Akira5xvhsdvddub,sub
akiraTokyo, as we know it, was destroyed by a kind of a new super-bomb of unknown origin. Nine hours after, World War III broke out and most of the major cities in the world were completely destroyed. Thirty-one years after, Neo-Tokyo now stands, were the old Tokyo had been.
One night, Kaneda and his motorcycle gang have an accident with a little boy with a wrinkled face, as one of an old man. Tetsuo, one of the gang's members crashes into the boy, who mysteriously remains unhurt and then simply vanishes from sight.
Tetsuo is brought to Hospital, and everything seems to have returned to normal. But that is not at all the case...
The strange boy from the last night was a part of a secret military project dealing with supernatural powers. The project is lead by the "Colonel", who wants to develop human weapons with aid of these powers. On his trail are Ryu and Kei (not Kay), members of a semi-terroristic group, who want to discover and destroy his plans.
And now Tetsuo is going to be a new member of the project. But his powers rise much faster than the Colonel has expected. Tetsuo manages to find out the location of an underground freeze chamber, where the mysterious AKIRA is kept.
Akira, too was a member of the project. But why did they put him in the freeze chamber at 0.0005 Kelvin? They were afraid of something. Something they couldn't control anymore. Something Tetsuo is going to set free really soon...
...And in the midst of all the trouble: Kaneda and Kei.
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Katsuhiro Otomo's classic tale of psionic power gone mad. A long movie (2 hrs.+) with stunning visuals and a great story. But, if you're looking for non-stop action, you'll be disappointed (it's more drama than action/adventure). The story line is translated differently in the subtitled version than in the dubbed. I might be wrong, but, I'd swear there are a couple of scenes in the subtitled version that aren't in the dubbed.
My favorite scenes are:
- The initial battle between Kaneda's gang and the Clowns...
- Tetsuo's escape from the hospital...
- The final cataclysm near the end of the feature...
I had both dubbed and subtitled Streamline videos and I repurchased the Pioneer DVD. Obviously, I enjoyed the movie enough that I bought it three times.
My only regret is that I didn't get the Akira "Making of" documentary tape while it was available. Now, I'm not entirely sure that I would want to buy Akira a fourth time just to have the documentary.