried to watch it with the English dub and absolutely HATED it, lol. (I've heard the newer one is alright.) Anyway, it was a formative film for me, seeing it at such a young age especially, and for years afterwards I looked for an anime that gave the same feeling but the 90s and early 2000s were rough on Swedish anime nerds.
Regarding of the music, composer Geinoh Yamashirogumi had only some words and names to start working with, nothing of the plot or anything, so he did his own thing, that's why the soundtrack is so dissonant, you would expect a synth or progg rock for an 80's cyberpunk, instead we have tribal, religious chants that ironically mirror the spiritual tone of the movie. Legend.
The soundtrack is still undefeated, it's timeless!
A classic! So glad you reacted to this!
Akira & Gits can never go wrong ( highly recommend Jin Roh & Perfect Blue as well ), could not wait for the jaws to drop, jaws were dropped indeed haha
i saw this as my first anime film in Brighton, UK 1992....i had no idea how spoiled i was!!!! A friend was a film major at Uni and we watched this, THX1138 and Metropolis as part of his societal collapse /social control in movies, i was totally stoned and on a rave comedown! Blew my tiny mind. The most amazing visions of the future films i had ever seen!
There's also an anthology movie called, "Memories" which has three short stories directed by Kōji Morimoto (Magnetic Rose), Tensai Okamura (Stink Bomb), and Katsuhiro Otomo (Chief, Cannon Fodder and the director of Akira here). Definitely worth checking out.
The original Akira manga was intended to be just a short, 10 chapter shonen series. It ended up being 120 chapters. The movie represents only a small fraction of the stories in the manga.
11:50 The most recent Tokyo Olympics actually happened the same year as in this movie and people protesting against it (we were still in a rough patch from the big earthquake) put up the protest sign from this film
OMG that missing tooth... I couldn't stop looking at it... so unsettling 😮
i saw this back in the summer of 1988 after my graduation at a buddies place with 3 sofa around a 30 inch tv along with heavy metal..i totally figured out the meaning behind akira while on 2 hits of acid watched them both back to back until dawn...cannabis is the way..overgrow overshare overcare overseed everywhere worldwide...keep up the great reactions guys thank you for all cheers
The way I clicked the SECOND I saw this 😍
im doing my part! starship troopers. (im not actually though because i dont use social media lmao)
Good way to ring out the year. They made this record budget beast on 70mm film, hence it aged so incredibly well visually. Can you imagine moving all the cell panels around, 24 frames to make a second? Truly worth its legend status - just too bad that this is just the intro to the whole AKIRA saga :D
Just this one film has inspired so many things in our life time.
One of the rare movie where I can forgive anyone watching the (original) dub, as It's honestly one of the greatest dubs of all time.
I was lucky enough to be stationed in Japan release year. I think I saw it five or six times at 2.75 a showing. ahhh, good times
Thank you for reacting to the subtitled version.
this film was literally mind blowing when it first came out. i managed to get an excellent pirate copy (VHS videotape, no internet) about a month after it's Japanese release. still got the tape tho' my last video player died about 20 years ago. should be noted that Akira basically revolutionized the Japanese animation industry with almost all the studios being involved at some point, leading to the establishment of a new overseeing company - the Akira Committee.
the manga graphic novel tho' is another level and the film basically only covers the beginning and misses out a huge part of the mid story.
The movie is brilliant, no doubt.
The full manga (the printed version) is absolute genius, and answers all your lingering questions.
No real CG, all pencils, inks, and paints. The amount of artistic talent that existed back then.
Saw Akira when it was released in the UK in 1991.Still to this day, my favourite cinema experience and favourite film.
At the time, the studio where Katsuhiro Otomo was working on "AKIRA" was located near Studio Ghibli.The deadline was looming, so the Ghibli staff must have come to help out.When Hayao Miyazaki came to chat with him, Katsuhiro Otomo used to say, "If you don't help me, go home!
I was lucky enough to see the original version in the theater back in the mid 00s
Anime Titans - Akira, Ninja Scroll, Ghost in the Shell, & Macross Plus (2 part Movie) - These were the epitome and inspirations of Anime to the rest of the world. Ninja Scroll is not for kids but watch it.
Fun Fact 2: For the original voicework, they did an version of Mo-cap called Pre-scoring. Where they taped the mouth movement of the voice actor as they ready their lines to match the dialog in the animation.
You guys would love Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
The Akira manga is FANTASTIC and the art is phenomenal. It also has the complete story. This movie is only about half of it as they made it while the anime was only about half complete (which is why the ending seems incomplete)
"This is charming..." landing less than a second before [NIGHTMARE FUEL TAKES SHAPE] was great.
Now this is a suprise
Amazed with all the pop culture catches that noone mentions that Tetsuo is the 80d inspiration for Eleven