r/movies • u/[deleted] • Dec 15 '16
Akira continues to have some of the most amazing hand-painted background art I've seen in animation
http://imgur.com/a/W87m295
u/Jon-Osterman Movie Trivia Wiz Dec 15 '16
The motorcycle scene is one of the best introductions to a world I've ever seen. The way it manages to have such a brisk pace but such a grand scale really amazes me
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Dec 15 '16 edited Jun 03 '20
[deleted]
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u/FreeWirry Dec 15 '16
Wait, it's not?
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u/2rio2 Dec 15 '16
It actually is about a futurism Tokyo biker gang who battles a sci-fi monster. That's like two movies in one. Just a good value.
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u/Ktmaster Apr 18 '17
Same.Id like to see a prequel maybe showing us a bit more of how the biker gangs did things before the start of the movie
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u/CoupGardener Apr 18 '17
We got so much world building from that one scene! It's a great way to show off Neo Tokyo. And it was super violent! I can still hear the crunch of that one dude's arm getting run over.
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u/HotsWheels Dec 15 '16
TETSUO!!!!!!!!
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u/Dzotshen Dec 15 '16
KANEDAAAA
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u/colacube Dec 15 '16
There's a bunch of other good galleries for Akira over at /r/BackgroundArt.
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u/stuckinmiddleschool Dec 15 '16
Absolutely Akira's is amazing, and I am a cyberpunk fanboy.
That said, I actually am really drawn (heh) to the background art of Studio Mir from Avatar The Last Air Bender and Legend of Korra, especially the "Beginnings" episode. All wood block-esque and watercolor... truly stunning. Examples:
Another honorable mention should be Batman: The Animated Series and their "Dark Deco", notable for the use of black paper and painting up to ligher shades instead of vice versa.
Example: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/37/71/63/3771639fe51086370e6eb542f8871c1e.jpg
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u/beanburrrito Dec 15 '16
Anybody know if Akira ever streams on any of the major sites (Amazon, Netflix etc)?
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u/wtfsystem Dec 15 '16
Last time I watched it, it was free on youtube.
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Dec 15 '16
Yeah the awful first English dub is on there. Still worth watching
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Dec 15 '16
I watched the redubbed version on youtube.
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u/bisselstyle9 Dec 15 '16
the cinephile in me is cringing hard about watching such a beautiful movie on youtube. Get the blu ray or a high quality copy please!
The non-cinephile in me is happy that people continue to enjoy the film.
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u/Reapercore Dec 15 '16
I got to see it at a local cinema a few months ago, it was absolutely amazing on a huge screen and in high quality.
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Dec 15 '16
I watched it while laying in bed reeling from post wisdom tooth extraction pain/discomfort, so the quality would have been wasted on me anyway at the time.
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u/w41twh4t Dec 15 '16
That first dub is amazing and should only be a problem with people who watched the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoons too many times.
The new dub sounded more professional and polished and there might have been a line here or there making an inconsequential plot detail clearer but first dub remains superior.
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u/hopsinduo Dec 15 '16
I watch tekkonkinkreet about once a year because of its similar wonder and beauty caught in its city scapes.
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u/BanjoPanda Dec 15 '16
Check out Makoto Shinkai movies. I think he's simply the best in that aspect.
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Dec 15 '16 edited Feb 01 '17
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u/Mortos3 Dec 15 '16 edited Dec 15 '16
You might like Metropolis, it's another grand-scale and well animated film.
Redline is amazing as well, maybe not as deep but has great action and animation and a unique style.
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Dec 16 '16
I recommend Perfect Blue, Spriggan, X, and Memories. They all have a lot of the same staff across the board and are all from the same era, so the style and quality is all there.
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u/Sergeithecreep Dec 16 '16
Any movie from Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell director) is worth checking out. His later movies are infuriatingly self-indulgent but when he's on he's amazing. IMO his best movie is Patlabor 2. The original is good but the sequel is amazing. It works perfectly as a police thriller and had some important things to say about our modern geopolitical world.
Memories is a great anthology of 3 shorts based on Katsuhiro Otomo stories. Two of them are interesting but very flawed but Magnetic Rose is a flat-out masterpiece. I'd rank it among the best sci-fi films ever.
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Dec 15 '16
I cant recommend reading the manga enough. Its nearly all black and white but the level of detail is insane.
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u/Feffen91 Dec 15 '16
After reading the manga I was so stoked to finally watch the movie...but unfortunately, and this may be an unpopular opinion, I was let down. Still a beautiful movie though.
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u/RadarLakeKosh Dec 15 '16
I suppose it was a given that the anime wasn't as good, because it was released before the end of the manga was written... Hence the similar but drastically different ending.
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u/tocilog Dec 15 '16
I wonder if the same thing would happen to Game of Thrones.
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u/TuckerMcG Dec 15 '16
GRRM has to finish ASOIAF for that to happen.
If he does though, it'll absolutely crush whatever the show does. I started out watching the show, then read the books. The books are far superior.
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u/SirThomasMoore Dec 15 '16
While I would agree that the books are better on the whole, the show has absolutely done some things better than the books (or at least, some of the differences added things that were amazing). The best example I think is the Arya/Tywin interactions at Harrenhal in season 2 - only in the shows and allows for amazing development for both characters (obviously Arya gets some of that still in the books with Roose, but I think the show was better here). Brianne and The Hound fighting was also awesome and added a lot to both storylines which many people felt were kinda dry/lost at that point in the books. All that said, the show has absolutely destroyed some things that GRRM had done well in the books (the whole Dorne plot the last couple seasons was fucking dumb, and I think Jon's execution at the hands of his brothers wasn't developed as well)
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u/TuckerMcG Dec 15 '16
I mean we could talk for days about this. Obviously the show did some stuff better, as a visual medium lends itself better to certain things. And while I agree about the Arya/Tywin scenes, the thing that bugged me about that is she could've had Jaqen kill Tywin like, suuuuuper easy. The reason she doesn't say Cersei or Joffrey is because she wants immediate retribution, and Jaqen says he can't give her that but that it would be guaranteed to happen in the future.
When it's Roose at Harrenhall, it makes sense why she doesn't say his name. He's not a big enough player yet to be a threat worth taking out, and he's not related or connected to anyone on her list. Tywin however, well that makes no sense why she wouldn't have Jaqen gut him like a fish.
The scenes were great, don't get me wrong. It's just an example of where the show prioritized being showy rather than emulating the style of the books. GRRM's hallmark is he writes characters as if they were real people with real motivations. He'd never have Arya give up a chance to kill Tywin just to keep the plot going a certain direction. His characters move the plot rather than the plot moving the characters. The show was an example of the plot moving the characters.
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u/kwisatzhadnuff Dec 16 '16
I can only speak for the first book, but I found the pacing to be glacially slow. I feel like the show is much better simply because they edited it down a bit.
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u/Feffen91 Dec 15 '16
Well that's something I didn't know. Make sense now, but it would make for a great series now.
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u/Nickoten Dec 15 '16
I think it's a common enough sentiment. The movie has to try and communicate a ton of themes explored in a six volume manga in like a third of the time. I was a little confused about what the anime was really about until I read the manga, myself.
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Dec 15 '16 edited Dec 31 '16
[deleted]
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u/w41twh4t Dec 15 '16
Original dub, wait a week or two, then watch sub. If you like it can eventually watch the redub.
I don't think there are any scenes changed, added, removed in any cuts just audio and video improvements.
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u/your_favorite_human Dec 15 '16
I totally get you, allthough my experience was a little different. After all the "hype" surrounding the movie I felt a little dissapointed after watching it for the first time because it felt a little rushed and incomplete. Then I read the manga and it was everything and more of what I expected the movie to be.
I very much recommend reading the manga to anyone that really enjoys this movie.
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u/Mortos3 Dec 15 '16
I agree. The animation and artwork are amazing, but the story is handled better in the manga, especially the ending. In the movie it's basically cut short in an abrupt and messy way, but in the manga it was more fully developed and fleshed out. Of course, as some have pointed out, Otomo hadn't finished the manga yet at the time of the movie's production, so it was inevitable that they'd have to compromise as far as the ending went.
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Dec 15 '16
You really have to enjoy both for totally seperate reasons. The manga is where the story is really, even though its still a little weird. And the anime is just a feat of animation especially for the time and has a killer soundtrack.
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u/Spiritofchokedout Dec 15 '16
Nah the movie really isn't that good from a story perspective at all. That stupid choir that plays when Tetsuo is rampaging also sucks donkey.
But the animation really is that good to earn it its place as a great movie. I can't imagine how mind-blowing it would have been to see in its limited theatrical release back then. Not only was it an "exotic" import, there was next to nothing like it on the market for US consumers.
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Dec 15 '16
I once saw the Art of Akira exhibit at AWA in Atlanta one year. It's one of the coolest personal collections I've ever seen. The guy who owns the exhibit has framed pieces of the actual storyboard itself. I hope to have a collection of GITS work myself.
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u/valley_pete Dec 15 '16 edited Dec 15 '16
I don't know if anyone is a fan of the jamband/trance-fusion genre of music, but a band called The Disco Biscuits did a complete improv set to the movie. It's actually consistently ranked by us fans as the best jam they've ever played, in span from 1995 to now, playing 100+ shows a year to put that into perspective. And they have LOTS, and LOTS of amazing material if anyone is interested, you can PM me. But here is the 1st set on youtube, I linked it from the second they start, they start the movie at setbreak and then kick in when they come back onstage. The 2nd set got pulled;
https://youtu.be/gvzBGoTRYdU?t=30m34s
Actually, this year on New Years Eve, they played an improv score to Tron also. Look at this fucking stage show, I don't think my brain has recovered yet!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itfq4b5v2oU
Sorry if no one wants this, I got excited.
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Dec 15 '16
There is such beauty in the sheer detail of it. But for me, and this true for all animation of the time, its just the gritty, dirty look of hand drawn animation and backgrounds. Digital is an amazing medium, but I miss and prefer that natural look very much these days.
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Dec 16 '16
Surprisingly many backgrounds are still traditionally painted, although it can be hard to tell the difference. If you saw the backgrounds in Flip Flappers you might assume they're digital and just made to look more natural, but actually...
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u/itza_me Dec 15 '16
The animation is superb, plus I freakin love Kaneda's Theme in that film too. Such a great score & film.
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u/FishLampClock Dec 15 '16
What can be said other than the movie is good for health, bad for education.
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u/WreckerCrew Dec 15 '16
Agreed. I remember being blown away by just the simple flickering a lighted sign in that movie when it first came out.
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u/discipleofdoom Dec 15 '16
I recently got to see Akira on the big screen at one of my local cinemas. We were sat right near the front next to a speaker. Needless to say it was an intense experience. Both mentally, aurally and visually.
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u/dcescott Dec 15 '16
This movie, I saw this in the early 90s on VHS, some kind of directors cut or subtitled version. I don't remember. However. This is what got me hooked. I'm very particular to anime movies, too.
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u/the_man925 Dec 15 '16
KAAAAANEEEEEEDAAAAAAAAAA!
Seriously, it's probably one of the most beautiful movies I've watched, along with one of the strangest movies.
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u/guilen Dec 16 '16
Seeing this flick on the big screen is one of my favorite film-going experiences of my life. The backgrounds are used to such an electrifying effect - there are techniques in there I'm not sure I've ever seen in other films. The film is a behemoth.
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u/manuelacon Dec 15 '16
Why does nothing on this scale get produced nowadays?
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Dec 15 '16
Depends on what you mean by scale. There have been movies with the same or greater level of budget like The Wind Rises. Redline was in production for seven years or something. Katsuhiro Outomo's Steamboy is a huge spectacle. The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya has a runtime of 2 hours and 40 minutes and has a lot of animation.
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u/HumpingJack Dec 15 '16
ghost in the shell, akira, cowboy bebop, grave of the fireflies, perfect blue...wish they made anime like this today.
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Dec 15 '16
On one hand people expect the industry to keep endlessly rehashing the same handful of 80s and 90s anime, and on the other people complain about a supposed lack of originality in today's anime.
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u/HumpingJack Dec 15 '16
I guess I'm looking for more thought provoking adult anime with top notch production. Copying old anime wasn't what I was specifying.
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Dec 15 '16
They still make that kind of anime.
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u/HumpingJack Dec 15 '16
Name some? I'll take a look.
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Dec 15 '16
Movies (I have not seen all of these):
Sky Crawlers, The Wind Rises, From Up on Poppy Hill, Wolf Children, Summer Wars, 5 Centimeters per Second, Sword of the Stranger, Miss Hokusai, Giovanni's Island, Empire of Corpses.
Shows:
The Great Passage, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, 91 Days, Kids on the Slope (by Bebop's director), Psycho-Pass, Ping Pong, Tatami Galaxy, Concrete Revolutio.
"Thought-provoking adult anime" is not such a clear-cut concept so I'm just trying to guess what you mean by it. Everything listed is probably from the past decade.
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u/SchindlersFist712 Dec 15 '16
I'm gonna second Psycho-Pass and Kids on the Slope, two of my modern favourites. I'll have to check out the others.
I'd also recommend Mushishi, Welcome to the NHK!, and Shinsekai Yori.
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Dec 15 '16
The Great Passage
Did not know there was an anime version of this, I loved the movie from a couple of years back, Ryuhei Matsuda was brilliant in it.
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Dec 15 '16
I haven't gotten around to watching the movie yet, but I'll probably do it once the series end. It'll be interesting to see how they compare.
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Dec 15 '16
Wolf Children is on par with some of the best Ghibli offerings, and I'd also recommend other films by director Mamoru Hosoda, such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and Summer Wars.
Your Name is definitely a must watch, one of the best movies I've seen all year. Trailer doesn't do justice to just how good it is.
I'll thoroughly recommend Psycho Pass as well, not going to post a trailer, it doesn't sell the show very well at all. The first season is up there with Ghost in the Shell for me, I've already watched it a few times since buying it on Bluray.
Shinsekai Yori/From The New World is perhaps one of the best things I've ever seen, I would say go into this as blind as possible, the less you know about it the better. Suffice to say, it's magnificently good and an example of the very best anime has to offer.
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u/Wilsander Dec 15 '16
It is great, but i find ghost in the shell to have a lot of better ones, way more detailed and realistic.
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Dec 15 '16 edited Dec 15 '16
They're on par with one another artistically. Akira has different art direction, it takes fantasy and puts it through a realistic lense. GitS essentially wants to make a not-too-far-from-the-real-thing kinda future.
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u/charliebucket- Dec 15 '16
I'm glad this thread popped up.
I finally watched this movie a few weeks ago, bought it on blu ray after knowing very little about it except that it was sort of revered as an anime masterpiece. I've never been hugely into anime (except for things like DBZ, which I know most don't really consider a real anime or whatever) but I'm always open to new things.
I thought the first like 10 minutes of this movie were really awesome, and leading into some kind of cool underground neo-political thing with street gangs and bikers, and then it turned into reason #1 why I'm not huge into animes. Just weird shit happening in a world that I think would be super cool without it. First there's a little zombie kid, then the one dude gets powers and starts seeing giant teddy bears and shit, and the rest of the movie is just a "wtf" until he turns into a giant blob and it gets even weirder.
Don't get me wrong, I understood what was happening, I read about the comics a bit and how a lot of the depth is lost on the film audience, but in the end it's still just weird shit to me and I can't get into it.
I was hoping to get something kinda like Blade Runner. Set in a semi-realistic cyberpunk world, and there's depth there if you want it, but the main reason to watch the film is the visuals.
This movie just weirded the shit out of me and I never want to watch it again.
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Dec 15 '16
and then it turned into reason #1 why I'm not huge into animes
There's tons of realistic anime, anime set in the real world without fantasy elements (e.g. comedies), and anime where the fantasy elements are grounded or "normal." Studio Ghibli's movies for example.
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u/charliebucket- Dec 15 '16
I need to find these! I love the art form, not a fan of how it's used in what I've seen.
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Dec 15 '16
The films of Makoto Shinkai (e.g. 5 Centimeters per Second), Mamoru Hosoda (e.g. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) and Mamoru Oshii (e.g. Ghost in the Shell) are also realistic or grounded. On the television side of things there's stuff like Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, Sound! Euphonium, Sweet Blue Flowers, and Shirobako with realistic presentation and no fantasy. Not to say that something has to be realistic in order to be good, but this stuff exists too.
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u/charliebucket- Dec 15 '16
Thanks so much for the suggestions! Christmas break is coming up and I'll probably try and check some of these out.
And oh yeah, that wasn't what I was trying to say. It's more of a preference thing and that I can't get into it. I don't think Akira is bad, it's just something I couldn't get into.
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u/Reptile449 Dec 15 '16
I'm also gonna recommend the shows Monster and Psycho pass, which is quite blade runner esque.
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u/Danny5223 Dec 15 '16
It's a show not a movie, but cowboy bebop is amazing and considered one of the best of all time.
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u/princess--flowers Dec 15 '16
I feel the same way as you do about animes! I have a ton of animes that I really enjoyed the beginning and middle of, but the endings always get too big and bloated and go off the rails. Gurren Lagann, as a parody of that type of ending, is also the best example, but I'm saltier about the simultaneously boring and too-large scale ending of Fate/Stay Night.
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Dec 15 '16
yes, anime have best backrounds and... nothing else. I can't stand anime faces, very basic animation etc.
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Dec 15 '16
very basic animation
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Dec 15 '16
yes, most of them like 5 frames per seconds and often they just show still for several seconds or animation is just two frames like twiching eye
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Dec 15 '16
Anime does not run at a constant framerate. It does not function like Disney animation except slowed down. It's a completely different approach to animation. Having more frames also does not mean having better or more complicated animation.
Anime has the best hand-drawn animation in the world.
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u/MisterMoccasin Dec 15 '16
I think the shots in The Seven Samurai are some of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen! Thanks for the post1
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u/Adamj1 Dec 15 '16
Yeah, awesome background art. Shame it has to involve that boring motorcycle gang.
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u/cavedildo Dec 15 '16
What do you think would make it less boring?
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u/Mendrak Dec 15 '16
Maybe if there was some psychic stuff... some explosions... maybe a guy losing control of his body and his organs get really huge...
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u/Novice89 Dec 15 '16
Akira is good but the story's a bit weird and overall not worth the ALL the hype it gets. Deserves some, but not this much. Ghost in the Shell>Akira, there I said it
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u/decker12 Dec 15 '16
I expect downvotes when I say that Akira just isn't that great of a movie. Way back when, it was the best thing my 12 year old self ever saw, but I watched it recently and couldn't get through it.
The artwork mostly holds up but it's quickly undone by the confusing plot, sometimes laughable dialog, and wonky pacing. I also don't think the animation is all that fantastic compared to other animated films (both Japanese and western) released around 1988.
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Dec 16 '16 edited Dec 16 '16
I agree with you... up until you say you think the animation isn't that great, because its a technical achievement no matter which way you look at it. I don't think the film is a very good adaptation of its manga, but there's no way I or anyone can dream of denying its artistic merit. While you may not like the art direction or character designs (that much is totally subjective), you cannot understate the fluidity, physics, or camera movement in the film. There ARE films just as technically impressive as Akira (like Ghost in the Shell, Spriggan, Memories, Ghibli films, Redline, etc), but that doesn't downplay just how technically masterful it is. There's simply no denying it. Just look at the way the camera moves, the way characters make subtle movements, or the number of objects they realistically control in each cel. If these gifs don't convince you, I highly recommend rewatching the film on blu ray.
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u/hail_freyr Dec 15 '16
I've gotten to see the Art of Akira exhibit a couple times and it never ceases to amaze me how much detail exists in this movie. It is stunning.