Last summer, my 13 year old professed his love of anime. My response was to have him watch the grand-daddy of anime with me. I don't think he's fully recovered yet.
@@Shin_Lona Can't let him watch what I haven't seen yet. Been thinking the next premiere anime to be "Vampire Hunter D". "Wicked City" taps into subjects I'm not comfortable with yet.
Try Serial Experiment Lain. It's a really good, but trippy, story about a girl coming of age . It deals with being that age where you're not a child, but not yet considered an adult. It's exposition heavy, though, so it can be a bit boring in spots
What’s insane is the film in 1988 has a stadium being built for the 2020 Olympics. In the real world, Tokyo was suppose to host the 2020 Olympics but was pushed back to 2021 due to the Pandemic.
I don't believe CGI will ever be able to surpass the beauty of detailed traditional animation like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Zeta Gundam, Megazone Part II, Ghibli, etc. I wish this detailed style weren't so cost prohibitive these days.
Ghibli has been using CG since the 90s but go on and Steamboy looks at least as good as Akira and that film is heavily reliant on CG. Guess who directed it?
I think Redline 2009 is like the last fully hand animated movie. Even Akira used computer work. What’s unique about Akira is that it was shot on 70mm film. That’s what the huge screen imax movies are shot on. Film of such a wide format allows resolution way beyond 4K.
Across the SpiderVerse: ARe yOu sURe abOuT tHaT?!!???!??!? Edit: No, I’m not saying ATSV puts those other movies to shame. I’m saying it’s a little foolish to completely write CG animation off when there are countless examples of CGI done well.
I mean, it was produced during Japan's bubble economy. They pretty much had all the money in existence to throw at it, it's not really a fair comparison.
This is one of the most expensive anime films ever made Multiple studios worked on it. I read years ago that Akira almost bankrupted one of the production companies that helped fund it.
@@fireaza Not realy. Akira cost was about 3 times of My Neighbour Totoro by Ghibli (3,7 mln$), when USA's blockbusters like Die Hard had budget 3 times of Akira's (30 mln$), Beetlejuice 15mln$, Naked Gun 12 mln$, Who Framed Roger Rabbit 70 mln$. Last year there was about dozen movies with budget of 200 mln$ or more: Fast X, The Little Mermaid, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania, Elemental, Killers of the Flower Moon, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The Marvels, The Flash and... Wish... WISH!! Animated movie! When Godzilla Minus One had budget about the same as Akira 30 years back!!!!! So Akira wasn't so high above 'standards' of its time as you say, yet it was so influential for whole World and creaitve people! You think Wish will have the same impact? Godzilla Minus One will have an impact: it's proof how bloated Hollyweird is and how better movies can be when talented people make them.
I'm only a few minutes in, but I just had to stop and comment to say this is one of the best plot summaries of Akira I've heard. The film is often very confusing for first viewers due to the frenetic pace (over 2,000 cuts) and ambiguous concepts. Although the Akira manga goes into much more detail and expands on the themes and even gives minor characters in the film complete character arcs, I think the truncated and somewhat confusing story in the film version has created a market for countless Akira analysis videos we see popping up. If Akira was super straight forward, there would be far fewer videos talking about the meaning of the movie. This isn't to say Akira is only talked about because it's confusing or because it has stellar animation - it's a fever dream of an experience that's impossible to ignore or forget.
Akira almost single-handedly destroyed my interest in Anime. It was the first Anime I ever saw(a friend of mine was like, "Hey, watch this!"), and all I can say about that experience was, it was out there. The story was all over the place(to me). Starts off with future Tokyo, and biker gangs. And then quickly goes off the rails with psychokinetic powers and ends with a giant monster thing. Not saying it is a bad movie at all, just not the first Anime one should watch if they have never seen one before. And also not at 16. The reason it nearly destroyed my interest in Anime is, I thought this was the norm for Japanese Anime. But, due to an accident that involved Battlestar Galactica(the 70s/80s version, not the 2000s remake) I realized that a fair chunk of Japanese Anime was pretty tame. And that over there, cartoons can be made strictly for adults.
The main reason it's confusing is that a huge chunk of Dan's incredible summary is NOT alluded to in the movie at all, at least not in the original English. I'd have to look at the Pioneer dub again to see if it's the same there, but I know it's much more faithful to the source... Doesn't mean I think the dub's necessarily better; I recall thinking the new dub was a lateral move at best.
Back when it was released on VHS, Akira was one of the few anime titles that was mainstream enough that my public library had it. You can never look at a teddy bear quite the same way once you've seen it.
80's/90's hand drawn anime will NEVER be topped. You have to just love the scenes that are literally just the artists in a sense "showing off" how detailed they can get (for example: when they show a 30 second scene of just a fully detailed rain storm
Dan Larson and Galaxy team, thank you all for this! You’ve gut punched my nostalgia many times now, but this was like an actual nut stomping good time. Thank you all!
10:25 the score was so epic. My high school art teacher used to play it during art class. I borrowed the CD from him and made a copy for myself. This was back in 1996 when that was the new hotness of technology.
My brother and I were lucky enough to see a screening of Akira while at the 1989 San Diego Comic-Con. Someone was handing out tickets from a booth and my cousin grabbed 3 for us. Later that day we found ourselves in a dusty old theater watching the anime that I would be obsessed with for years afterwards. It was truly a sight to see on the big screen, even as a 13 year old.
Me too! I was 18, and my friend dragged me to it because he had been reading the Marvel translation. I had no idea what I was in for, but it's still one of my fondest movie going memories. I still annoy my anime-loving kids with "Hey, did I ever mention I was one of the first people in the U.S. to see Akira?" LOL
Akira was the very 1st Anime I watched in the mid 1990's. Rented it from Blockbuster video when they finally decided to carry a few of the well known classics. To this day I am so thankful that the Legendary Akira was my 1st Anime.
I was very fortunate to live near a big independent video store in the 90s. They had ~50 anime videos at any given time (or "Japanimation" as they still called it) which included a mix of TV shows like Funimation's first Dragon Ball dub, classic dubbed films like Akira and Venus Wars, and schlockier fare like Ninja Scroll.
2 minutes into this video and I now understand the plot more than I Ever have in the 30+ years I've known of it's existence. Thank You Secret Galaxy.😄👍
Thanks to movies like this, Vampire Hunter D, and Fist of the North Star, my friends and I had the rules of good anime (or Japanimation, as we used to call it) were that it had to have blood, nudity, and a plot where you didn't know what the hell was happening. At least two of the three.
The most impressive thing about this video was that Dan was able to clearly explain the plot of the movie, something nobody who watched it could ever figure out. I owned the first two Marvel adaptation comics in color. They were beautiful. I'm still lamenting selling them. (Yes, I'm a dummy. I know they're worth a bunch of money.)
Akira is still the magnum opus of mature storytelling, detailed animation and with a spectacular visual splendor! No matter if you bought the VHS, seen it on Sci-Fi Channel, Adult Swim, Bought the Metal Case DVD or the many Blu-ray releases...your always in for a spectacle that still holds up to this very day!❤
Well, put Akira was truely groundbreaking and really told an incredibly deep and complex story with so many themes. It definitely still holds up and revivals any live action film.
Great, Dan went and blew us all up... Yes, Akira was my gateway drug into the world of anime. This sparked a slew of titles i ended up watching over the years and loving till this day.
“The order to stop construction” was released in the mind trip Anthology movie called Neo Tokyo or “Manie Manie: Labyrinth Tales” in 1987. It includes the full version of the “Running Man” short that used to play on M-TV during their experimental phase.
I remember buying the VHS in 94. Was a gateway to other movies including Lily CAT and Biohunter. Both of which I still have too. Sometimes it's good to be old.
Thank you for mentioning 'The Order to Stop Construction'. I feel this work as well as the Neo Tokyo Anthology is an underrated gem. You can see the influence of Akira in this short piece.
Still one of my favorite films ever. My first exposure came about my happenstance - high school best friend had a buddy who went to japan and brought back a videotape copy (1989/90 or thereabouts). My friend got a dub and then me a dub after watching it with him. I took it to college and showed it to my friends there. Note that this was the original Japanese version - so we literally were trying to piece the story together through the visuals with NO idea what anyone was saying. We just knew it was incredible. (And since I was first exposed to the original version, for me it is always "Kahn-ayy-dah" and not the US dubbed Kah-NAY-da" lol)
This wasn't the 1st anime i saw but it was one of the ones that absolutely made me fall in love with anime. Love the cosplay. Always look forward to each weeks episode Dan thanks for all the great work.
Still one of my favourite animated films! It launched the anime boom in the UK and my own love for manga and anime. I owe a lot to this film. Great to see your spotlight on this film Dan
Akira related - I am still searching for that "new season" promo NBC ran as the 1992 Olympics winded down. One segment of the commercial was for Quantum Leap and Scott Bakula was running in place as a montage of the next season's time destinations were teased behind him. One of the clips in this montage was from the opening biker sequence from Akira. I remember seeing this promo myself and there is at least one person online who independently corroborated seeing this too.
I fully agree with you, I’d rather they leave it alone and produce no live action version. If it does get made, I’m not going to bother. Thanks to this video (and an article I read this morning about a couple of guys in Barcelona who are building working versions of Kaneda’s bike), I’ve decided that I may have to start collecting the trade paperbacks, as I’ve never gotten around to reading the whole thing. Now, the soundtrack. Gat damn, that soundtrack. I had it pretty much constantly spinning from 1997 to 2002 and it’s one of the few CDs I’ve held onto in the age of streaming-and I’m glad for it because it’s not available on the service to which I’m subscribed. Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s work was a revelation, it was like nothing I’d ever heard before and I’m pretty sure like nothing I’d hear since.
If nothing else, its a visual masterpiece. The balls to do animate Akira, that motorcycle sequence in a night time setting... i have no words, its just so beautifully done.
And I don't care if people here get tired of my praising TMS.... These arguments I see implying a huge budget being the only decider, without considering the talent behind it.... I guarantee giving AKOM the equivalent of a billion yen in the 90's wouldn't give you a result much better than their 'X-Men".
Oh yeah!!! Such a great, surprising animated movie! It was just unbelievable at the time. I remember mail ordering it in 1990 from starlog magazine, I believe, along with the Akira t-shirt, Project A-ko, Robot carnival, and dominion-tank police, all on VHS. Then I left for military service and forgot about it. Came home after training and got a wonderful surprise package waiting, a year later!!!! The best of times!!! Keep up the great videos!!! Love the channel!
I remember my mom subscribing to a monthly anime VHS thing when I was a kid and Akira IIRC was the first video they sent. It was *nuts*. I grew up with Mazinger Z and Ultraman but this was something completely different, definitely adult but it never felt like it was gorey or extreme for the sake of being so, just a venue of telling a grown up story. Loved it ever since, it's stuck with me through the decades :)
LOL third here! do you guys remember what it was called? I wonder if we all had the same service. Films I remember getting were Akira, Barefoot Gen, Vampire Hunter D, Gologo 13,
@@thecunninlynguist for some reason I keep thinking it had a generic-ish sounding name like "Anime Monthly" or something along those lines. I remember Vampire Hunter D and Record of Lodoss War, I got Fist of the North Star through this service, too, but don't remember getting Golgo 13. Hmmm... maybe it was a different service?
The advert for the VHS subscription is seemingly shown near the end of this video. I'm not American and wasn't subscribed to it but don't know how everyone that's commented so far missed it, it literally shows Akira as the first VHS you would receive followed by Record of Lodoss War. Watch from 15:35.
Absolutely territory these guys should cover- famous Japanese properry with much to discuss AND a long history with western adaptations / dubs. And the memes they can inject, the script writes itself!
I discovered Akira in a comic book store around 1988 or 1989 with the US colorized books and was blown away. The covers, the drawings of the characters & setting, the coloring and the story. It put so much of the US comic books at the time to shame.While my collection of them is still very far from complete, I still consider them as a major part of my comic book collection from that time.
One of if not the most influential anime for the West, my introduction to adult anime was Akira, and what an introduction it was. With that out of the way, the only way to make this flim into a live action version will flop hard as it would honestly be like remaking Jaws now into either a animated horror movie and expect to have the same financial success that film had for the blockbuster market of film making let alone have a pop culture influence it had in the 70's 80's 90's and beyond. It is that lighting in a bottle effect, and only a few films, in my opinion, have had that impact on a global scale. Now, if we take from what we learn from these to particular suggestions, Akira and Jaws stories in a whole are different enough time to make a difference in the media, so to do so you need to keep the product under wraps before comming out and giving only a slight amount of public engagement of the final product. Today, media is continually changing at a break neck pace, and it is for myself personally to become a fan of new franchises that takes a lot of effective marketing and engagement for me to take notice. We want to be able to find familiarity in a new franchise such as the Dino's that look like a certain teenage mutated ninja amphibians, for example, but those are my thoughts on it.
I had to watch this anime a good 3-4 times before it made any sense to me. But even the first time through, it just looks so cool. Very smooth animation. Very detailed characters, like Tetsuo at the finale. It’s one of those stories that you want to learn more about the second it’s over.
Akira was released in Australian theatres in 1995 .I was in senior high school and remembered the brief TV ads . Why did it take so long for theatrical release ?
Picked up the VHS of this off a rental shelf back in the 90s and it's still my favourite animated film of all time. The amount of detail especially just in the environment and backgrounds is top tier even to this day.
Watched and re-watched the VHS of this so so many times. It has a special place in my heart. Hearing Taika Waititi and Akira in the same sentence terrorizes me
there was in fact at least one Japanese toy released in 1988: a 1/35-ish Bandai diecast and plastic of Kaneda's bike with a plastic figure and decals from the film. it's worth noting that McFarlane wasn't able to get the necessary trademark clearance for accurate decals and instead made up fictional replacement brands for his bike.
Pretty sure there were some resin kits before the McFarlane stuff too. Volks had a 1/6th scale version of Kaneda's bike and some other resource online have even earlier examples of similar things.
Fantastic video. AKIRA (all caps, always) was a huge influence for me creatively and professionally. I don’t know if this came up when you were researching, but from what I’ve read one of the live action versions was apparently shelved after “Chronicle” came out as it was a nearly identical movie.
"In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe lies a medium sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead."
Akira is the favorite film of Morgan Richter (from the YT Channel Morgan Richter), the USC film school graduate who does explanations and reviews of films and Miami Vice. She has a series called When Gen X Ruled The Multiplex, a collection of 100 films important to Generation X (it is a fantastic collection).
I’ve watched the film numerous times over the years. I advise you all to read the manga because it makes way more sens than the film does. Katsuhira Otomo couldn’t include everything he put in the manga because he directed the film BEFORE he even finished making the manga So half the plot in the film is rushed
I accidentally saw this movie on UA-cam when I was 9 (back when monetization and advertisers weren't a thing, and people were uploading full bootleg copies of anime movies like Tree of Might). Kaori's death lived rent-free in my head for years. That movie also ruined animation for me for a solid chunk of time, I could immediately tell the difference in the depth of storytelling and visual quality from a lot of other American content. I had a hard time getting into much of anything until I discovered Miyazaki years later when I watched Princess Mononoke for the first time.
My first exposure to this movie was an out of context showing by another student of the hospital toy hallucination sequence. I was not very familiar with anime at the time, Samurai Pizza Cats, the Saban 13 episode Dragon Ball classic dub, and generously all the cartoons from the 80's animated over there being my only frame of reference. So basically it scared the hell out of me at the time.
I first saw Akira in either 1989 or 1990 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. I'd been reading the colorized English adaptation. I took home one of the photocopied posters that were all over downtown at the time and used markers to tone it. that hung in my studio for a long time.
I remember watching Akira in English during a test run at the Dobie Theater in Austin, which ran a lot of test dubs in the 90s. I saw the Troma Miyazaki dubs there as well....
One of my uncle's had a bootleg version of this movie back in 1990. My 12 year old mind was blown. One of the best movies ever made. Hopefully one day someone makes a true to manga anime series.
I was wondering why Dan had bandages on his head. I thought it was the pounding on his head after picking the 2023 figure of the year😂😂😂. But it was really his cosplay…. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the movie. I wish they would put this in the theaters again. Love the explosive ending to the video…
I clearly remember seeing Akira and being blown out of my socks. We rewound it constantly. ("Holy.... Did you see that? Rewind that!", "Was that a tube-burn? Wow!", "Whoa whoa whoa. Did that bike have ELF single side suspension?") We'd seen a lot of anime at the time, but Akira was just towering over the rest. And in a lot of ways it still does.
For the first two decades of my life, the only Japanese anime I knew was English-dubbed versions of Prince Planet, Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets... Then a friend of mine turned me on to AKIRA, and that was the start of it. To this day, despite all the Dragonballs and Bleaches and Demon Slayers, AKIRA has not yet been matched, IMO. Great video.
Thanks Secret Galaxy for this video. Now I have a better understanding of the Akira full plot 😮💨. Big thank you for mentioning the 1/6 scale model motorcycle. This was another big purchase I wanted to make but will be revisiting this year 😁…p.s. I hope Dan wasn’t harmed in the making of this video, because that look like a gnarly explosion 💥
Yea.. I was I think 11 or 12 when I first saw Akira on VHS.. it opened my eyes on how good and different animation could be. I had seen more child orientated animation from Japan , Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion but Akira was the first one that was presented to me as from Japan and I was hooked and made me into a life long fan of anime and manga..
I used to watch Cartoon Sushi on MTV and every episode had a commercial for Akira on VHS along with other anime. I thought it all looked so cool. I wasn't familiar with anime at all at this point except a Jungle Book anime that we had on VHS when I was a bit younger haha. I don't remember anything about Akira since I haven't seen it since 97, but I remember it being awesome
They already made a live action adaptation of Akira. Its called Chronicle. Its a little more low budget so they had to change some of the story....but thats about as close to an American, live action Akira as I'd feel comfortable getting made. Im only half joking here...say what you will about Trank, Chronicle was pretty damned good.
I still remember going to a gencon convention years ago and seeing a simple tv playing Akira to sell their VHS copies. I was instantly an Anime fan from that day forward and I will always remember 90s Cyberpunk/SciFi as pinnacle anime as I fell down the rabbit hole of Ghost in the Shell, Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed, Dirty Pair... ... excuse me while I go binge some anime.
I was lucky to see Akira 4K before Godzilla Minus One - almost perfect evening! (almost because I had to drive to next city ;p) It was an experience because visuals were crisp and sound rich and clear! I will remember this moment for long.
Last summer, my 13 year old professed his love of anime. My response was to have him watch the grand-daddy of anime with me.
I don't think he's fully recovered yet.
As soon as he does... make him watch Evangelion. 😎
@@Shin_Lona Can't let him watch what I haven't seen yet. Been thinking the next premiere anime to be "Vampire Hunter D". "Wicked City" taps into subjects I'm not comfortable with yet.
Try Serial Experiment Lain. It's a really good, but trippy, story about a girl coming of age . It deals with being that age where you're not a child, but not yet considered an adult. It's exposition heavy, though, so it can be a bit boring in spots
@@Shin_Lonanah. Evangelion is a nonsensical mess. There are better
@@blackyvertigoSeriously though. The space western trilogy is good, Outlaw Star, Trigun, and Cowboy Bebop, also Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
What’s insane is the film in 1988 has a stadium being built for the 2020 Olympics. In the real world, Tokyo was suppose to host the 2020 Olympics but was pushed back to 2021 due to the Pandemic.
There's also a medical alert flyer on a wall talking about a virus going around.
The organizers didn't want the events to line up with the movie, thus preventing WWIII. Wise move.
Avoided WW3 with a hair's breadth... so far.
Predictive Programming just like all of the 9/11 shit put out there decades before it happened…
Covid was the first bomb dropped in World War Three. Sorry, guys... truth hurts.
I don't believe CGI will ever be able to surpass the beauty of detailed traditional animation like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Zeta Gundam, Megazone Part II, Ghibli, etc. I wish this detailed style weren't so cost prohibitive these days.
Stop downplaying the work of CG artists.
Asshole.
@@DarkOverlord96He is right
Ghibli has been using CG since the 90s but go on and Steamboy looks at least as good as Akira and that film is heavily reliant on CG. Guess who directed it?
I think Redline 2009 is like the last fully hand animated movie. Even Akira used computer work. What’s unique about Akira is that it was shot on 70mm film. That’s what the huge screen imax movies are shot on. Film of such a wide format allows resolution way beyond 4K.
Across the SpiderVerse: ARe yOu sURe abOuT tHaT?!!???!??!?
Edit: No, I’m not saying ATSV puts those other movies to shame. I’m saying it’s a little foolish to completely write CG animation off when there are countless examples of CGI done well.
This was made 36 years ago. And still puts most modern animated films to shame!
I mean, it was produced during Japan's bubble economy. They pretty much had all the money in existence to throw at it, it's not really a fair comparison.
This is one of the most expensive anime films ever made
Multiple studios worked on it.
I read years ago that Akira almost bankrupted one of the production companies that helped fund it.
@@fireaza Not realy.
Akira cost was about 3 times of My Neighbour Totoro by Ghibli (3,7 mln$), when USA's blockbusters like Die Hard had budget 3 times of Akira's (30 mln$), Beetlejuice 15mln$, Naked Gun 12 mln$, Who Framed Roger Rabbit 70 mln$.
Last year there was about dozen movies with budget of 200 mln$ or more: Fast X, The Little Mermaid, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania, Elemental, Killers of the Flower Moon, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The Marvels, The Flash and... Wish...
WISH!! Animated movie!
When Godzilla Minus One had budget about the same as Akira 30 years back!!!!!
So Akira wasn't so high above 'standards' of its time as you say, yet it was so influential for whole World and creaitve people!
You think Wish will have the same impact?
Godzilla Minus One will have an impact: it's proof how bloated Hollyweird is and how better movies can be when talented people make them.
@@amuroray9115 but their budget still pales compared with something made by Disney at the same time period.
@@amuroray9115 "Oliver & Company" cost 31 million.
I remember playing Final Fantasy 7 for the first time when I was a teen. When it got to the motorcycle highway chase all I could think of was Akira.
I'm only a few minutes in, but I just had to stop and comment to say this is one of the best plot summaries of Akira I've heard.
The film is often very confusing for first viewers due to the frenetic pace (over 2,000 cuts) and ambiguous concepts.
Although the Akira manga goes into much more detail and expands on the themes and even gives minor characters in the film complete character arcs, I think the truncated and somewhat confusing story in the film version has created a market for countless Akira analysis videos we see popping up.
If Akira was super straight forward, there would be far fewer videos talking about the meaning of the movie.
This isn't to say Akira is only talked about because it's confusing or because it has stellar animation - it's a fever dream of an experience that's impossible to ignore or forget.
Akira almost single-handedly destroyed my interest in Anime. It was the first Anime I ever saw(a friend of mine was like, "Hey, watch this!"), and all I can say about that experience was, it was out there. The story was all over the place(to me). Starts off with future Tokyo, and biker gangs. And then quickly goes off the rails with psychokinetic powers and ends with a giant monster thing. Not saying it is a bad movie at all, just not the first Anime one should watch if they have never seen one before. And also not at 16. The reason it nearly destroyed my interest in Anime is, I thought this was the norm for Japanese Anime. But, due to an accident that involved Battlestar Galactica(the 70s/80s version, not the 2000s remake) I realized that a fair chunk of Japanese Anime was pretty tame. And that over there, cartoons can be made strictly for adults.
The main reason it's confusing is that a huge chunk of Dan's incredible summary is NOT alluded to in the movie at all, at least not in the original English. I'd have to look at the Pioneer dub again to see if it's the same there, but I know it's much more faithful to the source... Doesn't mean I think the dub's necessarily better; I recall thinking the new dub was a lateral move at best.
Back when it was released on VHS, Akira was one of the few anime titles that was mainstream enough that my public library had it. You can never look at a teddy bear quite the same way once you've seen it.
The Akira slide in NOPE got a huge pop in the theater.
Huge pop?
Cheer from the audience
80's/90's hand drawn anime will NEVER be topped. You have to just love the scenes that are literally just the artists in a sense "showing off" how detailed they can get (for example: when they show a 30 second scene of just a fully detailed rain storm
Studio Ghibli from Spirited Away onwards still carry a similar level of gravitas.
Dan Larson and Galaxy team, thank you all for this! You’ve gut punched my nostalgia many times now, but this was like an actual nut stomping good time. Thank you all!
This was a gateway into Anime for myself and a lot of kids since it was widely available on home video back then.
10:25 the score was so epic. My high school art teacher used to play it during art class. I borrowed the CD from him and made a copy for myself. This was back in 1996 when that was the new hotness of technology.
My brother and I were lucky enough to see a screening of Akira while at the 1989 San Diego Comic-Con. Someone was handing out tickets from a booth and my cousin grabbed 3 for us. Later that day we found ourselves in a dusty old theater watching the anime that I would be obsessed with for years afterwards. It was truly a sight to see on the big screen, even as a 13 year old.
Me too! I was 18, and my friend dragged me to it because he had been reading the Marvel translation. I had no idea what I was in for, but it's still one of my fondest movie going memories. I still annoy my anime-loving kids with "Hey, did I ever mention I was one of the first people in the U.S. to see Akira?" LOL
I've honestly lost count of how many times I've seen the "Akira bike slide" in media.
It's the more modern version of the Wilhelm Scream
There are supercut compilations online if you're curious.
@realRaven575 My favourite is in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Robin's Reckoning".
Loved seeing it in live action in Nope too.
@@ObsessiveGeek Thank goodness they jumped on that JUST before it got really tired; LOL
Akira was the very 1st Anime I watched in the mid 1990's.
Rented it from Blockbuster video when they finally decided to carry a few of the well known classics.
To this day I am so thankful that the Legendary Akira was my 1st Anime.
1993 was the year I saw it first as a rental from Blockbuster
@45bombom It was probably right around then for me as well. I think I was 11 or 12. It was a few years before PS1 so 93 sounds right .
I was very fortunate to live near a big independent video store in the 90s. They had ~50 anime videos at any given time (or "Japanimation" as they still called it) which included a mix of TV shows like Funimation's first Dragon Ball dub, classic dubbed films like Akira and Venus Wars, and schlockier fare like Ninja Scroll.
@@daviddalrymple2284 *In my best Napoleon Dynamite voice
"Lucky!"
Ninja Scroll "Schlocky"?
2 minutes into this video and I now understand the plot more than I Ever have in the 30+ years I've known of it's existence.
Thank You Secret Galaxy.😄👍
Same here. 😂 In the last 21 years, I never knew what the hell was going on. It helps to read the manga
Same, it's a heady and dense story. Really appreciate the breakdown. 👌
lol I know, right!? Trying to read the books as a 7th grader was a bit much
Thanks to movies like this, Vampire Hunter D, and Fist of the North Star, my friends and I had the rules of good anime (or Japanimation, as we used to call it) were that it had to have blood, nudity, and a plot where you didn't know what the hell was happening. At least two of the three.
@@jpmiller7922 yeah, that's kinda how it felt for a long time back then.
😄👍
The most impressive thing about this video was that Dan was able to clearly explain the plot of the movie, something nobody who watched it could ever figure out.
I owned the first two Marvel adaptation comics in color. They were beautiful. I'm still lamenting selling them. (Yes, I'm a dummy. I know they're worth a bunch of money.)
why not, the movie was very condensed, and unlike the manga was very well structured..
Akira is still the magnum opus of mature storytelling, detailed animation and with a spectacular visual splendor! No matter if you bought the VHS, seen it on Sci-Fi Channel, Adult Swim, Bought the Metal Case DVD or the many Blu-ray releases...your always in for a spectacle that still holds up to this very day!❤
Well, put Akira was truely groundbreaking and really told an incredibly deep and complex story with so many themes. It definitely still holds up and revivals any live action film.
My favourite movie of all time. Tied for that spot with 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, in fact.
You liked “AKIRA”?
Then you’d definitely liked Zack Snyder’s Director’s Cut of “Watchmen”.
That’s my favorite film of all time.
@@dogewood5499 Watchmen is meant to be up there with the Dawn of the Dead remake as Zack's best film! Thanks for the recommendation!
Great, Dan went and blew us all up...
Yes, Akira was my gateway drug into the world of anime. This sparked a slew of titles i ended up watching over the years and loving till this day.
“The order to stop construction” was released in the mind trip Anthology movie called Neo Tokyo or “Manie Manie: Labyrinth Tales” in 1987. It includes the full version of the “Running Man” short that used to play on M-TV during their experimental phase.
Normally I skip UA-camr ads as part of a habitual fight-or-flight response, but you had me at dinosaurs. :D
Best description of this film in only the first two minutes! Awesome!
I remember buying the VHS in 94. Was a gateway to other movies including Lily CAT and Biohunter. Both of which I still have too. Sometimes it's good to be old.
Akira is an absolute legend of an anime,thank you Toy Galaxy ❤👏
Thank you for mentioning 'The Order to Stop Construction'. I feel this work as well as the Neo Tokyo Anthology is an underrated gem. You can see the influence of Akira in this short piece.
Well, channel had a great run. See you guys when our atoms coalesce. Great video, and always appreciate your costumes and concepts!
The "Massive Head Wound Harry" aesthetic really works on Dan!
This movie!!!!!
*"TETSUOOOOOO!!!"*
*"KANEDAAAAAA!!!"*
That's... that's how me and some of my friends used to greet each other after watching Akira.
👍😎🤟
Nothing like the steamline pictures dub of akira.Beside,kaneda being voiced by the talented cam clarke.
"GETAHOLDOFYOURSELF! You start by stealing my bike and run it into the GROUND, so just cool it, OK?"
"ENOUUUGH!! THEYYYY CANNN'T DOOOO THI-I-I-ISSS!"
I remember my brother renting this for me at Video Village. The animation was great, but the ending when Tetsuo morphs and takes scarred me as a kid.
Still one of my favorite films ever. My first exposure came about my happenstance - high school best friend had a buddy who went to japan and brought back a videotape copy (1989/90 or thereabouts). My friend got a dub and then me a dub after watching it with him. I took it to college and showed it to my friends there. Note that this was the original Japanese version - so we literally were trying to piece the story together through the visuals with NO idea what anyone was saying. We just knew it was incredible. (And since I was first exposed to the original version, for me it is always "Kahn-ayy-dah" and not the US dubbed Kah-NAY-da" lol)
lol. That’s a pretty Cool story.
You just unlocked a memory of seeing the commercials on US TV for ordering the VHS cassette of Akira by phone. Unreal.
One of my alltime favorites - thank you for this!
Damn you Toys Galaxy! You Maniacs! You Blew IT Up!
This wasn't the 1st anime i saw but it was one of the ones that absolutely made me fall in love with anime. Love the cosplay. Always look forward to each weeks episode Dan thanks for all the great work.
Bandai released a 1/35 scale plastic and die cast Kaneda bike (with a little rubber fixed pose Kaneda figure) in 1988.
Still one of my favourite animated films! It launched the anime boom in the UK and my own love for manga and anime. I owe a lot to this film. Great to see your spotlight on this film Dan
Akira related - I am still searching for that "new season" promo NBC ran as the 1992 Olympics winded down. One segment of the commercial was for Quantum Leap and Scott Bakula was running in place as a montage of the next season's time destinations were teased behind him. One of the clips in this montage was from the opening biker sequence from Akira. I remember seeing this promo myself and there is at least one person online who independently corroborated seeing this too.
I fully agree with you, I’d rather they leave it alone and produce no live action version. If it does get made, I’m not going to bother. Thanks to this video (and an article I read this morning about a couple of guys in Barcelona who are building working versions of Kaneda’s bike), I’ve decided that I may have to start collecting the trade paperbacks, as I’ve never gotten around to reading the whole thing.
Now, the soundtrack. Gat damn, that soundtrack. I had it pretty much constantly spinning from 1997 to 2002 and it’s one of the few CDs I’ve held onto in the age of streaming-and I’m glad for it because it’s not available on the service to which I’m subscribed. Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s work was a revelation, it was like nothing I’d ever heard before and I’m pretty sure like nothing I’d hear since.
If nothing else, its a visual masterpiece. The balls to do animate Akira, that motorcycle sequence in a night time setting... i have no words, its just so beautifully done.
And I don't care if people here get tired of my praising TMS.... These arguments I see implying a huge budget being the only decider, without considering the talent behind it.... I guarantee giving AKOM the equivalent of a billion yen in the 90's wouldn't give you a result much better than their 'X-Men".
Oh yeah!!! Such a great, surprising animated movie! It was just unbelievable at the time. I remember mail ordering it in 1990 from starlog magazine, I believe, along with the Akira t-shirt, Project A-ko, Robot carnival, and dominion-tank police, all on VHS. Then I left for military service and forgot about it. Came home after training and got a wonderful surprise package waiting, a year later!!!! The best of times!!! Keep up the great videos!!! Love the channel!
That Canon Camera ad was so well put! Damn, such an incredible video, and such a legendary movie!
I remember my mom subscribing to a monthly anime VHS thing when I was a kid and Akira IIRC was the first video they sent. It was *nuts*. I grew up with Mazinger Z and Ultraman but this was something completely different, definitely adult but it never felt like it was gorey or extreme for the sake of being so, just a venue of telling a grown up story. Loved it ever since, it's stuck with me through the decades :)
My mom got me the same thing. Akira was first and Record of Lodos wars was second for me.
That is a win for mom!
LOL third here! do you guys remember what it was called? I wonder if we all had the same service. Films I remember getting were Akira, Barefoot Gen, Vampire Hunter D, Gologo 13,
@@thecunninlynguist for some reason I keep thinking it had a generic-ish sounding name like "Anime Monthly" or something along those lines. I remember Vampire Hunter D and Record of Lodoss War, I got Fist of the North Star through this service, too, but don't remember getting Golgo 13. Hmmm... maybe it was a different service?
The advert for the VHS subscription is seemingly shown near the end of this video. I'm not American and wasn't subscribed to it but don't know how everyone that's commented so far missed it, it literally shows Akira as the first VHS you would receive followed by Record of Lodoss War.
Watch from 15:35.
A Fist of the North Star episode I’m sure would be a great episode to see
My shirt just exploded off.
Speaking of live-action adaptations that don't need to exist...
@@CantankerousDave there already was a live-action adaptation from the 90s that was just horrible.
Absolutely territory these guys should cover- famous Japanese properry with much to discuss AND a long history with western adaptations / dubs. And the memes they can inject, the script writes itself!
I discovered Akira in a comic book store around 1988 or 1989 with the US colorized books and was blown away. The covers, the drawings of the characters & setting, the coloring and the story. It put so much of the US comic books at the time to shame.While my collection of them is still very far from complete, I still consider them as a major part of my comic book collection from that time.
Simply the best. If anyone reading this comment hasn't read the Akira manga it's a sci-fi experience par excellence and should not be missed.
One of if not the most influential anime for the West, my introduction to adult anime was Akira, and what an introduction it was.
With that out of the way, the only way to make this flim into a live action version will flop hard as it would honestly be like remaking Jaws now into either a animated horror movie and expect to have the same financial success that film had for the blockbuster market of film making let alone have a pop culture influence it had in the 70's 80's 90's and beyond.
It is that lighting in a bottle effect, and only a few films, in my opinion, have had that impact on a global scale.
Now, if we take from what we learn from these to particular suggestions, Akira and Jaws stories in a whole are different enough time to make a difference in the media, so to do so you need to keep the product under wraps before comming out and giving only a slight amount of public engagement of the final product.
Today, media is continually changing at a break neck pace, and it is for myself personally to become a fan of new franchises that takes a lot of effective marketing and engagement for me to take notice.
We want to be able to find familiarity in a new franchise such as the Dino's that look like a certain teenage mutated ninja amphibians, for example, but those are my thoughts on it.
One of most influential for sure. There a good number of other animes too that are around as influential
A+ video!
Awesome history of Akira!
I love cartoons that give an F you and middle finger to people who think imagination is just for kids.
I agree I always hated that argument that animation is just for kids
@@animezilla4486 Ikr
@@animezilla4486 everyone does hate that argument
I had to watch this anime a good 3-4 times before it made any sense to me. But even the first time through, it just looks so cool. Very smooth animation. Very detailed characters, like Tetsuo at the finale. It’s one of those stories that you want to learn more about the second it’s over.
I first saw Akira in the early 90s, on BBC2, late in a Friday night. Introduced by Jonathan Ross…. It blew my 12 year old brains out.
Came here to say the same. BBC2 did a double bill of Mad Max and Akira late one night. I had the recording on VHS tape for years.
Akira was released in Australian theatres in 1995 .I was in senior high school and remembered the brief TV ads . Why did it take so long for theatrical release ?
So cool to see you featuring this. Thanks for the knowledge 🧠
as well as the uncharacteristicly cinematic ending.
Picked up the VHS of this off a rental shelf back in the 90s and it's still my favourite animated film of all time. The amount of detail especially just in the environment and backgrounds is top tier even to this day.
With telekinesis you could just dampen someone’s blood vessel enough for them to faint. There would be no need to throw lots of heavy stuff around
Watched and re-watched the VHS of this so so many times. It has a special place in my heart. Hearing Taika Waititi and Akira in the same sentence terrorizes me
there was in fact at least one Japanese toy released in 1988: a 1/35-ish Bandai diecast and plastic of Kaneda's bike with a plastic figure and decals from the film. it's worth noting that McFarlane wasn't able to get the necessary trademark clearance for accurate decals and instead made up fictional replacement brands for his bike.
Pretty sure there were some resin kits before the McFarlane stuff too. Volks had a 1/6th scale version of Kaneda's bike and some other resource online have even earlier examples of similar things.
I was just looking up Akira slides and this popped up - get out of my mind!!!
Aw, duuude! You blew us all up! How am I supposed to go to work tomorrow?! LOL! XD
Oh great! You just reset the *clap clap* multiverse. Way to go. As Spike would say: "Oh shit! What are we going to do now?!"
My favourite UA-cam channel with my favourite dude talking about my favourite movie is the best excuse I have to be late for whatever I’m doing today.
16:35 way to go, Dan. I was using that Earth.
13:22
At first, I though my cat farted.
Fantastic video. AKIRA (all caps, always) was a huge influence for me creatively and professionally. I don’t know if this came up when you were researching, but from what I’ve read one of the live action versions was apparently shelved after “Chronicle” came out as it was a nearly identical movie.
I really really love this movie! The bike is amazing, the concepts are crazy/intriguing and the art is (even now) beautiful!
That was an awesome being to your vid! You are upping your budget, and it looks great!
"In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe lies a medium sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead."
Akira is the favorite film of Morgan Richter (from the YT Channel Morgan Richter), the USC film school graduate who does explanations and reviews of films and Miami Vice.
She has a series called When Gen X Ruled The Multiplex, a collection of 100 films important to Generation X (it is a fantastic collection).
Thank you for the recommendation.
The destruction of Toy Galaxy and the rise of Neo Toy Galaxy was inevitable with all of the experiments that were performed on Dan.
I’ve watched the film numerous times over the years. I advise you all to read the manga because it makes way more sens than the film does. Katsuhira Otomo couldn’t include everything he put in the manga because he directed the film BEFORE he even finished making the manga
So half the plot in the film is rushed
I accidentally saw this movie on UA-cam when I was 9 (back when monetization and advertisers weren't a thing, and people were uploading full bootleg copies of anime movies like Tree of Might). Kaori's death lived rent-free in my head for years. That movie also ruined animation for me for a solid chunk of time, I could immediately tell the difference in the depth of storytelling and visual quality from a lot of other American content. I had a hard time getting into much of anything until I discovered Miyazaki years later when I watched Princess Mononoke for the first time.
My first exposure to this movie was an out of context showing by another student of the hospital toy hallucination sequence. I was not very familiar with anime at the time, Samurai Pizza Cats, the Saban 13 episode Dragon Ball classic dub, and generously all the cartoons from the 80's animated over there being my only frame of reference. So basically it scared the hell out of me at the time.
Excellent, I learned alot. Akira was one if not the first anime I watched .
I saw this and other anime movies for the first time on saturday morning anime on the sci-fi channel in the 90s.
A cool fact. The Akira class starship in Star Trek is named after the movie.
Did expect the ending, nice job team!
Akira and Ghost in the shell are the two films that got me hooked into Japanese animation.
Anyone sort of disappointed that Dan didn't fly off the screen at the end screaming "Unlimited Power!!!!"
I first saw Akira in either 1989 or 1990 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. I'd been reading the colorized English adaptation. I took home one of the photocopied posters that were all over downtown at the time and used markers to tone it. that hung in my studio for a long time.
2:19 Those Saurozoic Warriors look fun!
I remember watching Akira in English during a test run at the Dobie Theater in Austin, which ran a lot of test dubs in the 90s. I saw the Troma Miyazaki dubs there as well....
I have a Big O half sleeve absolutely can't wait for the video! Is escaflowne on your list? Thanks for all the videos
Saw this years ago on adult swim toonami month of movies ! Still have it on blu ray
One of my uncle's had a bootleg version of this movie back in 1990. My 12 year old mind was blown. One of the best movies ever made. Hopefully one day someone makes a true to manga anime series.
I was wondering why Dan had bandages on his head. I thought it was the pounding on his head after picking the 2023 figure of the year😂😂😂. But it was really his cosplay…. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the movie. I wish they would put this in the theaters again. Love the explosive ending to the video…
We are reminded of the ancient adage "check yourself before you wreck yourself."
I clearly remember seeing Akira and being blown out of my socks. We rewound it constantly. ("Holy.... Did you see that? Rewind that!", "Was that a tube-burn? Wow!", "Whoa whoa whoa. Did that bike have ELF single side suspension?") We'd seen a lot of anime at the time, but Akira was just towering over the rest. And in a lot of ways it still does.
For the first two decades of my life, the only Japanese anime I knew was English-dubbed versions of Prince Planet, Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets... Then a friend of mine turned me on to AKIRA, and that was the start of it. To this day, despite all the Dragonballs and Bleaches and Demon Slayers, AKIRA has not yet been matched, IMO. Great video.
An 'Akira' movie may be in the freezer indefinitely, but we did get a somewhat lackluster knock-off in the Scarlett Johanson movie 'Lucy'.
Thanks Secret Galaxy for this video. Now I have a better understanding of the Akira full plot 😮💨. Big thank you for mentioning the 1/6 scale model motorcycle. This was another big purchase I wanted to make but will be revisiting this year 😁…p.s. I hope Dan wasn’t harmed in the making of this video, because that look like a gnarly explosion 💥
Chris D, if you're out there, I am still sorry that I was too hungover that day we went to see Akira in Norwalk & ruined that day 😔
Yea.. I was I think 11 or 12 when I first saw Akira on VHS.. it opened my eyes on how good and different animation could be. I had seen more child orientated animation from Japan , Astroboy, Kimba the White Lion but Akira was the first one that was presented to me as from Japan and I was hooked and made me into a life long fan of anime and manga..
I used to watch Cartoon Sushi on MTV and every episode had a commercial for Akira on VHS along with other anime. I thought it all looked so cool. I wasn't familiar with anime at all at this point except a Jungle Book anime that we had on VHS when I was a bit younger haha.
I don't remember anything about Akira since I haven't seen it since 97, but I remember it being awesome
16:55 Gee, thanks a lot Dan!
They already made a live action adaptation of Akira. Its called Chronicle. Its a little more low budget so they had to change some of the story....but thats about as close to an American, live action Akira as I'd feel comfortable getting made.
Im only half joking here...say what you will about Trank, Chronicle was pretty damned good.
To be honest I don't think its possible to make an Akira film without Otomo personally working on it
Still have my VHS version. Crazy movie.
Bravo Your finest video to date!!
I still remember going to a gencon convention years ago and seeing a simple tv playing Akira to sell their VHS copies. I was instantly an Anime fan from that day forward and I will always remember 90s Cyberpunk/SciFi as pinnacle anime as I fell down the rabbit hole of Ghost in the Shell, Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed, Dirty Pair...
... excuse me while I go binge some anime.
I can't believe Dan's psychic powers killed us all. I should have watched this video the day it dropped
I was lucky to see Akira 4K before Godzilla Minus One - almost perfect evening! (almost because I had to drive to next city ;p)
It was an experience because visuals were crisp and sound rich and clear!
I will remember this moment for long.