ince the demise of Streamline Pictures, it's been increasingly difficult for American anime fans to get their hands on legal copies of the 1988 classic Akira. Katsuhiro Otomo's rich, gorgeous adaptation of his massive comic epic was never particularly well serviced by the Streamline edition--the dubbed voices (as was so often the case with Streamline releases) were shrill and unnatural, and the translation made the already dense storyline even more difficult to follow.
After Streamline went out of business, its better-known titles (Hayao Miyazaki's stellar Castle of Cagliostro and Vampire Hunter D chief among them) gradually started reappearing, as other production companies retranslated and re-dubbed the master tapes. But none of the revised versions has received as much loving attention as Akira, which returned to American theaters in a retranslated, re-dubbed, digitally restored version in March. Now that version is available on video and DVD in several versions--dubbed, subbed, hybrid and a "deluxe edition" DVD that comes in a metal case and includes an extra DVD of supplementary material.
The supplements are mostly archival. They include a 29-minute video interview with Otomo, made in 1993 for the laserdisc special-edition release; the 1988 "production report," a 48-minute making-of documentary created under Otomo's supervision; and a 1988 "sound clip" that's actually a 20-minute documentary on Geinoh Yamashirogumi, the choral group which created Akira's amazing soundtrack. There are also several trailers and TV ads, a text "glossary" of people, places and terms from the films and a massive, though somewhat random, collection of production stills, sketches, storyboards and other graphic materials. Finally, the deluxe edition includes three short new pieces on the Akira restoration process--a segment each on the digital restoration, the audio restoration and the new dub.
The DVD of the film itself contains one particularly unique feature--a "capsule mode," in which an icon appears in the lower left corner of the screen whenever Japanese text shows up in a scene. When the icon appears, viewers can click on it to open up a screen translating the text (signs, graffiti, banners, etc.), then go straight back to the movie in progress.
Still setting the anime standard
About the only bad thing that can be said about the newly restored Akira is that the DVD menu design--which concentrates on blurry, stylized, black-and-white-and-red images--is remarkably ugly, and the subtitles are sometimes very difficult to read. Otherwise, this is a stellar package, well worth the wait on all counts. The digital restoration emphasizes the vivid, layered colors, particularly the sharp, searing reds and oranges, which all but pop off the screen. The English voice actors are nicely unobtrusive and comfortable in their roles. The translation sticks close to the original Japanese script, but clears up some of the more confusing elements of the Streamline version. The dub and sub versions are reasonably close, varied only where necessary for the lip sync, which itself is a little off, but not jarringly so.
The deluxe edition is probably worth it only for the most serious collectors and animation buffs; the various documentary pieces are generally informative, but staid and slow-paced enough to induce
drowsiness to anyone not utterly enthralled by animation techniques and filmmaking trivia. That said, the "sound clip" section on Geinoh Yamashirogumi contains some fascinating images which show the group at work on its room-sized, multiperformer instruments, and its insights into their techniques are well worth delving into.
The "capsule mode" provides this version's biggest surprise--an entire subtextual level of political complexity, evident from pro- and anti-union graffiti and revolutionary slogans scattered around Akira's Tokyo, which non-Japanese readers would have missed. With luck (and vocal support from fans), this particular DVD innovation will become an industry standard; it's astonishingly useful and easy for viewers to use.
And, of course, there's the film itself. Akira has been around for over a dozen years now, and it still stands up well against the best animation being produced today. It's a phenomenally beautiful and well-crafted picture that reveals more layers at each viewing. And it's a welcome relief to see it available again--this time in a version that fully lives up to its potential.
