Grand Architect: As for myself it was the work that open the door to mature cartoons/anime, before that point Robotech was the close thing I knew and that felt just like a G.I. Joe level of maturity. After Akira I knew where to look to get a story with a maturity level greater then Bambi or Toy Story that the States are plagued with.

I'm in the same boat. I recently reflected on this in a note on my DA page (Link (new window). I'll just post the link rather than bore anyone with the details who isn't into that sort of thing. But in summary for people my age (especially those who wanted to be storytellers) it's an iconic film that deeply affected who we are as creators. I'm not emotionally attached to many films the way I'm emotionally attached to Akira. I'm not saying this rapes my child hood.... but...

fluffy2097: Corvus: What?

It had a story and a plot. Maybe you didn't follow it.

Yeah, a plot that falls apart entirely once the little freak children start talking about amoeba's with the power of humans and a giant bloated monster appears with lasers and shiat. What is going on is terribly explained in the movie, and is more obtuse then an episode of Twin Peaks.

The only plot easily gathered from the Akira movie is that Tetsuo's wimpy ass friend Akira is a pussy and does a face heel turn when he discovers drugs after getting involved with a bad crowd. Then Tetsuo has to kill his best friend. The Aristocrats.

It's a good movie, but it's plot leaves much to be desired, as with almost every single manga to anime adaption. Akira is particularly bad because the manga is terribly long and nuanced.

Seriously? you can't see that?

It's about what happens when you give humans the power of gods, which is like giving a gun to an amoebae.
Tetsuo falls apart in the process of one awesome power trip. Taking out most of the city in the process while his friend and gang leader tries to reign him in.
It seems the only one that could get through to Tetsuo in the end was Akira.
...the kid in the jar collection.

Revolutionaries, the military, corrupt politicians, biker gangs, giant teddy bears and mad scientists are just along for the ride.

evilmrsock: T.rex: I'm sure i'll get the obligatory Shut your whore mouth, but i felt Akira movie was 'interesting' and 'cool' to look at but i can't say that i 'liked' it. Whats with the blob thing at the end?

If you watched it when it first came over here, don't feel bad. The dub was not very good and specifically it skipped out on a couple of nuances that helped allude to what was going on. The blu ray (and one of the dvd releases) is actually an entire new dub with a better translation. It's still a summary of a larger work and

Basically, 'Akira' posits that evolution is a buildup of historical memory at a cellular level. Our natural state is the sum of what we've been for millions and millions of years, all the way back to being amoeba. This "cellular memory" exists in us as potential energy - it's instinct, intuition, drive, soul. Kaori's monologue in the jail cell is written a lot better in the new dub and lays this out.

The government program that the blue kids (and Akira) were in was an effort to turn that potential energy into kinetic energy, for our bodies to "remember" those memories. Think of Tetsuo's transformation as a flood of cellular memory that he wasn't able to control mushing out into kinetic energy, of an amoeba rushed through the entire evolutionary cycle in the space of a few minutes.

What the blue kids do to contain him with the explosion at the end can be thought of as remembering past the point of single-celled organisms, all the way back to the Big Bang - and the other side of it.

What?! That actually sounds very cool, and no, i didn't conclude any of that on my own. Not sure if what i saw was an older dub, but it definitely wasn't the bluray transfer.

A successful akira movie (unlikely, even if amazing) means i might see an evangelion movie in my lifetime. So, yeah, don't fark it up.

T.rex: If you watched it when it first came over here, don't feel bad. The dub was not very good and specifically it skipped out on a couple of nuances that helped allude to what was going on. The blu ray (and one of the dvd releases) is actually an entire new dub with a better translation. It's still a summary of a larger work and

The streamline dub was great.


>peabrain

So it's just like the original then. Got it.

T.rex: I'm sure i'll get the obligatory Shut your whore mouth, but i felt Akira movie was 'interesting' and 'cool' to look at but i can't say that i 'liked' it. Whats with the blob thing at the end?

I'm not sure what the "official" explanation is, but I took it that he evolved into an amoeba and spawned a new universe.

/circle of life

fluffy2097
The only plot easily gathered from the Akira movie is that Tetsuo's wimpy ass friend Akira is a pussy and does a face heel turn when he discovers drugs after getting involved with a bad crowd. Then Tetsuo has to kill his best friend. The Aristocrats.

LOL. Are you doing that intentionally to troll or is this an example of Cowboy BeBop at his computer? ;)

I know WB has the rights to live-action Akira in the states, but does that prevent Otomo or someone in Japan from making a multi-film version or the manga? I'd watch that, and I haven't bothered with anime in years.

I want a robotech movie that doesn't suck.

fluffy2097:

It was incredibly violent and trippy for it's time, and that's why it gained notoriety. Seeing people literally cut to pieces by machine gun fire was a brand new thing when Akira did it.

Not for Anime it wasn't nor was it especially violent when compared to other 18 rated movies of the day, it was however new to the majority of westerners to see that level of violence (and the accuracy of it's depiction) in something animated. It was one of the reasons several fundie groups tried to get the whole shebang banned.

Some people just wanted animation to mean Tom & Jerry I guess, they probably still do.

Grand Architect: After Akira I knew where to look to get a story with a maturity level greater then Bambi or Toy Story that the States are plagued with.

Yeah... Bambi and all three Toy Story movies are better than Akira. Worry too much about "mature themes," and you could miss a lot.

way south: I think the problem with Anime is alot gets lost in translation, making it an acquired taste.
If you watch alot of it you get a feel for the Japanese and their humor and concepts.

A good half of Japanese "humor" falls away in translation. Not that it's a big loss.

Well, I guess that leaves a chance for an Elfen Lied live action movie to be made

I hope it gets made. The Speedracer movie was cool. Even though it made no money. What a shame. I wish more people had given it a chance in the theater.

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: fluffy2097
The only plot easily gathered from the Akira movie is that Tetsuo's wimpy ass friend Akira is a pussy and does a face heel turn when he discovers drugs after getting involved with a bad crowd. Then Tetsuo has to kill his best friend. The Aristocrats.

LOL. Are you doing that intentionally to troll or is this an example of Cowboy BeBop at his computer? ;)

Not really a troll, just trying to portray the film in the most cliched light as humanly possible.

Same way Romeo and Juliet is the story of two stupid kids who kill themselves in the process of trying to elope.

It's not the plot, it's the storytelling. The manga has both great plot and storytelling. The movie has great storytelling, and the plot had to be scrapped because it simply wouldn't fit in the time available.

/How many hours does it take for the plot of the LOTR movies to play out?

enforcerpsu: I want a robotech movie that doesn't suck.

Considering Robotech is three shows smashed together your in for a long assed wait. OTOH there have been some very good Macross shows, some of which have spawned their own movies.

Ghastly: My friend has just become nigh on omnipotent and has gone mad with power. My only chance it to kill him from a distance with this high powered rifle before he can sense what I am up to. I will only have one shot at this so I have to make it count. He cannot know what I am up to, stealth is my friend.

"TETSUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

Aw fark, was that out loud?

"Maybe hearing his name will change him back into a human instead of an amoeba with the mitochondrial power of a human!"

"....Nope. Didn't work. Maybe I should yell louder."

I'm really waiting for them to butcher Battle Angel. That will be a really good blow to the childhood.

/I think it will be worse then the Battle Angel OVAs.

Does this mean the plans for a live-action Cowboy Bebop have fallen through?

Keanu Reeves playing Spike would be the worst thing to happen since the Street Fighter movie.

/Poor Raul Julia

k4mi: On another terrible note, I was excited to found out today that Warner Bros was in work to create a Hyperion movie. I have thought for a while that with Game of Thrones so well done on HBO that Hyperion series would be a great idea for the next book adaptation for big budget TV since it would be hard to fit the books into 2 hours movies, especially if you included Endymion. Well I found out they want to cram Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, AND part of Endymion into a single damn movie. How would that work. There is just too much in there and too many little things that make the story work, that it will just end up as an incomprehensible, forgetable SciFi movie.

SciFi works best as TV show adaptations, even better with the resources HBO can provide to do them well. They just don't usually work well when they are forced to be crammed into the time constraints of a movie.

One movie for almost all three books? Oh for fark's sake. -_- # I wonder exactly how does the whole adaptation process breaks down. I can not entertain the notion that there are executives out there who actually read Hyperion-esque books so there must be someone somewhere who has and who pitches the idea to somebody else. How far removed from the top this pitch must be that at some point the mere idea of a three-books-in-one movie can be seriously contemplated is entirely beyond me.

I have never been into comics myself (other than some sandman, mouse guard and a couple others like them here and there) but I could tell something like this happened to Watchmen. I had no idea whatsoever what the background was (i know) and while I could appreciate the movie for what it did right it seemed obvious to me that they just crammed way too much story into it. Which was later confirmed by friends who were fans of the comics.

mat catastrophe: Hold on while I go find a fark to give.

You took the time out of your day to click the thread and type that? Seriously? You thought "I am so important, I need to let others know I don't care about this topic"?

logistic: mat catastrophe: Hold on while I go find a fark to give.

You took the time out of your day to click the thread and type that? Seriously? You thought "I am so important, I need to let others know I don't care about this topic"?

[scienceboom.com image 290x414]

I got time to kill.

Haters gonna hate, you know.

evilmrsock: T.rex: I'm sure i'll get the obligatory Shut your whore mouth, but i felt Akira movie was 'interesting' and 'cool' to look at but i can't say that i 'liked' it. Whats with the blob thing at the end?

If you watched it when it first came over here, don't feel bad. The dub was not very good and specifically it skipped out on a couple of nuances that helped allude to what was going on. The blu ray (and one of the dvd releases) is actually an entire new dub with a better translation. It's still a summary of a larger work and

Basically, 'Akira' posits that evolution is a buildup of historical memory at a cellular level. Our natural state is the sum of what we've been for millions and millions of years, all the way back to being amoeba. This "cellular memory" exists in us as potential energy - it's instinct, intuition, drive, soul. Kaori's monologue in the jail cell is written a lot better in the new dub and lays this out.

The government program that the blue kids (and Akira) were in was an effort to turn that potential energy into kinetic energy, for our bodies to "remember" those memories. Think of Tetsuo's transformation as a flood of cellular memory that he wasn't able to control mushing out into kinetic energy, of an amoeba rushed through the entire evolutionary cycle in the space of a few minutes.

What the blue kids do to contain him with the explosion at the end can be thought of as remembering past the point of single-celled organisms, all the way back to the Big Bang - and the other side of it.

TL;DR: Tetsuo got a severe case of Psychic Pokemon Cancer.

Tetsuo: Let's run away somewhere.
Kaori: Where would we go?
Tetsuo: Anywhere. Just the farther the better.

Why is it that when Hollywood tries to be experimental instead of going with a sure money maker, it nearly always turns out to be crap?

fluffy2097: Corvus: What?

It had a story and a plot. Maybe you didn't follow it.

Yeah, a plot that falls apart entirely once the little freak children start talking about amoeba's with the power of humans and a giant bloated monster appears with lasers and shiat. What is going on is terribly explained in the movie, and is more obtuse then an episode of Twin Peaks.

The only plot easily gathered from the Akira movie is that Tetsuo's wimpy ass friend Akira is a pussy and does a face heel turn when he discovers drugs after getting involved with a bad crowd. Then Tetsuo has to kill his best friend. The Aristocrats.

It's a good movie, but it's plot leaves much to be desired, as with almost every single manga to anime adaption. Akira is particularly bad because the manga is terribly long and nuanced.

Seriously? you can't see that?

Not that you aren't touching on a point there, but it's kind of hard to take your opinion seriously when you can't even get the character's names right.


fluffy2097: I'm really waiting for them to butcher Battle Angel. That will be a really good blow to the childhood.

/I think it will be worse then the Battle Angel OVAs.

There was talk about it years ago but it fell through, thankfully.

I blame the kanedians

I think a live action Ninja Scroll would be better. Or a large budget mini-series of the Record of Lodoss War would be cool.

roc6783: I think a live action Ninja Scroll would be better. Or a large budget mini-series of the Record of Lodoss War would be cool.

Oh god no pls.

Half the charm of Lodoss War was the totally encapsulating 80's style of animation and the general cheesiness.

Ninja Scroll is a live action job that should be left up to a Japanese studio. An American studio would neuter it just to keep it from an R rating (which it would have to be, obviously). I mean common, seriously, one of the bad guys literally attacks the protagnists with a snake projuding from her nethers.

I'm one of those people who think Cowboy Bebop would totally work for the big screen, given the correct casting and director. As long as Yoko Kanno does the music for it again.

Galaxy Express 999 needs a big budget adaptation. That will forever be my dream project. I think the gigantic expanded universe the series is set in though is way too intimidating for any studio to approach it, though.

exparrot: I blame the kanedians

I chuckled. Not a guffaw or a chortle, but there was some flubberdy bubbers going on.

Jalopnik recently had an article about a Japanese man who spent quite a bit of money building a really good replica of the bike. It turned out very nice, and it's not a converted scooter like some of the other projects I have seen.

//DC is being buzzed by spacecraft, gotta go.

theorangeshield: Not that you aren't touching on a point there, but it's kind of hard to take your opinion seriously when you can't even get the character's names right.

Please excuse my brain damage. I have time to have an opinion or get the wording right. If I take time to do them both the conversation's moved on already.

theorangeshield: roc6783: I think a live action Ninja Scroll would be better. Or a large budget mini-series of the Record of Lodoss War would be cool.

Oh god no pls.

Half the charm of Lodoss War was the totally encapsulating 80's style of animation and the general cheesiness.

Ninja Scroll is a live action job that should be left up to a Japanese studio. An American studio would neuter it just to keep it from an R rating (which it would have to be, obviously). I mean common, seriously, one of the bad guys literally attacks the protagnists with a snake projuding from her nethers.

I'm one of those people who think Cowboy Bebop would totally work for the big screen, given the correct casting and director. As long as Yoko Kanno does the music for it again.

Galaxy Express 999 needs a big budget adaptation. That will forever be my dream project. I think the gigantic expanded universe the series is set in though is way too intimidating for any studio to approach it, though.

To be honest. If you're going to take ANY anime Live action and have it prosper in the USA, It's going to have to be the Ghost in the Shell movie. It's simple enough for the American public to follow (nab the puppetmaster who hacks brains! And do it with cyborgs and guns!), and has the sort of action scenes that American audiences crave while still earning an R rating. It also has the mystery of "What REALLY happened to Motoko after the tank battle." which people can argue over forever.

The fact Shirow is so giving with his worlds and lets people take their own creative license with them helps too.

The Kenshin OVA's could be done by HBO well live action. It's a pretty universal love and loss story.

Then again. Dominion Tank Police Could also do well if you were REALLY vague with your adaption.

A comedy movie about an American city who gives their police tanks to fight crime could be awesome.

fluffy2097: theorangeshield: roc6783: I think a live action Ninja Scroll would be better. Or a large budget mini-series of the Record of Lodoss War would be cool.

Oh god no pls.

Half the charm of Lodoss War was the totally encapsulating 80's style of animation and the general cheesiness.

Ninja Scroll is a live action job that should be left up to a Japanese studio. An American studio would neuter it just to keep it from an R rating (which it would have to be, obviously). I mean common, seriously, one of the bad guys literally attacks the protagnists with a snake projuding from her nethers.

I'm one of those people who think Cowboy Bebop would totally work for the big screen, given the correct casting and director. As long as Yoko Kanno does the music for it again.

Galaxy Express 999 needs a big budget adaptation. That will forever be my dream project. I think the gigantic expanded universe the series is set in though is way too intimidating for any studio to approach it, though.

To be honest. If you're going to take ANY anime Live action and have it prosper in the USA, It's going to have to be the Ghost in the Shell movie. It's simple enough for the American public to follow (nab the puppetmaster who hacks brains! And do it with cyborgs and guns!), and has the sort of action scenes that American audiences crave while still earning an R rating. It also has the mystery of "What REALLY happened to Motoko after the tank battle." which people can argue over forever.

The fact Shirow is so giving with his worlds and lets people take their own creative license with them helps too.

The Kenshin OVA's could be done by HBO well live action. It's a pretty universal love and loss story.

Spielberg and Dreamworks Studio has apparently been working on picking Ghost in the Shell up since 08. It hasn't gotten a greenlight yet though. Also the proposed script-writer wants to do an adaptation of the 1989 manga run.

I have a sinking feeling that if it ever does happen though it'll be cut down to a PG13 rating, which would be unforunate.

theorangeshield: I have a sinking feeling that if it ever does happen though it'll be cut down to a PG13 rating, which would be unforunate.

You mean I'll miss out on the cybersex scene with Motoko and her girlfriends are making black market sensory porno programs, when Batou breaks into their cyberworld to tell Motoko about a mission? Damn!

/Oh god major! It's like slugs copulating! *WHUMP*

theorangeshield: roc6783: I think a live action Ninja Scroll would be better. Or a large budget mini-series of the Record of Lodoss War would be cool.

Oh god no pls.

Half the charm of Lodoss War was the totally encapsulating 80's style of animation and the general cheesiness.

Ninja Scroll is a live action job that should be left up to a Japanese studio. An American studio would neuter it just to keep it from an R rating (which it would have to be, obviously). I mean common, seriously, one of the bad guys literally attacks the protagnists with a snake projuding from her nethers.
***snip***

I just thought a cheesy, funny version of LOTR would be worth watching, but it probably wouldn't work, ala Dungeons and Dragons/Wayans brother.

Ya, but are there any Japanese studios that can make Ninja Scroll without it being a low budget campfest? There is definitely dark humor and goofiness, but it is not comedy. I am not a Japanese film expert so I will not weigh in on if they CAN do it, but every Japanese film I have seen is either overly dramatic to the point of absurdity or intentionally goofy to the point of absurdity.

One Bad Apple: roc6783: I think a live action Ninja Scroll would be better. Or a large budget mini-series of the Record of Lodoss War would be cool.

Clearly you never saw live action "Fist of the North Star".

Nope. I assume by your reaction, it is terrible.

fluffy2097:
To be honest. If you're going to take ANY anime Live action and have it prosper in the USA, It's going to have to be the Ghost in the Shell movie. It's simple enough for the American public to follow (nab the puppetmaster who hacks brains! And do it with cyborgs and guns!)

No reason to dumb it down. The philosophy/implications are what make it great. I'd much rather have more seasons of Standalone Complex than a film, though.

The Deus Ex games basically amount to Ghost in the Shell for westerners, and they seemed to do well in the US. Steam says I've played 105 hours of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

If you're unfamiliar with it, check out this trailer: Link (new window)

fluffy2097: The Kenshin OVA's could be done by HBO well live action. It's a pretty universal love and loss story.

Ooh, good idea. The Kenshin OAV's were great and are still underappreciated.