The Role of Kaori in Akira

by Gunther Heinrich, 3 Aug 2010 in Analyses Anime

Gage recently added a comment to my review of Akira (the one anime that made anime famous as anime in the West) and this one made me think. He mainly writes about Kaori who is the girlfriend of Tetsuo i.e. the Guy Who Goes Horribly Nuts. Gage not only correctly points out that Kaori is only on screen in two scenes in Akira but also that in each segment Kaori is in a living hell and no one seems to care. I addressed his second point in a comment of mine in the original post, so I will use this space to address the first point: the role of Kaori in Akira since her two moments seem to be not that important at all.

Before I start please note that you need to have watched Akira at least once to understand what I’m writing about. If you didn’t, you can gladly skip this blog post if you like.

Akira Review

by Gunther Heinrich, 20 Mar 2010 in Anime Reviews

Akira is the anti-thesis to Disney in any way you can think of.

In other words: you can take almost anything except animation and the negative version is Akira. Where Disney is easy to understand, Akira is hard to understand. Where Disney is fluffy, Akira is hard as a brick. Where Disney animates people as if they are bad over-acting actors, Akira is about realistic animation. Where Disney is “for children”, Akira is for adults etc etc pp ad nauseam, I think you get the picture.

I really can understand that Akira, at the time of its release in 1988, blew the mind of western audiences.

Basically this is also the reason you have to watch Akira, even if you don’t like anime or animation. Even with all its flaws Akira is not called a landmark animation, even a classic, for no reason.

AKIRA live action project moving forward

by Gunther Heinrich, 21 Feb 2008 in Movie News


Creative Commons License photo credit: yotambientengosuperpoderes

It is almost impossible to believe but it seems that the AKIRA project is finally moving forward. According to the news bits of Hollywood Reporter and AintItCool News it seems that really big names are now attached to the project: Leonardo DiCaprio (who will play Kaneda, the gang leader) and Joseph Gordon Levitt (who will play Testuo, the one who freaks out).

But there is a small tidbit of information that really blew me out of my shoes: they will relocate the movie from the imaginary Neo Tokyo in Japan to New Manhattan in America (which was uilt by Japanese money).

While I …

Is it too crazy to believe? Will Warner Bros. really produce a live action movie of the groundbreaking Manga/Anime-Movie Akira originally written and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo? I always dreamed for it but had fear for it on the same time.

The movie poster for Akira

You know, Akira is one of my favorite sci-fi movies of all time. It was not only the first animated movie that literally showed me with a blast that an animated movie can go further than perfect looking princes or women singing songs. No, it was and still is one of the finest examples of animation I can think of. I still remember the first time I watched it. And my reaction to the first moment after the title

The best opening shot of a movie ever

by Gunther Heinrich, 18 Feb 2007 in The Movie & Me

akira-beginning-of-the-end

Last week I wrote about the best ending shot ever in a movie.

So this week it is time to talk about the best movie opening shot ever.

Since I watched my first movie as a baby I have seen hundreds of movie openings. Most of the were mediocre and some were great but none of them can even slightly compare with the one they pulled off in Akira.

If any teacher should pick one shot to talk about with the students it should be this one because no other sets the mood so perfectly like this one when Tokyo gets totally obliterated by an atomic explosion. What do you hear? Nothing. During the whole scene you basically hear nothing – it’s

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