Wow, we’re only eight years from 2019. First time I saw this film in the mid ’90s it seemed an eternity away at the time.
If you’re new to the world of anime, Akira is still the benchmark for 2D animation, and represents many firsts for film-making in general, including the lip-synched dialogue and the fluid motion of the movie. An adaption of the manga series of the same name (which clocked in at 2182 pages incidentally) the script and story alone were brilliant, but the way in which it was presented and the style it was done in really took it to the next level.
Pretty much every year it becomes part of an exhibition or is re-screened for audiences in it’s original format, which unlike Star Wars has been preserved instead of eaten up and crapped out by it’s creator. If you’re still to see it or like me just want to check it out again, the Barbican are offering a showing at the end of the month, definitely head on down.
This superbly paced, gritty and intelligent tale is set in 2019’s post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo where the mysterious military-scientific government’s secret weapons, telekinetic humans, battle the cyberpunk resistance and threaten to destroy the world. With an unheard of billion yen production budget Akira set the technical benchmark on it’s original release and from this brand new HD digital print the definitive masterpiece is a must see on the big screen.
Akira (15)
24 – 30 June 2011
Cinema 1
Tickets: Standard – £9.50 online (£10.50 full price) / Barbican Members – £7.50 online (£8.50 full price) / Concessions £8.50 / Monday Madness £5 (online only)
While we’re on this tip it’s definitely worth heading over to the Shook site for an archive piece that Duke Etienne of Heads High Music put together on Spec Boogie. Spec’s a Brooklyn MC / artist / movie buff / designer who’s top project’s got to be Specflix; a mixtape where the beats and lyrics were inspired by movies and accompanied by short films of them.
Check out the Akira one below, and the Duke’s interview with him here: //www.shook.fm/content/2010/03/spec-boogie/