Akira (1 Viewer)

[Mohamed_M]

I just finished watching the movie about 2 hours ago. That movie is truely disturbing!. Very mind bogglind indeed, must have been an amazing hit back in the 80's. Its still going through my head and i feel kinda sick. Gotta watch more Anime movies to build up my immune system.

 

[Terry St]

Akira isn't exactly a Miyazaki flick is it?

Seriously, one of the best things about animation in Japan is that it truly appeals to all demographics. Animated films don't target just the kiddies like they do in the U.S.. (with but a few commercially disastrous exceptions!) There really are certain types of stories that work a lot better when animated.

Anyways, you could check out one of the anime discussion threads on this board, but some of them are a little over the top. There are anime equivalents to just about everything, right down to sit-coms, giggly-teen-girl shows, pornos, and just about anything you can think of. (With a few forum members obsessed with all of them naturally) Of course, you seem to be interested in feature-length anime films with a wee bit o' the ol' ultra-violence, no?

Here are a few nice and bloody ones to get you started. (These are all fairly mainstream, so they should be easy to find)

• Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
• Ghost in the Shell
• Ninja Scroll (A note: 4:3 is OAR for this one, even though the latest Mangle release also has a 16:9 version for people who want to fill their HDTV's)
• Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
• The Animatrix (This one may be just a tie-in for The Matrix:Reloaded, but frankly, it was better than both of the Wachowskis's sequels by quite a bit. It's a sequence of shorts made by different anime studios that cover an impressive breadth of styles. Naturally, there's some great blood&guts here!

That's all I can think of for the moment. I'm not exactly the biggest otaku out there.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Yes, I consider Akira to be the best 'shock to the system' anime intro films you can choose. It has a compelling artistry that usually locks people down who would be restless during a drama but enough cerebral activity to hook those normally disdainful of 'cartoons'. The other great introductory film is Ghost in the Shell, although it is a bit more shallow (although still well told), but it has few peers from an animation style perspective.

When you get through your initial round of anime films and want to see some other lesser known but excellent titles, I'd recommend renting the Serial Experiments: Lain series, which is short at only four DVDs (compared to the mind boggling length of many series), it is long on story and atmosphere. I would also recommend The Wings of Honneamise, which shows an alternate world perspective of early spaceflight among a backdrop of war. And I have yet to meet anyone not blown away with the varied and stylish Cowboy Bebop which has enjoyed a successful run on The Cartoon Network (dubbed of course) as well as a limited theatrical movie released stateside.

Oh, and paging Rob Lutter!

 

[Patrick McCart]

Akira really is an incredible film... it's actually the first anime I had the opportunity to see (the only other is Metropolis, which is also fantastic).

Although... the scene at the end with the "bloated" Tetsuo pretty much left me numb for a few minutes.