According to some people, this is the father of modern anime. The old Anime I know of is very cartoony and unrealistic. Both in how they were drawn, how they moved, and the physical feats the characters performed. This movie is more like a live action movie rather than a cartoon/animated movie. The frame-rate was solid, the scenes are beautiful, and the music is top notch.
This is yet another post-apocalyptic anime movie. The movie takes place in neo-Tokyo since Tokyo we know was blown up in WWIII. The story surrounds a motorcycle gang and the kids that make it up. They are a bunch of hoodlums that like to wreck havoc on the helpless citizens of the city they live in. That is until one of their own get caught up in a military experiment.
The world that was created is incredible. It is detailed and life like. When the director was designing the movie, he and his staff took great care to make sure the world this movie took place in seemed like a real place. In some of the DVD extras you develop a real appreciation for the effort they took to make this movie real.
The English voice acting is well done. I have no real complaints with it, I prefer hearing the dialogue rather than reading it. But the emotions in the voices do not mimic perfectly those of the original Japanese voice actors. So I do recommend that you listen to both because you will see the characters in a whole new light after seeing both options.
The character building is ok. Not the greatest but definitely above par. The main reason is the action takes precedence in this movie. And given the choice between character building and action I would also have gone for the action. It really isn’t until the movie comes close to the end that you really start to feel like you know the 2 boys.
Now this is an animated movie so graphics shouldn’t be in this, right? Well not exactly. They did use computer graphics for a couple of segments. While not that ground breaking it was tastefully added. It should be noted that this was one of the first uses of computer graphics in an animated feature. In addition they did do several tricks to make it look like a hologram was really in the movie. Lets just say you will be impressed.
The music is a combination of classical and ethnic sounds. But it isn’t John Williams classical. The soundtrack has a very synth-like feel to it. When I first watched I really thought they used some synthesizers in the soundtrack but after watching the making of I found out that they used a lot of ethnic style instruments. One scene uses a room full of bamboo percussion instruments. Another uses very old metallic instrument from a culture in southeast asia. It really sets this movie apart. What is interesting about this movie is they scored the movie before they animated it. The director wanted to give the composer a bit of freedom.
Who is this for I only recommend this for mature teens or adults. There is a fair amount of cussing and harsh dialogue. There is one scene with a girl bare breasted. And there is a lot of violence and people dying. People die by getting their heads bashed in, getting shot by a half dozen automatic rifles, or simply exploding in a bloody mess. It really isn’t that graphic compared to what is out there today but I would not feel comfortable recommending it to anyone but a mature individual.
Capsule option During the film there will be a “Dr. Mario” like capsule that pops up now and again. It is off unless you set it manually. When you see the capsule and hit enter the movie pauses and you get a close up look at some of the Japanese writing on the wall, billboards, etc. There is an English subtitle that translates the Japanese writing. And this movie is full of billboard, signs, and graffiti. This should give you an idea of how much detail they put into this movie.
Extras. The second disk has aspects of the making of this film & DVD set. It includes the making of the Japanese version and the re-mastering of the DVD release. Production report- Originally created in 1988 it is obviously subtitles for English audiences. But is an informative featurette. Sound clips- An in-depth look at how the music was conceived and scored. Really cool featurette. Directors interview- this is in Japanese and subtitled in English. This was the most enlightening part for me because it was the director talking about how Akira came to be. Production material- Just a collection of some hand drawn stuff. Trailers- Just like the name says. Restoration- This is in English and they explain how they were able to restore the film, do the English dialogue, and turn the movies sound into 5.1 quality. This is a really fascination part of the extras. Glossary- Like the name says, it provides definitions to many of the terms used in the movie.
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