![Why Akira Is So Awesome
I’ve always liked Akira. But a recent viewing of the movie blew my mind.
Hit the link to read what knocked my socks off.
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The backstory here is that I’ve been watching a lot of 1980s anime for the past few years, especially recently, since a lot of it has gone out of print and I’ve stocked up on DVDs. Over the recent holiday weekend, I watched Patlabor the Movie and Cyber City Oedo 808. With a few hours left to kill before going to sleep and waking up to the real world of a soul sucking day job, I figured I’d watch Akira. I hadn’t seen it in a few years, plus I had been meaning to watch it since I finally read the manga in full this year and wanted to refresh my memory as to how the two differ.
I had seen Akira four times before this viewing, if I remember correctly. But it was never in the right context - a 1988 context, that is. When I had watched it before, I was in the middle of the Shinichiro Watanabe craze and the modern era of Studio Ghibli. I was always impressed with Akira. I liked everything about it - the art direction, the post World War III setting, the bikes, and the bizarreness of it all. But it didn’t blow me away.
This time, though, it was totally different. Like I said, I was just watching some other ’80s anime. Patlabor the Movie and Cyber City Oedo 808, like almost all anime of the time, was produced in an extremely “economic” way. Cels - the individually layered pieces of characters, backgrounds, props, and effects - were re-used, frame by frame, frequently. For example, in a one-shot of a character speaking, the only cels that made up that character that would move were those that made up the mouth. Everything else stood still.
Being acclimated to these animation techniques, I was primed to have my eyeballs melted. In Akira, everything moves like liquid. Facial animations, the characters’ movement, and even the effects like billowing smoke were incredibly smooth. While most animation runs at 24 frames per second, half of those frames are repeated. In other words, there are only 12 unique frames per second. With Akira, all 24 frames were unique, meaning an enormous total of over 160,000 cels. Even something as mundane as the lip-syncing was impressive. All previous anime had created the animation first and then recorded the voiceovers. Akira recorded the voiceovers first so the artists could precisely match the characters’ mouths and lips with the dialogue. Akira's animation stood up to today's computer-based animation, yet had the soul of hand-drawn animation.
Such amazing animation and a 1988 release date just didn’t compute for me. Until the credits rolled, that is. With a budget of nearly $11 million, a huge number of Japanese studios were recruited to turn Akira into a reality. Bandai, Toho, Kodansha, Hakuhodo, Mainichi Broadcasting System, Sumitomo, Laserdisc Corporation, and Tokyo Movie Shinsha made up “The Akira Committee”. But even more companies were used for production, such as Asahi Production, who created the individual photographs that would be sequenced together to create the film, and Gainax, who were just one of the many animation studios who worked on the movie. Excluding publishers and licensors, 81 studios and companies helped created Akira, by my count. That is insane, not only from a pure manpower standpoint, but also from a logistical one.
Akira is nearly as old as I am. Yet it might as well have been made yesterday. The amount of love and detail that went into this movie is jaw-dropping. I’m ashamed that I didn’t appreciate this before. Go watch Akira right now and pay attention not just to the storyline, but to the incredibly precise and seamless animation. It gave me a whole new respect for the film, and I hope it does for you, too.
Buy: Akira: 25th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/02bf68e0ebd3807413ae140aca583537/tumblr_mxisucYyBm1qbg80vo1_1280.png)
Why Akira Is So Awesome
I’ve always liked Akira. But a recent viewing of the movie blew my mind.
Hit the link to read what knocked my socks off.
'The Birds' by Stuart Patience
I absolutely love this. London-based illustrator, Stuart Patience, created a series of illustrations inspired by Hitchcock’s infamous classic film, The Birds. The illustrations are very detailed and convey a certain sense of terror anyone can appreciate and adore. Peep more of stuff here.
(via The Fox is Black)
Sexy Vintage Skeeball Machine
750 pounds of beauty, this retro skeeball machine is by Restoration Hardware and is guaranteed to impress any woman who enters your suave hideout. I mean, if you could afford it ($7000). It’s definitely a neat design, finished with sleek wood that bleeds vintage.
(via inthralld)
TeeFury: FF7 X Akira
I usually don’t post those 24-hour shirt sites since the quality of the shirts are absolute shit and shrink weirdly after one wash, but TeeFury is pretty on point with their quality and this design is rad. Here’s Cloud from Final Fantasy VII in style of the iconic Akira cover/film poster. Cool stuff, the shirt is only $11 for the next 10 hours. Get it.
Home Alone Retold by a Child and Pug Puppies
Here’s a video of Home Alone being retold with a child’s voice and casted with a pack of pug puppies. Like, yeah, why not?
(via FilmDrunk)
Get Your Hygiene: Old School Nintendo Cartridge Soap
Firebox has these awesome Super Nintendo and GameBoy soaps, created from vegan-friendly ingredients and consisting of coconut oil, palm oil, and safflower oil. Each soap is shrink wrapped and comes in a cool plastic replica case.
GameBoy options for soap cartridges are Earthworm Jim, Pokemon Red/Blue, Kirby’s Dreamland, Tetris, Super Mario Land, and The Legend of Zelda, while those wanting a Super Nintendo cartridge can purchase The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Kart, or Street Fighter II Turbo.
The GameBoy carts are going for $11.50, Super Nintendo for $21.30.
(via HiConsumption)
Build Your Own Lego Version Of Kaneda’s Bike From ‘Akira’
Although it’s not an official Lego product, you can get the plans for this Lego version of Kaneda’s iconic red chopper from the Arvo Brothers via email starting December 14 and later on their website.
(via Leg Godt)
'The Walking Dead' Mid-season Finale Compared To The Comics
SPOILER ALERT: Shit goes down. Also, sorry for completely ruining the mid-season finale if you haven’t already seen it (Why haven’t you seen it yet!?). Here’s a side-by-side comparison of scenes from episode 408 and issues 46-48 of the comics. Pretty cool to see how close they stuck to the books even though the Governor should have showed up with the tank at the end of season three, but it’s major discrepancies like that keep the show fresh and make it its own unique beast.
(via carol-on)
Clever Bookmarks For Classic Novels
Turkish designer Ethem Onur Bilgiç concocted this gorgeous set of themed bookmarks for Penguin’s All-Time Classics 1984, Moby Dick, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories. Rad bookmarks: just one less reason to own an e-reader.
(via The Coolector)
This Fan Spent Two Years Re-editing The Dark Crystal And HOLY SH!T
As if the 1982 Jim Henson & Frank Oz fantasy wasn’t creepy enough, scoodidabop went and re-edited the whole thing. This fanmade director’s cut is meant to more closely resemble Henson and Oz’s original vision for the film.
From the scoodidabop:
Early versions of The Dark Crystal were a bit different than the version we see today. Jim Henson and Frank Oz originally sought to create a much darker story that relied more on the audience and less on voice-overs and inner monologues explaining the plot. In this version there’s no narrator, Jen’s inner monologues are gone, and the Skeksis hardly ever say anything in English (Aughra speaks some Skesis too!). This version is much more modern and a little darker with this original audio and the slightly different score. Some of the scenes are moved around too, which adds to the surreal feel of the original film. Some test audiences were more casual moviegoers and responded negatively to this version so the Henson team redubbed the ENTIRE film to help explain the plot to the audience up front and make things more obvious.
The whole thing is currently available in its entirety on YouTube, so be sure to check it out before the copyright lawyers swoop in. Also check out the Menta Floss interview with the mad genius behind this creepy cut.
(via Geek Tyrant)
Battle Wedding Crashed By Batman, Iron Man, & More
This is pretty much the geek wedding to end all geek weddings. Saddened by the lack of lightsabers though.
(via io9)
Get Pokemon Y For $20
Toys “R” Us, you done FUCKED up.
I’m about 80% sure Toys “R” Us messed up the price on Pokemon Y with this ad, but they’re selling Pokemon Y for $20. You can view the ad online, and if they don’t honor the price mismatch, you can always go to Walmart or Target, walk up to the customer service desk, and ask them to honor the price match on TRU's mistake. The ad can be found here on page 4 and can be pulled up in any store to match prices.
(via Slickdeals)
Silent Night: Creepy American Christmas-Decorated Houses
Berlin-based Finnish photographer, Markus Henttonen, recently revealed his Silent Night project, in which he photographed Christmas-decorated houses in America
He comments:
In this series I am more interested in the empty streets, the houses fully decorated outside and so still in the night. In my pictures the focus is on the feeling and stories, at the same time it is my story, the viewers´ story and the story of the whole society
The photos do give off an eerie feel to them, seemingly appearing empty and looking like houses featured in horror films. Definitely give off a creepy vibe.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Film On the Way
This is some news I wasn’t expecting at all. The 80’s/90’s horror book, Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark, will be converted into film soon. CBS Films has accepted a pitch by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the two writers responsible for Saw.
No word on who will direct, which of the stories will be included in the film, or really anything else right now, but this is exciting news, nonetheless.
(via Huffington Post)
