Akira on DVD

written by: SAH

Akira kicks ass:
I have watched the movie many times and am now in the middle of reading the original comic book version (which is being put out in a 6 Volume set). The comic book is a lot different than the movie -- to the point where I really think it's an exaggeration to call them the same story. But both are great stories and it's really quite entertaining all around.

The Story:
The movie, as anyone who has seen it knows, is a little hard to follow with regards to story and plot. It's essentially about a boy (Tetsuo) who, through being an unwilling guinea pig for the government, gains telekinetic powers. He meets others who are like him and who resist him. Tetsuo, after escaping from the lab, goes on a power-tripping quest for the legendary Akira (his predecessor). Though we don't know much about Akira it is revealed that he is a child who achieved what the lab was going for -- the next stage in human evolution -- one of nearly pure energy. It all comes to a cataclysmic, enigmatic end. The story is brought to life by some of the most stunning anime ever produced.

The DVD remake:
Well, since I love the original, the DVD remake has me on the fence. I definitely like it. It's well done and "better" in almost every respect, but there are a couple things that bother me.

First, what I liked. The remake is beautiful. The packaging (a metal box) is cool; the disc set up is cool. The image has been enhanced and is beautifully rendered--clearer than ever. The dialog was rewritten to make more sense and help to better create a more cohesive story--which it does well. All around, this is a better movie. It makes more sense, it's easier to follow. But for those who are long time fans of the original, there may be a couple things that throw them off.

Here is what bugged me. The movie was necessarily redubbed. But the characters had different voices. So, what used to be very distinct (and at time corny) voices, where now much more...Hollywood. They didn't get big name actors to do the voices (as far as I know), but they were professionals. The voice work was well done - that is not the complaint. The complaint is only that they were different. And for someone who is used to hearing a certain voice come from a given character, to hear something different takes some getting used to. They did get rid of some of the extra noises the characters made "eeehh," "aah," "ahehh," etc. That was very good. The only other complaint is with some of the changed dialog. In 99% of the cases, they changed it to improve the story and help the narrative. In a couple instances, they changed it is a way that bugs me. When 26 is recovered by the military they changed the line "we're not meant to exist in the outside world," which is a line I really liked. They also changed the lines at the end (which I don't know well enough to quote--but do know well enough to know I liked the original version better.

Lastly, and the part that threw me off the most, was the way they pronounced two of the main characters names. I will attempt to illustrate phonetically if I can (I don't know if I'm doing this exactly right and don't have all the symbols I need in html).
Kaneda:
Originally = can-A-da
Revised = CAN-ada, sometimes = CON-a-da

Akira:
Originally = ah-ki-ra
Revised = AKI-ra

I definitely like the original pronunciations better and found the new ones distracting.

But, overall I liked it. It's still a great movie. It's probably a better movie now. Certainly easier to watch for those who have never seen it before and know nothing about it. The end, if it's possible, makes less sense, but so it goes. After I watch it a few more times maybe I'll get used to how things are in this version and the old stuff will fade away...but who knows. I'm glad they put it on DVD and I wish they would bring it to a theater near me - that would be great.

I give it an A; the new voices keep it from being an A+

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