I mean it wasn't in Japan, and in the West it was just in some speciality cineams.
And it doesn't really have anything in common with much other anime, except with a couple of other higher budget movies (Ghost in the Shell etc,) that failed as well.
It's nothing more than something that got attention from cineaste people, but nothing more.
Akira is not a symbol of anime...
Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Heidi, Candy Candy and Mazinger Z are such series. Not Akira.
Akira = one of the most boring movies of all time
>>139922824
It was the last nail on the coffin for the stream of more experimental anime movies and OVAs that came out in 84-88.
Roujin Z was made because Akira got some attention overseas.
That's all the effect it had in Japan.
It's iconic and it was excelently animated. You can't tell me otherwise.
Everyone recognizes the jacket, the bike, the pills, neo tokyo, the destruction of the city etc.
Personally it's in my all time favorites.
It was HUGE in France, a lot of movie directors and artists just wouldn't stop to speak about it and later, others admitted they had been greatly influenced by it. It's like France didn't know that anime could aim at adults too before Akira.It was probably the first time violence in anime wasn't a problem. It was that big. I thank it for opening the eyes of so many people.
>>139922824
Akira is on a totally different level, you can't compare full animation movies to cheap TV anime like the ones you described.
>>139923490
you=needs to kill xerself.
>>139924531
>xerself.
Kill yourself.
>>139923490
Pretty much this. I hate when /a/ gives a free pass to anything that is older than three or so years. It looks fine but it's not entertaining in the slightest.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/01/30/national/akira-artist-otomo-wins-top-french-prize/#.Vwp3-zHZeak
>>139924556
What do you find entertaining, then? If it's just a difference of taste, your opinion doesn't matter.
>>139922824
>Saint Seiya, Heidi, Candy Candy
Did you run out of popular anime and just start listing arbitrary ones
>>139922824
>in the West it was just in some speciality cineams
Stop making shit up. It had a nationwide release in the UK. I saw it at the Odeon Leicester Square in London (yep I'm that old)
>>139924450
Cheap TV anime is probably the manifistetion of anime. It's what people like, and what is the most commerically successfull.
>>139924355
Yeah France is the only country where anime movies have a big influence.
But cheap kids shit was still dominant in France.
>>139922824
1988-1995 - AKIRA was published for the first time in the US by Marvel's mature readers Epic line. Released in 38 squarebound 'bookshelf format' installments over seven years, the Epic version was coloured digitally by Steve Oliff at Olyoptics under Otomo's supervision (AKIRA was the first serialised comic book to be coloured entirely by computer - Oliff won an Eisner for his efforts in 1992).
Epic's serialisation coincided with the release of the animated feature version of AKIRA in Japan - written and directed by Otomo himself. At the time, it was the most expensive anime ever made (budgeted at over a billion yen), and was the BIGGEST GROSSER at the box-office that year.
The film received a limited US release late in 1988, screened mainly at art-house cinemas to rave reviews and sell-out audiences. A video release quickly followed and AKIRA became a MASSIVE CULT HIT in the WEST, leading to the first anime boom of the early nineties.
http://www.akira2019.com/katsuhiro-otomo.htm
>>139924733
>It had a nationwide release in the UK
Yeah but it didn't make much money
>>139924670
Those are some of the most successfull TV anime worldwide.
>>139924804
What kind of anime boom? More video cassetes? That's pretty much nothing.
Who gives a shit about what some foreigners think, its like asking if americans care about foreign opinion on their gun control policy
>>139922824
>Akira is not a symbol of anime...
Kanye West liked it.
It must have gotten something right. I preferred Princess Mononoke better overall.
>>139922824
A hit and the gateway of anime for western audience? Yes.
"Symbol of anime"? Far from it.
It was not a massive hit for the rest of Asia as it was in the west.
Pic related is the symbol of anime and you can't prove it otherwise.
Everyone loves him, even your country bumpkin Asian grandma knows about him.
>>139925159
>Some famous celebrity liked some Anime
It means jack shit.
>>139925210
>A hit and the gateway of anime for western audience? Yes.
For movies and some OVAs? Yeah, but that is it.
>>139922824
If anything compare it to Little Mermaid.
Last i heard Hollywood and Leo D Caprio has been trying to bring Akira live action to life. But it's all whitewashed and in development hell.
I only ever heard Akira getting recognition for its animation. Not because it was an actually good film or anything.
>>139925991
desu nothing would change in akira if it was neo la instead of neo tokyo
>>139922824
>I mean it wasn't in Japan
Oh look, another 'anime' fan that isn't aware of what a huge impact Otomo had on manga and anime as a whole.
>>139922824
It may not be as famous as Pokemon to the younger generation, but Akira has made an influence desuu
>>139922824
>Sailor Moon
trash
>Pokemon
trash
>Dragon Ball
meh
>Saint Seiya
trash
>Heidi
trash
>Candy Candy
trash
>Mazinger Z
trash
>>139922824
This is a bait post, right? One of the first anime that Westerners would have seen that wasn't made for children. I know that "muh mature anime for mature people", but it's true in this case. Ghost in the Shell is the same.
>>139926244
It's a American thing, like Cowboy Bebop.
Because they never had a normal industry like a lot of parts of the world.
>>139924217
>excelently animated
This guy's got it. Akira is an extremely well done tech demo for Japanese animation. That alone puts it in the pantheon of anime cinema, in the same way that being a drunken orgy impresario put Dionysus in the Greek pantheon.
>>139926755
Was there anything like it after it? Redline was the closest attempt but it wasn't as consistent with the animation and didn't present such a variety either.
>>139926499
>>139926475
But mature anime will never be commerically succssfull.
>>139926475
Yeah but that trash is what actually sold and was made many years after and still is today.
Akira was a one time thing that got attention - but that is it.
I've never watched it, I've also heard that the manga wasn't finished at the time and the movies left a bunch of stuff out.
>>139926475
>Mazinger Z
>trash
Here's your reply
>>139925159
No nigger doesn't like anime,that's not shocking news
Akira is only impressive to newfags who never saw any other anime.
>>139926725
>>139926244
Akira was famous in Japan as a manga and so was Cowboy Bebop as an anime. But they are 3nd tier of popularity in Japan.
1st comes to Doreamon, Sazea-San, Chibi Maruko Chan
2nd comes Shonen and Shojo Manga adaptions
3rd is late night anime, OVA and movies (aside from Ghibli)
>>139922824
I don't know but holy shit the animation is so good.
>>139927542
>3nd
I'm retarted
>>139926901
Steamboy probably. Was by the same director too.
Is it wrong that I don't think that Cowboy Bebop as a story is that interesting?
From a technical standpoint the animation is gorgeous and a few of the stories are good; but the episodes are disconnected from each other most of the time and I connected more with a few of the one-episode characters than I did with Spike and Faye.
>>139926169
It's not the location that would be an issue to me, as much as Hollywood.
>Capsules are no longer a bunch of asshole kids in highschool who visit a bar to pop pills and make fun of the bartender, and will almost assuredly be grown-ass men in a legitimate biker gang
>Kaneda is no longer a 16 year old who fucks his school nurse to entice her to make amphetimenes for his gang boys
>Rampant vandalism probably nowhere near as pronounced because it would be too much effort to detail
>Logical loops to make Kaneda or Tetsuo a character with a moral highground instead of two gangsters having a vitriolic power struggle
>The cops won't be as fucking harsh as they were in the manga or the anime because BLM GOTTA HATE ON THE POLICE!!!
>The near-constant devastation and deaths of random pedestrians won't be present because Hollywood
>Kei will wind up being outrageously sexed up instead of some "Pretty by the world's standards" rebel
>All of the historical significance will not matter at all and they will minimize the terror factor of the biker gangs and the explosions
>Towering buildings will not be as relevant anymore because the city is no longer just a housing hole for post-WWIII Japanese living in what used to be a thriving city
>They will probably either get rid of all standard shell weapons and replace them all with laser weapons, or forget that laser weapons existed and were a major thing to consider
>>139927542
Well that, and during the 90's 2000's, Shonen Anime became dominant
>>139924556
>I am 13 and I still know what's good and SAO is way cooler than this, this is boring.
>>139925991
Wow this concept art automatically gets rid of any interest I would have in this.
>Let's take this Japanese thing
>BUT GET RID OF ALL THE NIP ASPECTS OF IT
>>139922824
doesn't matter if it was a "success" or not, what matters is who it inspired and how they were inspired by it
it caught the attention of many prominent (good and bad) directors and future directors, much like Ghost in the Shell did, and both movies have made rather large impacts on scifi in the west, which trickles back to scifi in the east over time
>>139922824
Back in the day it had a shitton of those "Time Life"-style commercials, advertising it along with "hardcore" anime with blood and sex. It made anime very approachable for older Americans and something desirable and forbidden for younger ones.
Akira, along with the other staples that showed up on Sci-Fi (Vampire Hunter D, Iria, Green Legend Ran, Robot Carnival, etc) were well animated pieces that paved the way for people to decide that anime was cool. Sailor Moon and DBZ, while influential and more popular, would not have been given a second look if the blood and sex OVAs hadn't come in and sparked curiosity.
Without Akira, anime would have been stuck in the kidzone with Voltron and Nick Jr anime like Little Bitz, Koalla-walla Land, and Mysterious Cities of Gold.
>>139928404
Ghost in the Shell, I get.
But which (live action) movies were inspired by Akira?
>>139926901
What does "like that" mean?
RASERA
>>139925210
This. Whenever I think of a symbol of anime, doraemon is what comes to mind.
>>139928634
it doesn't have to be "directly inspired" by, I'd argue most of the post-akira western scifi movies drew large amounts of inspiration in their tone, appearance, sound design, etc from it and works like it
pick quite literally any scifi from the following period and you're very likely to find aspects taken from Akira
>>139927145
>sold and was made many years after and still is today=/= good
is just that little kids love to watch shit.
It was pretty much the reason why anime is even a thing in the UK.
>>139929300
>is just that little kids love to watch shit.
that is what anime is about you stupid nigger
>>139929667
>anime is a thing in the UK
yeah, no
>>139924217
Pretty much this. The only thing bad about the movie is that it's a movie. The manga has too much material to cover in such a short time
>>139922824
>Sailor Moon, Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Heidi, Candy Candy and Mazinger Z
Minus Heidi, all of those are disposable entertainment trash. Akira is the only one of those that actually existed as an artistic expression of the sentiments of the Japan of that time. Akira encapsulated the fear, ennui, and identity confusion that was the footnote of the Japanese post-war bubble culture. It was an important, major work not just as an anime but as an example of just what KIND of stories anime could tell. The fact that you think you can compare children's schlock like Dragon Ball to that is frankly just disgusting.
AKIRA IS A FUCKING LEGEND
A LEGEND
>>139922824
It was very impressive technically and still hold up to this day in visuals, it's a timeless masterpiece in this aspect.
The story itself is okay, though.
>>139929916
Who cares, Dragon Ball made more money.
And what makes Heidi good nigger??
>>139926901
>Was there anything like it after it?
The 1995 GiTS movie had some impressive animation as well but that's pretty much all there's to it since the story was shit.
>>139930190
Ghost in the Shell didn't have nearly as much animation as those two. The visual direction was pretty static for the most part, had lots of dialogue with still frames and as most anime was just fluid during the action sequences.
>>139928691
Movie with a large quantity of fluid animation.
>>139929830
Do you live in the north?
>>139922824
If you weren't underageb& you'd know that Akira was the gateway anime for the majority of the west which didn't already have a strong representation of manga and anime in their country, and even then, nothing like Akira had existed before it, or even debately after it.
>>139929916
(You)
>>139922824
It's so ingrained in both hemispheres' cultural subconscious that it's constantly referenced in media.
When everything from kids shows and web original series make reference to your movie, it's safe to call it iconic.
>>139935211
>both hemispheres
That's not America.
>>139929916
OP is just a newfag hipster who likes to hate Akira because it is too mainstream.
>>139922824
Doraemon is anime symbol
>>139923490
It's probably the coolest anime movie out there. How does it feel to be lame as fuck?
It's iconic amongst anime fans. Most anime fans will recognise canada and the bike.
As a movie itself, it is cyberpunk as hell and really well animated to boot, but the story past the first half an hour is a fucking mess.
I really don't understand how people think Akira is boring or shitty.
I mean, it pales in comparison to the manga, and it's not a cinematic masterpiece of storytelling, but it's a pretty exciting and fun action flick with an amazing aesthetic.
>>139938692
you are a flick
You tell me why it wasn't a success or influential in japan. Box office numbers say otherwise.
Budget
¥1,100,000,000 (estimated)
Gross
$114,009 (USA) ( 2001)
$439,162 (USA) ( 1989)
$553,171 (USA)
¥6,346,343,871 (Japan)
€308,989 (Spain)
>>139922824
>Sailor Moon
not a movie
>Pokemon
not a movie
>Dragon Ball
not a movie
>Saint Seiya
not a movie
>Heidi
not an anime movie
>Candy Candy
not a movie
>Mazinger Z
not a movie
>Not Akira.
movie
Akira is so much better than most anime that it's instead judged as being like a real movie that isn't embarrassing to watch.
>>139924932
Akira is the reason anyone in America knows what anime is. Before that anime were just the occasional foreign cartoon that got dubbed. Akira put it into its own medium for the first time in the west.
>>139924553
Mobile Suit Gundam is a bigger symbol than it
The last shooting is THE most iconic scene in anime
>>139922824
This is the problem with most heralded anime; it hardly represents the medium in it's time or now.
>>139938306
>canada and the bike
10/10
>>139925210
Doraemon is the symbol of Japanese media, the anime isn't THAT well known. Chances are if you're Asian, Doraemon, and its spinoffs are available fully in your language, either officially or illegally.
>>139924792
>It's what people like
Oh, Anon. Weebs aren't people.
>>139922824
AKIRA is one of the best Anime films of all time. You faggot hipsters hate anything remotely mainstream.
