Films Akira (and slowly devolving into general Animé)

I loved that movie.

 

Akira with English dialogue!

Aggghhhhhhhhhhhh

 

When you kids say **** like this, it always makes me laugh.

Go on short-stuff, tell us how old you are?

 

Never found Akira that good, the story is not properly explained, we get no proper background on who Akira and the rest of the gang is and so on.

The likes of "Chihiro and the witches" is way better or any other one from Miyazaki.

I really need to see that one XD

 

You really should, I'd say Waltz with Bashir is hands down one of the greatest animated productions ever done.

 

I can understand this. Not much is explained and the fact that it's about some children barely into their teens does detract in my opinion. I imagine you've looked into other anime, my favourites being Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop.

It is an absolute epic though! I should look into finishing it off.

 

Watched it last night and the last half just lost me - the last half hour in particular just seemed to drag on with little story progression.

 

I've owned the DVD (collector's edition) for years. Not bad for a middle-aged old fart.

 

The problem is they condensed six MASSIVE books into 90 minutes so they cut too much. If you can spend time to read it you'll understand much better.

Tbh they could have made an entire series anime out of it.

If they actually remained true to the core, could they ever make a live action?

 

I always watch it with the intent to track the story, yet it always eludes me. I may look into the manga someday, I'm surprised no-one actually has tried to make an anime series out of it.

 

Seen Akira twice, once in japanese w/ english subs, once in english... not a fan tbh...

I Liked GitS, had a hard time following the second one [Innocence] though.

 

I have the same thing with Kill Bill. I hate it so much it makes me want to throw things when I try to watch it, but try I have, many times, because almost everyone else in the world adores it.

Just one of those things, I guess.

With repeat viewings, I've started to find Akira's ending grates as particularly insane JP ********. I enjoy the film a lot up until all the tunnels-of-light, double-helixes-of-rubble, flashbacks-to-childhood bollocks. The silly Engrish kids' voiceovers at the very end are just bad. It remains a personal favourite, I just try to ignore the ending's more stupid elements. The film's strong card is the main story of Tetsuo's growing power and insanity, but it gets lost in a lot of weird-as-hell Japanese madness sometimes.

 

I agree with Boiled_Elephant, great as akira is, the ending is just batshit insane.

Another film to add to the list of "grown up animated films" would definitely be "When the wind blows" I swear Raymond Briggs mission in life is to make kids cry.

 

That's because the ending is chopped and condensed, and yes, pretty naff given how it started. The books evolve it in a way far beyond the movie. Tbh, watching it now and it looks unimpressive, but back at the time and it was legendary.

 

Meh...

Never did like the ending in it, and the English dub is just goddam annoying... To the point I switched it off and popped in the DVD of it so I could watch in Jap/Eng subs.

As others have said, they cut a lot of the story out to make the film, so they kinda lost the plot towards the end.

Still have to say I love the Studio Gibli films even more like Princess Mononoke, Kik's, Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies.... Now those where just beautiful, with a great story

 

If you think Akira's ending was bad, watch AI. Stephen Spielberg just raped Stanley Kubrick's vision.

Studio Ghibli is cheesecake.

 

That film was so dull and boring it could put insomniacs to sleep.

All the Ghibli stuff I've seen, I've not been a fan of...


but from what [little] Japanese animation I've seen:

if it's based on a book/manga, the book/manga is usually better [though that can be said of western films too]

99% of the English dubbing is atrociously bad [and done by the most annoying people they could find at the time].

 

AI? you mean that movie a few years back with that lil blond kid? Dear god that was horrendous

I sat through it whilst inside my head I was curled into the foetal position and crying/screaming

Both points are 99% correct, there will be those few shows that somehow manage to surpass the book though.

As for voice acting, they use the same few people for every release, even though most of them are ****.

I still prefer to watch the shows with Jap language and Eng subs, preferably fan subs as they will generally leave the story as is, whereas English releases are generally chopped and changed so bad the story is barely there.

 

It did. I'm speaking from experience.

 

I did says 'usually', not 'always'...

Hellsing and Ghost in the Shell are [as far as i can remember] the only two where the English dubbing is actually done well.

And I'm pretty sure that the Japanese w/ subs and English dubbed versions of Akira are two different films story wise [though its a while since I've seen either version].

The same goes for JRPGs, for those I find subtitles and the 'mute' button helps a lot.