Akira...yeah, I didn't get it. by Staples

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Akira...yeah, I didn't get it.

POSTED BY: STAPLES
UPDATED: Friday, June 6, 2008 05:20
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VIEWED: 3535
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Thursday, June 5, 2008 1:31 PM

I just got done watching the anime "Akira," and, while I feel that something very cool is going on...I'm afraid this one went over my head. Can anyone help explain this beast to me?

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Thursday, June 5, 2008 3:24 PM

CYBERSNARK

I may be jaded, but I tend to think the biggest triumph of Akira (aside from Kaneda's kick-ass bike) was the licensing. It's only really significant IMHO for being the first time American audiences sat up and said "Holy Hannah, this 'Japanimation' stuff is awesome.

With more exposure to anime, it just doesn't really stand out.

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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Thursday, June 5, 2008 4:25 PM

ZEROKIRYU

Akira remains one of my favorite anime films, alongside Ghost In The Shell.

I have to say the manga was 10x better than the film IMO.

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Thursday, June 5, 2008 6:29 PM

GORAMMAN

In the early to mid-nineties I was an anime enthusiast. Anything Blockbuster would shelve I would rent. I would track down any rumor of a pirated anime VHS tape floating around school. Back then, anime was really hard to come by. Manga was even rarer.

Akira was so powerful because of its surreal and epic visuals, awesomely rendered setting, attention to technical details, shocking violence, and emotive characters. It was an unprecedented achievement in animation as important as some of Disney's classics. Sure, the story makes little sense, especially transplanted to western culture. The theme was a little played out (that being men's folly filled never ending quest for harnessing and exploiting power) even back then. But for 1988 (I think that's when it came out) it was truly ground breaking stuff.

I'm sure by now it's been trumped by the umpteenth power. I wouldn't know. I turned my back on anime/manga a long time ago. But it was a long time until a film blew me away with it's visuals like Akira did.

I read a while back that one of the American studios had secured the rights to do a big budget motion picture based on Akira. It's also rumored they signed Leo as the lead role. I'll watch it for nostalgia's sake.

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Thursday, June 5, 2008 9:26 PM

SINGATE

Quote:
Originally posted by Staples:
I just got done watching the anime "Akira," and, while I feel that something very cool is going on...I'm afraid this one went over my head. Can anyone help explain this beast to me?

Are you confused as to why it is so highly regarded or by what was going in with the story?

The storyline is fairly cut and dry. Government, along with the military, is interested in creating psychic soldiers. They take children with latent abilities and test them. Younger children are preferred, presumably because they have vivid imaginations and are more easily controlled. Those freaky blue kids are given drugs to stunt their growth, their appearance is a side effect of the treatments. Apparently the scientists realized that adolescent angst, raging hormones, and super powers would be a bad combination. Enter Tetsuo. His jealously towards Kaneda coupled with the resentment of being bullied in youth have created a powder keg. Once his power is uncovered he gradually loses control due to his fragile emotional state. If not for the return of Akira the entire city(at the very least) would have been destroyed. Akira had transcended his physical body becomming a being of energy. I imagine his organs had been kept for further study or maybe the scientists thought they could clone him. There are two important morals in the story: 1)do not to mess with the natural order of things and 2)those who don't learn from mistakes are doomed to repeat them. Akira's ascension caused some type of catastrophe years earlier. Instead of learning from that mistake the government/military nearly caused an even greater disaster when they meddled with Tetsuo.

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We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

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Friday, June 6, 2008 5:20 AM

DANTE144

Manga is better...and dirtier.

I started out by reading the Marvel Comics imprint of it back in the day..but I couldn't keep up. Then I saw the movie. 16 years later I read the original Manga..16 years!

It was weird too. I read it right around Katrina. There was a major city flooded in the book too. Weird parallel.

As to the Major plot point... Kid were experimented on and this leads to the next step in human evolution.

Wrap that around the best Japanimation and design of teh day and you have pure gold awesome.

"Jesus saves, everyone else takes damage" -tee shirt some girl was wearing at Megacon.

http://dantedreams.com <-my webcomic

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