The Akira film continues to be a property that not only resonates in the modern day but is homaged and adapted in various ways in a lot of different media. The film has been part of the Funimation library for a few years now and has seen several releases and is a few years moved to a new home for streaming. With Funimation’s legacy streaming service bringing its library over, this film in 2022 showed up on the Crunchyroll service in bilingual form.
One of my passions for the past couple of years is spending a bit of time most nights enjoying various Tokyo and Japanese urbanists do walking tours of the city with no commentary. It’s the kind of thing where I enjoy both the people watching as well as the architecture and just the experience of the cities with all of its unique character. So I was definitely amused last night when I queued up one of them and fifteen minutes into their walk through Shinjuku, they stumbled upon a live performance by the Geinoh Yamashirogumi collective as they did parts of the Akira soundtrack which you can see below.
Check out our review of the Otomo: A Global Tribute To The Mind Behind Akira Art Book or our review of the Blu-ray release.
Based on the manga by Katsuhiro Otomo, Otomo directed it and co-write the screenplay with Izo Hashimoto. Character designs were done by Takashi Nakamura with TMS overseeing the animation production. The Japanese cast includes Mami Koyama as Kei, Mitsuo Iwata as Shôtarô Kaneda, Nozomu Sasaki as Tetsuo Shima, Kazuhiro Kandô as Masaru (No. 27), Masaaki Ohkura as Yamagata, Mizuho Suzuki as Doctor Ônishi, Sachie Itô as Kiyoko (No. 25), Takeshi Kusao as Kai, Tarô Ishida as Colonel Shikishima, Tatsuhiko Nakamura as Takashi (No. 26), Tesshō Genda as Ryûsaku and Yuriko Fuchizaki as Kaori.
Plot concept: 2019: Fast forward 31 years. Neo-Tokyo, hastily built on the ruins of old Tokyo, is a sprawling cityscape of neon extravaganza. It is a fusion of towering skyscrapers and cutting-edge technology that is permeated through and through with an explosive, hyper-violent cocktail of biker gangs, poverty, and revolutionaries. In this derelict metropolis live Tetsuo Shima and Shoutarou Kaneda, two bikers who are the best of friends and the fiercest of rivals, despite being affiliated with the same gang. Desperate to prove himself as Kaneda’s equal, Tetsuo unwittingly pulls a stunt that culminates in the awakening of a cryptic existence that threatens to change both the face of Neo Tokyo and the lives of those who call the city their home—the awakening of a government secret simply known as Akira.
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