Because it has already begun (Akira - The Ultimate Collection (DVD))

Member Name: adidadi_young

Product:	Akira - The Ultimate Collection (DVD)
Date:	06/04/02 (252 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent film

Disadvantages: Can get a bit boring for some

Okay. With this being my first DVD video review, I might be a little rusty, since I'm stopping my long streak for being a games reviewer. But there you go. The first DVD I've bought with my own [dooyoo's] money (I got the PS2 at Christmas) was this particular DVD. And I really am impressed. There have been a few changes since the original, 1989 VHS, but most of them are for the better. And this DVD which I'm going to review (even though you saw it before you clicked the opinion title) is called Akira.

Since the animated film's original release, this has achived a somewhat cult status, and the official inspiration for other Japanese artwork and animation which followed and still follows to this day. When I preordered this on amazon, I had nicely recieved it the day it came out. How kind of them. I opened the plastic annoying stuff and came across a greyish-black DVD size box, only this is made out of a thick card material. When I looked at the front, I saw the big "AKIRA" logo I predicted. Inside this logo is a picture of Tokyo inside a big explosion.

I turned to the back to see a plain black surface, with a little yellow box in the corner saying "AKIRA" and a few technical details. The simplicity of it really helps with the film's image. Opening this box, came a nice open-up box inside with a page or so of credits spread all over the place, in all directions (it kinda reminded me of those train station maps you see in trains) and on the other side, came 2 DVD videos. One said "1 - Feature" and the other said "2 - Extras".

Knowing that it was afternoon and not really the time to watch the DVD, I opened the extras.

I went on every feature. The quiz was an interesting extra, but even if you've seent he VHS to death, you can't answer the questions. Because you're dead. Huehwr. Anyway, the questions involved extreme observation, such as "What was the numbe
r on the bike which Kai and Kaneda stole?" and the options are something like "65, 66, 67". You don't get to see it for long.

The 'make your own trailer' was also rather innovative, but was not as good as I expected it to be. You're given 8 scenes from some place in the film, and you choose your own order to put them in. When you're finished, you are given some starting scene, and then you just watch them clips in order. Hahah. Then you're given a small finishing clip. It doesn't look very nice at all. There's a history documentary, which is in more or less every DVD now. Boring.

You're then given a trailer of the film itself, which is okay. And you're given trailers of other animes, and that's pretty cool, but they are the predictable ones which are given in every other anime VHS. Then you're just going through the menu and the screen blurs. This is what you call, a random encounter. KILL THE VILE MONSTERS! You're given some choices, which are settable in the game menu and with these choices, you can work together to kill off the monsters once and for all and gain some good experience to make you stronger

Anyway, the other choice in the menu is 'feature', which simply says "Please put in Disc 1". Overall, a disappointing extra DVD. But not too bad the first time round, though.

The main DVD. This is where the whole point of the DVD comes in. There are 4 main choices, 'Extras', which I shan't bother explaining. There is a Language/Subtitles selection, which is self-explanetory. But anyways. You can choose to have about 8 different subtitles in European languages, including English and English for the hearing impaired. The languages you can choose from are English and Japanese, and if you are an avid anime fan, you will really like to see the DVD in it's native language.

Then you have 'Scene Selection', which you can
choose from the many different scenes in the DVD to skip past some part you don't want.

The 'Feature' is the main part. It's the whole film, right from the beginning. I might aswell go on with the story, then.

Kaneda is the 'leader' of a bike gang, of whom all members are his friends, who all go back since nursery school. When they manage to find another rather violent biker gang who call themselves "The Clowns", they go and try to exterminate these pests. But on the way to doing this, one of Kaneda's friends, called Tetsuo, accidentally collides with this strange little boy called Tamagachi.

He has been kidnapped by an anti-government vigilante, who was shot down in the middle of the kidnapping. So, Tamadachi managed to escape and ended up here. Fortunately, Tamadachi managed to survive this collision without any harm. Crippled, Tetsuo was lying on the floor when the government had come to pick Tamadachi up. Howver, Tetsuo was taken in too. He'd been taken in to be experimented on, to compare with this so-called power, namely "Akira". After he's taken in to be another one of the Government's lab rats, he seems to have an extremely quick rate of growth of this infinite energy (Akira). He manages to escape, and the army must do all they can to stop him, otherwise the whole of Neo Tokyo could explode...


The story expands and can become somewhat confusing, but after several views it all becomes clear rather quickly. The film length is... well, long. It's 124 minutes, that's over 2 hours. Not that the film is boring, but it somehow manages to make it look like one of the longest films you'd have ever seen. The story is amazing, it has been a benchmark for all stories for Japanese animation to come, even ones which go off-topic of Science Fiction.

The feature film is all nicely digitally remastered, and this makes this an essential buy to anyone who
is a fan of the VHS. Along with the Japanese language, that is. The animation is nice and sharp, and not too jagged either. There are some things I noticed on this which I didn't notice with the VHS, because the screen was too blurry. Like when Kaneda spits out his tooth when he was punched. This DVD is WELL worth seeing if you like the video, for examples such as that. The quality of the sound is also much improved, although the music is not changed. And that's a good thing, since the score is excellent and superbly fitting for the film.

The film also has new voice acting, along with a new script (same, but with better translations). The script of the film has improved, but I'm not too sure what to say about the new voice acting. Nearly everyone is younger, and I think that's what they need. Tetsuo and Kaneda are only 15, yet they sound about 17 in the VHS. The chubby lab rat used to have sort of an old gangster voice, and now it's been replaced with it's rightful small child voice. Although the gangster voice did sound cool. But either way, I'm not saying it's bad, or good. Because I'm not too sure.

All in all, I say to you now, this is a film which you won't regret buying, especially if you're an avid anime fan. Something which you can't miss out on. The benchmark for all titles which came after it, and also the starting point for most people's love for anime and manga. Essential for anyone who is even remotely interested.

Or people with insomnia.

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