Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Akira - Movie

Top positive review

It's still the G.O.A.T.

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2024

Goated. With all the digitally made anime now a days, the art looks dated because its all hand drawn. This Anime was a head of its time in 1988. I was seeing Anime in the 2000s that wasn't as good. The sound track is worth listening to without the movie. A lot of thought and love went into every aspect of this goated anime. Blessings for Katsuhiro Otomo!!

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Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Dan Richey

Funimation 4K - Not Even as Good as the Normal Blu-ray (But at Least It Comes with the Blu-ray)

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2021

This is a review of the Funimation UHD 4K Blu-ray.

This is just bad. There is no excuse for this. Unbelievably, this is not as good as the now 12-year-old 1080p Bandai Blu-ray. However, at least it comes with the Bandai Blu-ray, so if you don't have Akira at all, given the price of the now OOP other releases, you actually might as well get this. Still this whole thing is a mess of missed opportunities. And still no Akira Production Clip.

First: the HDR. It's missing. You can get it, at no extra cost, but I did kind of expect the units available months after that issue became a problem to now have the correct HDR disc. No dice, at least in my case. To their credit, Funimation was very responsive and sent me an HDR disc exactly on the timeline they promised (within 2 weeks) without any issue or cost to me, except my time. Unfortunately, that HDR disc barely looks different from the standard one. This is yet another fairly dim HDR master (I'd be shocked if it targeted anything over like 200 nits), where the presence of HDR now means the dark scenes are REALLY dark and CANNOT be brightened, but highlights are only minimally improved over SDR. It just doesn't add much.

Sadly, though, the HDR snafu is not even close to the biggest issue with this release. Unbelievably the overall picture and sound are WORSE than the standard Blu-ray. There are exactly two areas where the 4K does a little better: colors are a little more vivid, and some definite edge enhancement that was present in the HD Blu-ray has been eliminated.

Those considerations, though, together with the theoretically higher resolution and even the HDR effevts, don't come close to making up for the absolute abuse of digital noise reduction (DNR) in this release. Others have commented to the effect that there's more DNR than they'd like, or that some has been applied. Everyone's tolerance is different, but in my opinion, those types of claim wildly understate the severity of the issue. The DNR is so heavy here that it actually affects the integrity of line work that is SUPPOSED to be there. Actual drawn animation in places ends up with stippling and blurring because the DNR is jacked up so high it's trying to erase bits of actual non-noise animation. It's not exactly an epidemic, but there is no justification for that happening at all. When you consider how much less visual information is in a frame of hand-drawn animation than there is in a live- photographed frame, imagine how crazy the DNR has to be to be trying to mess with visual information that's part of the picture, at all, ever.

Here's another symptom of how out of control the DNR is: this actually looks bit-starved in places. Seriously. There is visible smearing and shimmering from time to time. At first I could not make heads or tails of this, because it just seems impossible - they took something that didn't have this problem with AVC in 1080p and encoded it in even higher bitrates in HEVC and spread it over more space, but fudged out any actual extra detail, so how could it possibly be suffering from overcompression? I think what I'm seeing is actually not caused by compression at all, but by overactive DNR trying to turn gradations of color and textures into uniform blobs. Again, not the end of the world, but it's unbelievable that this is even a factor.

The result is a fairly colorful film that looks like virgin-painted acetate with absolutely no texture, nor any sign that it was ever photographed to film. I can theoretically understand wanting to do this to animation - after all, if you remove the film grain, in some sense what's left should kind of be a perfect representation of what was painted in the first place. If nothing else, it's definitely less of a sin to do that to hand-drawn animation than it is to live-shot film. However, this is a visual masterpiece that the producers went to the trouble of using a 70mm master print for. Obviously the creators and studio felt it was worth a premium film presentation. You just don't do that to 70mm film. Imagine seeing an IMAX movie where so much DNR has been applied it doesn't even look like film at all.

Finally, and I cannot believe this is even an issue: the soundtrack. Just so everyone is clear, the 24-bit, 196kHz 5.1 mix from the prior Blu-ray is GONE. Not only is the Japanese-audio track reduced to 24/48, it sounds remixed, or maybe remastered - I don't know. You can tell the second the drums in the title card (don't) hit. But it definitely does not sound the same. Did they do this to save space? They used a 66-GB disc, and could easily of have used a 100-GB disc. Did they do it to save bandwidth? Again, you're using HEVC and there's no real additional detail in the picture - you can't spare like 5 additional MBPS average for audio? The sense of spaciousness is gone and instead it weirdly sounds both flat and also a little too all up in your face in the surrounds. It's like everything is tinnier, closer and smashed together. I'm not a big believer in the hypersonic "science" behind the 192kHz engineering, but maybe it's for real in some sense. In any case, whatever made that mix so great is gone now. To me, that is INSANE.

Here is how this set gets the two stars that I give it: It's not literally broken. It's not actually BAD. It DOES include the Bandai Blu-ray, which appears totally unmolested from its prior incarnation, 24/192 soundtrack, menus, everything. It includes a disc full of supplements (also retreads, but still better than them disappearing as well). It also features a booklet with some new written material and a nice thick glossy cardboard sleeve that's definitely better than the old Bandai Blu-ray.

So, I guess this is TECHNICALLY the best overall home release of Akira, in that it comes with the good Blu-ray and throws in a non-HDR 4K UHD BD that has all kinds of problems and gives you the opportunity to email Funimation and ask for an HDR version of that same crappy 4K disc.

Ultimately for my $35 I now have two 4K UHD BDs, one with HDR, one without, a Blu-ray I already had and will continue to watch, and a Blu-ray with supplements that I also already had. So, that's not exactly a BAD thing, but make no mistake: if you already own the Bandai Blu-ray, there is no reason to buy this. On the other hand, if you are looking at buying Akira and somehow don't already have ion Blu-ray, this thing might actually be your best bet. It looks like most other Region 1 releases are all even more expensive than this thing now, and I have no idea about the quality of the other-region releases. So, if you don't have the film and want it, you're actually getting a fine package. But as an upgrade there's literally almost no reason whatsoever to buy this.

Overall, it's just such a missed opportunity. We could've gotten something great, and instead we got a botch job. Too bad.

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7,294 total ratings, 1,810 with reviews

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From the United States

John Doe

It's still the G.O.A.T.

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2024

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keviny01

About the 2-disc DVD set

Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2001

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The 2-disc DVD set of AKIRA surpasses in many ways even the excellent Criterion's laserdisc edition from 1992. The brand-new video transfer is noticeably better: colors, especially the primary reds and greens, look more brilliant, flesh tones are more realistic, and there is a bit MORE picture at the bottom (in particular, the shot at time 1:16:23 reveals part of Kaneda's crouching body that was not seen on old transfers). The 5.1 English track, though not state of the art, is highly active and satisfying. The new English dub and subtitles are better written and spoken, making the characterizations more real and the story more comprehensible. In the scene where the colonel meets the senator (Chapter 8), the old English dub had the senator sounding concerned and supportive. On the new dub, he sounds cold and indifferent, in keeping with his subsequent body gesture of fiddling with his plants. The new dub also has characters speaking in correct pitches -- Kei's voice is now lower, and Masaru no longer sounds like an old man, but like a child, just like on the Japanese track. Also welcomed are the correct pronunciations of Japanese names: AH-kee-ra, KAH-nee-dah, KAH-oh-ri. Last but not least, the new dub makes more frequent uses of strong language to enhance reality. The DVD supplements include interviews of the voice actors for the new dub, who certainly deserve to be mentioned.
Here is one thing that this DVD pales in comparison to the Criterion LD. The LD included still-frames of the entire first issue of the original Akira comic novel. It is a shame that this DVD does not include even one screen shot of the actual comic strips that inspired this movie (it does include shots of the COVERS of the comic novels) just to benefit those who have never seen them or do not own the LD.
Other DVD supplements include an excellent 48-minute making-of documentary (the Criterion LD had excerpts of it). It has plenty of behind-the-scenes footage: artists drawing pencil tests, actors recording their lines, musicians composing a score with wood xylophones, photographers taking shots of finished "cels". We are told that it was not the norm in Japanese animation films to record the dialogs before drawing the pictures, as it was done for AKIRA. The youthful director Katsuhiro Otomo appears in his own 30-minute interview segment (not on the LD), where he recalls various processes of making the Akira comics and the Akira movie, and speculates on what he will do next. Yet another half-hour segment, "Akira Sound Clips", explains how the movie's score was conceptualized and recorded. The most prized supplement on the DVD is perhaps the mammoth collection of the film's storyboards, character designs, and background designs. The storyboards, done by Otomo himself, are the most meticulously designed ones I've ever seen; each of them is denoted with Scene/Cut number (under "S" and "C" on the left), notes, dialogs, and time of duration of the shot. To help locating a storyboard among the 4500 of them, the printed chapter index is cross-referenced with Scene/Cut numbers of its corresponding storyboards. Rather disappointing is a short featurette that tersely describes the new video transfer of the DVD with only interviews of 3 technicians and no demonstration of the restoration by way of before-and-after comparisons.
There is also an interesting feature called "capsule option". When it is enabled, a capsule icon pops up on the screen from time to time while the movie is playing, and when you activate the icon, the screen pauses and shows you English text translation of the Japanese words on the screen -- traffic signs, graffitis, postings, etc.

31 people found this helpful

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Ben

Got this to replace my VHS edition

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2024

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A great movie. I had forgotten a lot of stuff cuz I hadn't seen it in ages. It's weird, cool, nutty and disturbing.

Well worth the watch for fans of anime and holds up amazingly well to modern animation standards.

2 people found this helpful

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AMP

That's Mister Kaneda to You, Punk!

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2008

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The Good Things
*Loads of fantastic action.
*Fair (but notable) amounts of bloody violence.
*Despite the age, the animation quality is good. Backgrounds are extremely detailed and artistic. Video remastery has made the colors very vivid.
*Art design is great. Even though the characters look a little weird, they are memorable. Above all, the city stands out and the bikes are cool.
*Interesting story. It's actually very thick with politics and far-out ideas, and may come across as convoluted at first. It's good, because it keeps you thinking (could be bad too, because it may be confusing).
*Some deep themes to think about (about society and humanity, for example). Lots of fascinating ideas.
*Interesting cast of characters, which are fairly well-developed.
*Although die-hard fans may prefer the original 1988 dubbing, I believe that the new English dubbing on this disc is great. The voices match the characters better (Kaneda no longer sounds like a sufer dude), it's not as goofy (the General no longer growls all the time), and some phrases sound better.
*Bizzare (but good) music.

The Bad Things
*Even with the new English dubbing, some of the dialogue is goofy or corny. Some of it is laughable (could also be a good thing, because it's fun and memorable).
*The two main characters like to scream at each other a lot ("Tetsuo!!!!!" "Kaneda!!!!!!!"). It's kind of funny.
*As noted above, plotline can be confusing.
*Storyline is shortened for the film format, and is therefore different from the manga (albiet the movie is a good adaptation anyway; both the comic and the film were made by the same man).

It is easy to see why this film stands out as one of the most essential anime films ever made; it is to anime what "Star Wars" was to live-action movies. It is loaded with innovative action scenes; most of them still blow me away. It is fast, furious, and completely unrestricted. Above all, it has exceptional quality in all respects (art, story-telling, music, sound, etc). The story may be hard to follow in some spots, and the characters may not be as well-developed as in other films (like "The Ninja Scroll" or "Berserk"). Still, it is wildly entertaining and somewhat thought-provoking. I highly reccomend this film to anybody who is even remotely interested in anime (and doesn't mind seeing some blood).

It is English dubbed (the new 2001 dubbing, not the old 1988 dubbing), but I am sure that it also includes the original Japanese dubbing with English subtitles.

Disc one includes a cool subtitles track that translates background graffitti. Disc two includes shed-loads of still image galleries (something like 4,000 images!). It also has a few feauturettes and the trailer.

3 people found this helpful

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R3537L1F3

Surprisingly lives up to it's reputation

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2018

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I just watched this via Amazon Prime for the first time. I've heard sop much about how "legendary", "inspiring", and "epic" this anime is. Constantly hearing "If you like anime you MUST WATCH THIS". I usually avoid those types of things. Let the hype die down and what not. but this specific film doesn't have hype, it has accolades. It has awards, and to this day is STILL part of pop culture. It's like an Atari, a classic beatles album, NWA's Straight Out of Compton, no mater how old it gets it gets the same response and respect. Since I now have no reason to NOT see this film I decided to give it a shot. First, this is full on anime. This is what anime is. Only hting it doesn['t have is giant robots. So if you are a casual anime watcher who only watches simple things like pokemon or something, the early parts can probably get confusing and you'll loose intrest. I'll admit, I almost did, but the story has a good way of throwing stuff at you like you're supposed to know what's going on but keeping you interested enough to keep watching to figure it out. It doesn't hold your hand through the story, you're just as lost and out of the loop as the citizens witnessing the event unfold but it does get explained, somewhat. At no point was I bombarded with loads of dialog explaining what was happening and why, I got the basics and was left to come up with my own why. The climax is huge even though the build up is swift it last quite a while. I found myself texting people for the first 10 minutes while trying to grasp what was happening to being fully ingaged and ignoring all other things. The art is amazing, one of the highlights of the entire movie. Characters are enjoyable and though many aren't seen often you do get invested in wanting to know more. The sound is amazing, just as good as any big blockbuster action film. I normally don't go around saying "you must see [insert movie]" but this is now one of the five movies I feel everyone, especially anime fans,. must see. I will admit I'm no die hard anime fan, I only watched dubbed anime and am pretty picky about it but this film proved to me why it earned it reputation, and I have a greater respect for anime that follow in it's footsteps.

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Rykre

Some improvements here and there, but some scenes not as good as the regular DVD

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2010

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This Blu-Ray isn't much better than the DVD that I've had for many years. Some scenes may appear to be sharper on Blu-Ray, but some scenes are better on the DVD. So, since there is an inconsistency of the improved quality of the film, I see no reason to buy the Blu-Ray version. I borrowed my nephew's version to compare because the store I saw it at wanted over $35 for the Blu-Ray. But, I've learned by watching them both, side by side, that my DVD version is just as good.

You know, my previous Samsung Progressive scan DVD player with the HDMI hook-up option, really made my old DVD's look better than my first DVD player did, anyway. So, if your DVD player has the HDMI hook-up, you're going to find that replacing your DVD's with Blu-Ray may not impress you with any visual improvements that you'd be hoping for. Although, I have discover that some Blu-Ray releases have shown a greater re-mastering effort, but only because the DVD version wasn't mastered very well in the first place. I've got some great looking DVD's. I don't think it will be necessary to replace them with Blu-Ray unless they sell for maybe $10 or less.

Anyway, this is a movie that I have on DVD that I thought would probably look better on Blu-ray Hi-Definition, but I wasn't impressed. Besides, I made an expense vow that I plan to stick to. I will only replace my absolute favorite movies (which are about 60 of my 500+ movies) at any price under $30. But, anything else that I already have on DVD that's not incredibly fantastic, I will only buy the new Blu-ray version if it's $9.99 or less, and if it is a great movie. I have to initiate a discipline for myself so I don't go wasting my money on replacing movies that I'll just watch again, once more maybe, and then have it just sit on my DVD shelf as a part of a proud collection that may never be watched again anytime soon.

I'm definitely going to be very selective of how I buy Blu-Ray discs. I've bought just 30 BD discs in the past year and I just bought my first Blu-Ray disc player. I just wasn't that anxious to buy a Blu-ray disc player although I know I've bought some Blu-Ray discs where I'd like to someday see a better quality picture of a film that I truly enjoy.. When I eventually bought about 24 Blu-Ray discs, I bought my first Blu-Ray disc player. But, I must maintain spending discipline on my Blu-Ray disc expenses! It's very important that I live this way for my movie library. Because, before you know it, they will eventually come out with something better than Blu-ray, like 1500p resolution. You know, that's not too far-fetched to imagine. Blu-Ray is simply not the end to improved video quality. I hope you all know that.

UPDATE: I've just recently bought a new 47" LCD TV. Maybe this was a mistake because it is NOW that I see a great improvement of my Blu-Ray DVD's over my regular DVD's. So, I guess the only way that I can continue enjoying my regular DVD's is to keep watching my DVD's only on my 32" LCD TV with the HDMI hook-up because at 32 inches, DVD's look very much like High Definition. On the 47" TV, regular DVD's just don't look that good.

10 people found this helpful

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A. Thomas

AKIRA receives a phenomenal upgrade on Blu-ray

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2010

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I'll join the chorus of others in saying that AKIRA was my first real foray into Japanese animation, and nothing else in that spectrum -- not even Miyazaki's works -- has quite captured my imagination with the same intensity as this film. Every single element is amplified to the maximum with the apocalyptic stakes of the story, the layered storytelling, and the ferocity of technique; AKIRA is ultra-violent, ultra-detailed, ultra-colorful, and ultra-LOUD. It is nothing less than an overwhelming experience.

Which is why this Blu-ray is such a marvel. I first encountered this film on its two-disc Pioneer release, and while I thought it looked good at the time, the Blu-ray blows it out of the water. I never realized that Otomo drew these characters with irises in their eyes! Fine detail is much improved, and the colors are saturated and vibrant. While as a traditionally-animated film it lacks that three-dimensional "pop" associated with the finest live-action transfers, the visual presentation on this disc is astounding and a tremendous upgrade over the DVD.

Unfortunately, my audio set-up doesn't support the 24-bit, 192 kHz Japanese TrueHD track that everyone is raving about, but even the Japanese 5.1 Dolby Digital track roared on my system. My biggest pet peeve with the Pioneer set was that the original Japanese performances were only available in the stereo track (which is also provided here in PCM), so even with this "lesser" track I am quite pleased. I've not watched the film with the English TrueHD track as I find the English dub somewhat lacking.

My only real complaint is that almost none of the special features from that Pioneer set have been carried over to this release, including the making-of documentary, the piece on the unique musical score, or the interview with Otomo. All that is here are trailers and storyboards, so if you want these features, you'll have to either keep or procure a copy of the second disc of that Pioneer set. I've got mine temporarily in a paper sleeve and plan on purchasing a two-disc Blu-ray case in the future to keep it close at hand. This is really a small grievance, however, because the presentation quality of this newest release is so wonderful. It really is the best way to enjoy AKIRA, barring a theatrical presentation.

Absolutely worth the upgrade. A phenomenal presentation of a phenomenal film.

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Jonathan

A Magnificent Film From Beginning to End; Epic is an Understatement...

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2013

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Neo-Tokyo 2019: Kaneda is the leader of a biker gang. His best friend, Tetsuo, gets injured during a fight with another biker gang, the Clowns. Kaneda and his gang get interrogated, while Tetsuo is medically examined. Colonel Shikishima and Doctor Onishi discover Tetsuo's incredibly dangerous psychic capabilities. Tetsuo, tired of being treated like child and always being saved by Kaneda, goes on a rampage across the city and Kaneda attempts to stop him from releasing Akira - the young psychic that destroyed Tokyo 31 years prior. Akira is a magnificent film from beginning to end; epic is an understatement for this captivating anime.

The story in this film is fantastic. Yes, some aspects of the film are predictable, but it is still an insanely captivating story - I was hooked from beginning to end. The conflict within Tetsuo is particularly amazing to watch, especially as he changes; changes you can see his frustration from the beginning, and you can see how power-hungry he becomes when he realizes his power. The ending of the film is amazing and even thought-provoking to a point. If you're looking for action, this film is loaded with great action sequences, especially the second half of the film. The futuristic Tokyo setting is mesmerizing, and works well with the story. Although I prefer the Japanese, I found the English dub to be more than tolerable. The music is one of my favorite aspects of the film; it is so epic, so well-fitted and a soundtrack I can listen to without the movie.

I own the Blu-ray of this film, which seems to be out-of-production now. It features both the Japanese and English audio, as well subtitles. The picture quality is superb, and the audio quality is great. (the visual style alone is beautiful.) If you can find a copy of this blu-ray, I highly recommend it.

Overall, Akira is a superb anime; it is an action-packed, visually beautiful and epic film with a magnificent finale, while also being subtly thought-provoking. It is pure entertainment of the highest caliber. A must-own for fans of the genre, and fans of film in general.

Akira has strong violence and gore, and some nudity.

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