Comments on: Akira changed my life

By: Some things worth you looking at | Big Giant Robots

Some things worth you looking at | Big Giant Robots — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:01:45 +0000

[...] you may or may now know I am a dedicated lover of Akira I am very choosy about what Akira has to be in order for me to buy it. More specifically it has to [...]

By: binny

binny — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:11:04 +0000

I complete forgot to write about the dub verses sub version of this film, and my total disappointment with the re-dubbed extended version. Cam Clarke completely makes this film for me, without him as Kenada it just would not be right, as they proved!

This was the first film I saw the subbed and dubbed version of, and while the slightly longer original sub-titled version did make a little more sense, and filled in a few holes (why on earth did they cut down the original dubbed version?) the dub for me remains the original and best version of this film! It was masterfully done.

I was going to say I need to write a post on Tenchi, but I would have to hand it over to Sideswipe. He has a lot more knowledge of the franchise than me now. I stopped after the original series as I felt they could not top it, and from what I have seen they haven’t. Ryo oh ki is still my favourite space ship.

I have the first release of the DVD and never even watched it all the way through. When they changed all the voices I just felt sick. I am now waiting for the Blu-Ray release.

I had totally forgotten about the Sci-Fi channel showing all the anime (I didn’t have it). Even channel four got in one the act with things like “3×3 Eyes” and “Cyber City Oedo 808″.

I think I have to agree @grizzley8u, Akira opened the door for me to explore these other films. I had seen the classic “Seven Samurai” (thanks dad!) and a few Bruce Lee films, but never looked any deeper into it. Akira let me see that you can keep up with the film when there is a lot going on so why not explore?

By: grizzley8u

grizzley8u — Mon, 17 May 2010 22:10:59 +0000

Akira well I never really understood Akira I’m not sure I ever will, all I know is I really wanted that motorbike. Of course after it Sideswipe brought more anime into the house then told me that Macross was Robotech and then Macross plus came out and I was sold. then came Jackie Chan, Dragonball Z, Samo, Jet li leading onto Chow Yun Fat and John Woo’s Hard Boiled, then we come to now when one in every 3 dvd movies I buy is in English the rest are not, can it be traced back to Akira probably. Like most things it’s all Sideswipes fault whether it’s down to Akira or not who knows but probably.

By: sideswipe

sideswipe — Sun, 16 May 2010 11:53:57 +0000

Magnificent post Binny.
I was going through my Transformers are the best thing ever phase 2 when I saw Akira, it’s hard to put a price on that one VHS but including holidays to anime’s homeland it’s certainly cost me 10k+ Just because the box looked so awesome with Kaneda and that badass lazer. As Binny said, it got me into anime, or rather back into anime as when I looked into getting more anime I then realised that actually, I’d already seen half a dozen anime when I was a kid but had bundled them in the cartoon section.

Watching Tenchi at Binny’s house was probably the moment that turned my fandom from 8-10, it’s wacky humour was perfect for me but back then I was but a poor student and with the exception of Appleseed, Slayers and Lupin (there’s a few more posts to do) was left waiting for shows to appear on TV (thank you sci-fi for Dominion Tank Police, it pains me to see your channel now when at one point it was the home of manga as we called it back then).

Akira also started the dub vs sub debate as watching the Japanese version made more sense than the english but the english was just so much more fun thanks to the awesome Cam Clarke aka Dogtanian and Leonardo from TMNT which everyone knew but to me, Kaneda was also Max from Robotech, Jason from Macron 1 and he even did the voice of Fireball’s friend Philip in one ep of Saber Rider & the Star Sheriffs (you see how everything in my life comes back to the anime I watched when I was a kid). It is because of this that I had to buy Akira on DVD twice. Yes I brought it the moment it came out on DVD and my rage at the dub NOT being the same meant I was easy pickings for the Ultimate release which had both….

Yes Akira was a real life changer although it wasn’t until Dragon Ball Z that I hit 11 or maybe 12 on the collecting scale but that is another story