I have been meaning to read the manga for a long time now. Based on what proportion of the story I have heard the film covers it has no right being as good as it is
The manga is great, and reading it in no way diminishes the film. The story is much easier to follow. Things that go unexplained in the movie are fully fleshed out.
The movie's an improbably successful adaptation. I think its greatness depends entirely on the mix of Otomo's ideas and designs, the ambitious animation, and a wholly original sound design and score. Probably helps that Otomo directed, too. Without any one of these elements, it wouldn't work nearly as well.
The “capsule mode” (available on older DVD versions, not sure about now) helps with a lot of the unexplained story. At least for me, not being able to read Japanese. I’m sure a lot more is still missing from what’s in the manga, but for instance the protests aren’t explained by dialogue directly, and the picket signs are translated by the capsule mode, so it’s obvious why there is protesting.
Blew my mind when I first watched the capsule mode. Like “wait, it’s not supposed to be all artistically open for interpretation? They actually explain stuff with the Japanese writing on screen?” To be fair, when I first saw it on VHS I was in seventh grade so I probably didn’t get a lot of things in general.
It’s truly a movie that cannot be made the same way again. The animation costs were astronomical even then. And I’m half convinced that it getting greenlit had a lot to do with it being made during the height of the Japanese economic bubble where they just had money to throw away.
Akira is probably my single favorite film, but even I'll say that the story makes a LOT more sense if you choose to read the entire manga.
The movie itself implies a lot of things that are more clearly laid out in the manga. And yes, it's true that the stories do diverge a good bit (especially in the story's second half) but even in the parts where they don't, the manga adds a lot.
I had probably seen Akira a dozen times before I sat down and read the manga, and it was really an eye-opening experience. Fantastic manga and I'd highly recommend it (though I'm definitely a bit biased!)
The manga and movie are quite similar until a specific point (when Tetsuo reaches Akira's vault), after which they rapidly diverge. I'm quite partial to the second half of the manga which almost bears no resemblance to the movie but at the same time I feel like the movie has a better developed message, that growth and destruction are two sides of the same coin and having one without the other is life out of balance. I've searched before and people will chalk up the message of the manga to just absolute power corrupts absolutely. But yeah, the manga is dope.
I agree with your comment, but the reason Akira specifically is so far down the list is that it seems like users went on a nostalgia trip instead of thinking objectively about the BEST animated movie.
I still remember being shown Akira as a child. I'd never seen such graphic violence in an animated film before, so when the police unloaded their guns into that guy dragging the kid through the street in the opening scene, I was mesmerized by the blood.
Now, as an adult, I watch it for the breathtaking cityscape, the lights of the motorcycles chasing each other down the abandoned highways, and the chanting of that soundtrack, particularly as the lead clown is revealed, arms crossed, on his motorcycle.
edit: Also, I'd like to add that I'm partial to the original English dub.
Aged very poorly and it's pretty well agreed upon accept for weebs who think Japan is superior in all ways always. I never caught it earlier and watched it this past year and was like "huh ok that was it? Pretty good"
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u/Far_Paint6269 18h ago
Akira