A-KI-RA!
How could it be anything else, the film and comic standing a giant bloated head and expanding shoulders above everything else – it's practically better than the entire initial 'Manga' rush put together*. There's certainly no denying the late 80s and early 90's VHS boom in Japanese animation is never to be repeated (nor bettered) and, while many of the titles would melt away to a questionable amorphous ooze under today's brutal close (internet) scrutiny – particularly the copious and gratuitous female nudity and a propensity for grotesque monstrous sex often perpetrated by the generic grinning giant, his neck thicker than his head, else a spritely balding old wizened pervert with a sleazy cackle – they all have a ferocious creativity, wacky playfulness and certain charm that cannot be matched (and often makes viewing worthwhile even if the underlying stories are fairly cliched, predictable and stretched. Perhaps it's the slight fuzzyiness to the VHS picture, the saturated colours that are much of the (nostalgic) appeal. If ever a genre truly belonged on VHS it's anime, something I will always associate it with.... And here some thanks are due to Youtube as the often crappy quality transfers from VHS to there help to keep the cheap and fearful vibe both dead and alive....
It's worth noting that Fist of the North Star, a title Agent Rob discounted first time around, is probably among the best of the bunch that trail in AKIRA's sizeable wake, other "notables" including Lensman: Secret of the Lens, Devilman, Ghost in the Shell, Space Adventure Cobra and Dominion Tank Police (the earlier Acts I, II, III and IV). The Wings of the Honneamise, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, is perhaps a title Rob ought to get around to as it's seen as something of a slow burn classic (last seen on VHS and since long forgotten). Maybe next Manga Month....
*Obviously the many decades work of Studio Ghibli really stands apart as a genre all of its own – only Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky were ever really caught up in the ultraviolent Manga melee to begin with, appearing edited and dubbed in the early 90s. Certainly just about every single Hayao Miyazaki title is a worthy challenger for AKIRA's hefty crown....
Nowadays the trend seems to be more towards epic ongoing series that run for season after season and as such films, certainly those that are more overtly adult orientated, the market otherwise dominated by more gentle Ghibli-esque family/teen oriented ventures, seem to have taken a back seat (unless they're endlessly spinning off one after another from a show). There's no shortage of quality, however, Rob having dipped his toes into the satisfying series waters of titles such as Trigun, Hellsing, Cowboy Be-Bop, Space Dandy, Attack on Titan and Fullmetal Alchemist. Indeed, many of the original Manga video releases were simply OAVs ('Original Animation Video' episodes) stitched together into 45-90 minute romps (depending on whether they fancied manga milking their audience or not – Guyver over 12 VHS anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?)....
Agent Rob can still remember the buzz that began to circle, fuelled by magazines such as Computer+Video Games (likely the first place where the tantalising graphic imagery from the land of the rising sun began to cast it's influential shadow) and Fantazia, 'The Definitive Superhero Magazine', that AKIRA was finally coming to VHS in the UK – he's pretty sure the woman who worked in the local Clyde Video shop must've been sick of him asking after its arrival week upon week....
Still, (s)he needn't have bothered as those shelf-stacking wages were duly stacked up, accumulated and splurged on the double pack VHS doorstop edition in Forbidden Planet. This was the subtitled version, of course, Rob evidently being something of a purist from the off. The anime would be viewed many times over the years and then, as priorities moved along and a small Manga collection – was sold off.... only to be mostly bought back from Oxfam Music on Byers Road years later for another shot. (Worth mentioning here that aside from MANGA Video there was also MVM who, if Rob rightly recalls, traded in slightly darker and more eclectic titles via mail order)....
Indeed Rob sat up late one night and found he was watching a hitherto unseen (better subtitled) version – unlike the Manga print the subtitles were underneath the picture on the black banding and not over it – that also had a much clearer print, Kaneda and Kei's escape from the hospital complex was much more vivid and it was far easier to see just what was going on. (It's likely that this is the 'Laserdisc' version though the only time Rob's seen AKIRA on the big(-ish) screen at Glasgow University it was the very same print.) It wasn't only that the picture was clearer here, and this translation was when the film really clicked into place, the scene where Kei explains AKIRA's origins suddenly slamming home with bike-shattering force! Of course, by the next late screening, which was to be video taped, we were back to the subtitles over the picture version....
Obviously MARVEL/EPIC had a shot at printing (the drably coloured and ill-defined) translation of AKIRA here in the UK in their not very long running Meltdown title (which would have to have lasted about 500 issues given the bitesize chunks they dribbling the story out in!)....
Similarly EPIC's US colour collected reprints ran out one volume shy of completing the story and Boxtree's colour UK printed edition was limited to a single, chunky Part 1....
Thankfully somebody at Dark Horse publishing was on hand several years later and it appeared in the (frankly amazing) UK newsstand title Manga Mania. Unfortunately (again) it just didn't seem (to Rob) to last long enough to print the full story* ....either that or the sudden shelving shift in the local John Menzies up next to the pornographic magazines finally killed their ordering of it. Still, hats off to Manga Mania for being a brilliant, stupendous value for money title while it lasted, reprinting as it did such excellent comics as Dominion, Ghost in the Shell , Silent Mobius and Appleseed – definitely not a VHS to be judged by its cover, the bang up to date Masamune Shirow artwork betraying the decidedly clunky and plainly archaic anime within....
*According to the link under the picture above it did, only really running out of steam once AKIRA had completely lazered his load....
The manga of AKIRA itself could quite possibly claim to be the best comic book ever made too. There's something preferable to the Japanese tendency for a singular creator to see his or her own creation through from start to finish (as opposed to the American and British default whereby the creators tackle a character for a while, giving their spin on him/her, before moving on to pastures new.... if not actually all that new, like a photocopy of a photocopy of an etc). Again, the other enemy that kills the bulk of American comic enjoyment stone dead is the dreaded C-word - 'continuity'. There's no denying the very best of the American 'big two' comics (and otherwise) are anything that may use familiar characters but that stands (more or less) apart from the years of tangled backstory crossover crap that no one cares about (and that doesn't even make much sense anyway as everything has to be semi-frozen in time to make it all work in the first instance)....
AKIRA grabs you right from the start, the first beefy volume pitching you straight into the action and flowing along, the story gently building and building as the inhabitants of Neo-Tokyo expand outwards, the pieces of this epic tale slowly teasing themselves together – as a result it's as much of an equally satisfying quick read as it is if you take the time to really study Katsuhiro Otomo's wonderful artwork, the hyper detail and almost (but thankfully not quite) more grown-up approach to rendering figure-work and environments leaving just about every trace of the Japanese trend for cartoonishness behind. With it's broad cast of fascinating and diverse characters - that still stand up well under today's (supposedly) more enlightened scrutiny - and epic scope the comic's simply in a league all of its own. You can bet the ragged animators were overjoyed that, as the projects ran somewhat in tandem, they didn't have to translate the comic's Neo-Toyko trashing tank chase for the big screen....
Whilst the huge Kodansha b/w softback editions kicked around Hope Street Studios for years, on (and off and on) constant loan from Frank Quitely's cult comic library, it wasn't until they announced the 35th anniversary box, complete with 'unflipped' artwork, Otomo's original hand-drawn FX and a new translation, that Rob pricked up his ears whilst preparing to immediately hand over his wallet....
Otomo's work since has been something of a mixed bunch, Roujin-Z being a good enough story that deserved a much better animation whereas Steamboy boiled in the bag like a limp remake of Miyazaki's Laputa – it 'has its moments' as Agent Johnny'd say, but in spite of all the suggestion of action and drama it's curiously flat as it plods towards its (anti-)climax. Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis is far better, the immersive environments, vintage character designs and parping jazzy soundtrack making for a truly heady experience....
Of course, feel free to correct any glaring mistakes or omissions - Rob's only inhuman after all - and to comment and advise on which is the definitive (UK edition) Blu-Ray of AKIRA (given there's been that many versions and releases it's hard to pinpoint exactly which is the very best)....
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