Classic “˜Akira’ remastered, re-released on film, DVD

  Pioneer Entertainment The 1988 hand-drawn animation
classic "Akira" will be re-mastered and re-dubbed for release on
DVD later this year. It is currently showing at the AMC theater in
Burbank.

By Sandy Yang
Daily Bruin Contributor

“Akira” could be the “Star Wars” of
Japanese animation.

Like George Lucas’ cinematic masterpiece,
“Akira” has similarly set the tone for Japanese
animation, or anime, today, with its sweeping, grandiloquent feast
of ideas and visuals (keeping in mind this 1988 work was released
before the regular use of computer-generated images).

Even as animators today would rather marry animation with
computerized technology, the hand-drawn “Akira” still
heavily influences contemporary animated masterpieces.

Today’s hugely successful anime works like “Ghost in
the Shell” and the “Neon Genesis Evangelion”
series owe their apocalyptic settings and complex ideas to
“Akira.”

The concept of science overcoming humanity to devastating
effects have rendered psychological labyrinths for millions of fans
worldwide.

Thirteen years later, distributor Pioneer will unveil the anime
classic, re-mastered and re-dubbed via DVD later this year, putting
an end to the long wait for legions of fans. In the meantime, fans
can catch “Akira” in selected theaters.

So what is this film about? Well, like “Star Wars,”
it is a struggle between good and evil, but the film delivers a
twist by not revealing who is good and who is evil until the
end.

“Akira” takes place in post-apocalyptic Japan called
Neo-Tokyo in the year 2020, where terrorists and corrupt government
officials terrorize this high-tech wasteland, and teen-agers like
childhood friends Tetsuo and Kaneda wreak their own senseless
havoc.

One night on a routine motorcycle destruction spree, a strange
psychic boy touches Tetsuo, who inadvertently enlists himself in a
top-secret military operation. The government captures Tetsuo and
subjects him to risky experiments that test the power derived from
an other-worldly, god-like being called Akira.

The government’s human guinea pig project backfires when
Tetsuo’s powers rage out of control, and it’s up to
Kaneda and a group of anti-government rebels to save their friend.
The military, however, won’t let anything get in the way of
harvesting and understanding Tetsuo’s power, and ultimately
Akira’s.

Perhaps “Akira” is more suited for the anime fan
base, who can refer back to this film as the blueprint for so many
other psychologically driven anime works immersed in paranoia,
chaos and biblical references to the Second Coming.

Aesthetically, the character design isn’t the strongest
feature; it’s a strange hybrid of cartoon-like, bubbly lines
found in films from Hayao Miyazaki (“Princess
Mononoke,” “My Neighbor Totoro”) and the
ultra-realistic designs of Masamune Shirow (“Ghost in the
Shell”). And without the aid of computer-generated images,
the explosions won’t impress anyone who’s seen them
done in animated fare like “Titan A.E.”

And don’t even mention the voice dubbing, which is
terrible. It’s hard to believe that this is a new, redubbed
version of the film because the voice acting still sounds
amateurish and clunky.

It’s not enough to detract from the ambitious and at times
disturbing visuals, but enough to make you wish for the slate of
celebrities who get to dub Disney animated works.

But “Akira” was never just about the way it looks
(or sounds). And despite a story with too many loopholes and
character inconsistencies, “Akira’s” selling
point is its commentary on what rights humans have to manipulate
nature and other human beings for their own benefit ““ ideas
that remain relevant today, as scientific advances like cloning
spark fervent debate worldwide.

“Akira” takes such moralistic stances one step
further and shows a vision so gruesomely disturbing, it is more
threatening than thought-provoking.

In the scene where Tetsuo’s powers go haywire, his worried
girlfriend stays by his side, holding his hand. In the next few
seconds, Tetsuo transforms into a giant blob of overgrown, deformed
body parts and organs spilling out from every crevice that traps
his girlfriend and crushes her to death. These images are graphic
and unnerving.

Obviously, “Akira” is not a feel-good movie like
“Star Wars,” but it’s worth the cerebral
experience of exploring issues that are as hard to wrap your head
around as the visuals and ideas on the screen.

FILM: “Akira” is playing at the AMC
Media Center North 6 located at 770 North First St. in
Burbank. For showtimes call (818) 953-9800.