ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Hey guys!
This week we have another Anime movie commentary/reaction. It's time to finally watch Akira.
♥ Nici
SOCIALS
INSTAGRAM | / nicsandnacs
LETTERBOXD | letterboxd.com/...
TWITTER | / nicsandnacs
#Akira #AkiraMovieReaction #AnimeReaction
Hey guys! Hope your'e having a great Saturday/Sunday. What anime should I do next? (non Studio Ghibli)
Perfect Blue
Ninja Scroll 1993 or Fist of the North Star 1986.
silent voice anime
Perfect Blue
‘A Silent Voice’ for sure. It’s beautifully animated and most importantly the story it tells is very underrepresented in media. Its manga is a multiple award winner and its adaptation does it justice.
4:48 the “akira bike slide” is a shot that’s been used across dozens of cartoons and anime ever since as an homage, AND, I know you’ll love this, it was remade with KeKe Palmer in Nope.
It's also a sort of homage to the "Jonny Quest slide," which was a technique Hanna-Barbera developed because animating someone running around a corner was time consuming and expensive. So instead they just animated Jonny running into frame and sliding, implying a short stop and then running in a different direction. This could be done with a single cell moved across the background, followed by running which is fairly easy. Just four to six cells repeated. Later you'll see this same technique in a lot of Hanna-Barbera cartoons, like Scooby Doo.
*That was a low-side drop.* Not a _Kaneda drift-skid._
@@hulkhatepunybanner are you responding to me or him? Because the scene in Nope was 1000% an homage to Akira.
@@MILKSHAKEPOD *Homage or not, the Nope scene was a skid that resulted in a drop.* The Akira scene can't be done IRL
@@hulkhatepunybanner what happened in the movie looked like it defied the laws of physics…
But is EXACTLY the same maneuver and shot. Not only did I just look at a GIF that compares the two to make sure I’m not crazy here, but Jordan Peele outright said he recreated the Akira slide in Nope. It’s there. There’s legitimately no difference in the camera movement and angle, and there is no differences in the physics of the move or the bike.
Let’s go!!! Akira is a classic and now that you watched it you’ll start to notice its influence on all sorts of entertainment media. From shows like ‘Stranger Things’ and even music videos like Kanye West’s ‘Stronger’. You’ll also begin to notice all the “Akira slides” in movies now lol
I remember having watched Akira many times on VHS by time clips were used in the video for the Michael & Janet Jackson song Scream in 1995. I couldn't believe my niche anime hobby was in something as mainstream and highly viewed as a Jackson music vid. :O
Recommend Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind or any other movies by Hayao Miyazaki. Spirted Away and Totoro are quite good.
The original Ghost in the Shell is exceptional
At the end Tetsuo created a new cosmos but its energy destroyed the center of the city like a nuclear bomb. As the energy grew he couldnt contain it and his body couldnt adapt. It was that energy that was growing in him wich the humans didnt understand and tried to replicate and control.
So glad you liked this one. "Perfect Blue" is absolutely insane and you should definitely see it.
Loving the anime reactions Nic! Would love to see Ghost in the Shell next. One of my all time faves. A major inspiration for The Matrix as well.
perfect blue is by satoshi kon (rip to the legend) and his other movies like paprika, tokyo godfathers, etc. are also very, very good!
some scenes from paprika and perfect blue you will recognize in inception, black swan and requiem for a dream.
Yes Perfect Blue! Fantastic movie
"akira" remained faithful to the maniacally detailed draftsmanship that made the original comic series a standout because the original artist katsuhiro otomo directed it. some good genre anime to follow up would be "ghost in the shell" (1995) and "paprika" (2008)
*Also, **_Urotsukidoji_** (1987).*
One of the greatest Sci Fi Anime films ever made!
It’s one of the greatest films of any genre!!!
Don't worry, you're not dumb; the ending is just fucking wild and kind of a rite of passage. You actually did pretty well following it for a first watch. A rewatch or two (or yes, video essay) can help you get an idea of what happened, but you'll want to read the manga for the full story. Also yes the soundtrack is stunning and has some interesting trivia if you dive into it; always makes me glad when someone picks up on the music/silence in this.
'Perfect Blue' (or any Satoshi Kon film, honestly) would be a great pick for your next anime. With 'GitS' being another one on your radar it seems you have a soft spot for mindbending scifi that made a big Impact on anime and media in general, uhh 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' is a pretty cool series+films but basically needs a guide for recommended watch order. Or for something a little less cerebral you could try something sweet like 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' or 'The Wolf Children'.
I think... I _think_ that the psychic powers got so strong that it ate everything and made a new world.
total singularity resulting in a new big bang 😅
Just remember that every single window in every single skyscraper was hand drawn. o_O
There is an astounding amount of detail in the scenery
Thanks for doing this… I am not a huge anime fan but this is one of my favorite movies period
Tetsuo panicked but he was previously an insecure boy who felt helpless. Yeah, the power gave him a trip.
This has been my one and only pitch to you. Lmao. I’m so excited for this.
Yay! Been waiting for this :)
Don't feel bad about the ending confusion, all of us were scratching our heads the first time.
Ah, this movie is AMAZING. Watched it for the first time in college, at 2 am with some friends. We were also a few drinks in and had to rewatch it the next day because DAMN.
I saw it in the theater when it was first imported, alone in 1990. When it showed up on video I shared it with a friend. When Tetsuo opened up the "Akira" cryogenic pod and exposed the sample cylinders he cracked up, and we had to stop the movie. He said: "Akira is _beer!"_ and failed to contain his laughter for a few minutes. He was and is a craft beer enthusiast and I'm sure he had one in hand at the time.
The overlit dumb show in the school with flute music always makes me cry. I tear up now even thinking of it. I went to a school for _the gifted_ (oh how I hate that term, as if there were no cost), so I know exactly what that feels like.
This is the pinnacle of Anime. Nothing has surpassed it to this day. It's not super easy to understand. It's definitely trying to deal with a lot of ideas that are hard to compress into 2hrs.
31:03 This. lol. Everyone I’ve ever known, loved the movie but were so confused, looked into it, watched it again, and then it was perfect to them. Myself included. I’ve seen it a hundred times at least now. Not being hyperbolic.
Trippy is definitely the easiest way to describe this movie, one giant manic fever dream! A revolutionary movie that like Seven Samurai has been sourced in countless genres and media. Real fun reaction, you losing your mind ever 15 seconds is hysterical.
Oh my. This made me happy Nicky ❤. Also love the look and the jewelry. Rocked AF 🔥👌🏾💘😮💨
14:51 "Tetsuo... what did you do???"
- Akira, summarized
4 stars
Amazing reaction! I always liken this to a big crazy sci-fi version of Carrie, or that found footage film Chronicle. Very reductive, I know... It's one that I keep coming back to and find new things in each time. Excited for Perfect Blue and Ghost in the Shell!
You're gonna love this one. I'm glad you're back❤❤
Hi Nici Happy Saturday , Great to see you again :) Great reaction also your hair looks really nice and pretty 💖
Reading the manga comics will give you more of the back story to this already incredible masterpiece.
Kashiro Otomo, the author and designer of the source material worked on this movie, as well.
That makes this movie incredibly faithful to the original manga series.
Nevertheless, the highly ambitious idea of transfering the very coplex storyline into a stand alone movie could not be fulfilled, completely.
The movie Akira just includes the plot of first six (or maybe seven) books of the, over twenty books long, manga series.
If one would organize the whole thing into one manga, that book would be over 2200 pages long.
All I wonna say is this: the ending in the book makes muuuuch more sence than the movie's 😉
I remember seeing Akira for the first time on SBS when I was 9. Being the very first taste of anime, this will always hold a place in my heart that I revisit every few years
you watched one of the best animated movies ever made.
Speed Racer, Ironman 28, G-Force Robotech, and Voltron are the 1st anime know as Japan animation in the 80s. Akira was in the 90's
Perfect BLUE! Perfect BLUE!
YAAAAAAYYYYYY! this anime changed the anime world forever
This film is perhaps one of the most influential movies, to say nothing of animated movies - EVER. The creator of Invincible - Robert Kirkman has to have seen this movie since this is such a major movie for SF fans.
Perfect blue is classic.
Grave of the fireflies 😢
I love this movie and it completely changed the animation game, but you HAVE to check out the manga if you can Nici! It tells a completely different and more complete story! The movie, while amazing, doesn’t do the story the full justice it deserves!
Indeed, although I wouldn't say "completely different." It's the same basic story, but fleshed out and explained a whole lot better. It also takes place over a number of years instead of several days. Long enough for the main characters to actually evolve and grow. I also recommend the Manga, but it is a significant investment of time and money. (All these points also apply to _Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind._ )
Hooray! Thanks for sharing Nicky! 😀
I’m sure you’d dig Perfect Blue.
Yaayay 🙌🏽💯 she finally watched my favorite I got this last year and I watched it so many times I also watched it yesterday 😂
These first "Mangas" as we called them were so impressive. Not only because of the scale but also because of the crypted story telling, sometimes due to cultural differences, that made everything apear much more mystical and deep.
Good evening dear.
I choose these two movies to recommend. Hand selected for you of course.
Mamoru Hosoda's 'Wolf Children' (2012)
Maasaki Yuasa's 'Night Is Short, Walk On Girl' (2017)
I also agree with the peeps above (or below?) that 'A Silent Voice: The Movie' is great recommendation.
All the best, and never forget - Dreams are for rookies!
Akira left a huge impression on me when I first saw it. There is slight dialogue changes between the Japanese & US versions. Plus the film is a heavily condensed version of the sprawling Manga it’s adapted from.
Akira had pre-scored dialogue (wherein the dialogue is recorded before the film starts production and the movements of the characters' lips are animated to match it; a first for an anime production and extremely unusual even today for an anime, although the voice actors did perform with the aid of animatics), and super-fluid motion as realized in the film's more than 160,000 animation cels. Computer-generated imagery was also used in the film (created by High-Tech Lab. Japan Inc. and the cooperative companies for computer graphics, Sumisho Electronic Systems, Inc. and Wavefront Technologies), primarily to animate the pattern indicator used by Doctor Ōnishi, but it was additionally used to plot the paths of falling objects, model parallax effects on backgrounds, and tweak lighting and lens flares. Unlike its live-action predecessors, Akira also had the budget to show a fully realized futuristic Tokyo.
The film's production budget was ¥700 million ($5.5 million). It was the most expensive anime film up until then, surpassing the previous record of the Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli production Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) which had cost ¥500 million, before Akira was itself surpassed a year later by the Miyazaki and Ghibli production Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) which cost ¥800 million.
I can recommend watching Ghost In The Shell & Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence. The latter features a sequence that took an entire year to animate & still to this day is a stunning piece of animation.
"What did I just watch!?"
"I'm gonna watch some video essays to make sense of this."
Next up: Neon Genesis Evangelion 😁
_(ahem)_ Rei best girl.
Then, FLCL
What also made this anime stand out is the lip sync actually match the voice acting.
It's so good to watch you again, pleasee watch wolf children ame and yuki! It's heartwarming and a tear jerker
21:46 he's not OD'ing. He's having a heart attack & his medication doesn't work anymore----either because he doesn't have any water to get it down or he's just way past it helping.
I would love love LOVE for you to check out Summer Wars. My favorite anime movie of all time. No other movie has been able to give out that feeling of what really is a family quite like it did. Directed by Mamoru Hosoda who has also made Wolf Children (another amazing movie) and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (maybe his most well known movie).
With Tetsuo, he was always oppressed as a child to where when the Power came to him, he basically lashed out. But Kaneda was always there for him when they were friends because at the heart of this, all Kaneda wanted was to be his friend. And Kaneda would have always been there.
22:53 Tetsuo isn't protecting anyone. At this point he just doesn't want anyone overshadowing him. He wanted to show the army that HE is the king of the jungle here.
Would recommend Paprika, The Boy and The Beast, Summer Wars and Welcome To The Space Show.. Great channel
Honey, 2019 was now 5 years ago. 😄
"Akira" is the most common male name in Japan. It was used because it sounds so innocuous. Also, regarding 14:06, I don't have to imagine that....
I watched Akira as a little kid - late night visiting a friend, it was such a harrowing experience, I remember hiding behind the sofa, but my god, was I intrigued :D
much much much later, in fact, only a few years ago, I went and bought the full volume several-thousand-pages manga, one of my proudest purchases :D
(the manga is spectacular of course, and a lot more grounded and realistic - if you can believe it - it takes its time to go through the enormous reprecussions, for example - military attempts at controling Tetsuo takes a whole book if not two, Tetsuo rules Neo-Tokyo as a god for several more - it's massive!)
A recommendation of my own would be Nausicaa, it's a Ghibli-film, it's a bit strange even by Ghibli standards, but a personal favorite of mine.
This is a partial adaptation of a 1000 page strong manga epic. It’s worth a read for sure.
Perfect Blue is an incredible film, very heavy, totally abstract storytelling, and will make for an excellent video!
Think that it was all hand drawn.
Simply amazing, it looks better for a 1988 hand drawn anime than some anime do today.
The story is a bit of a mindfuck because it tried to compress thousands of pages of an unfinished story (the last volume came out in 1990) into a 2 hours film.
Basically, Akira, (at the end of the film) created a new universe to contain Tetsuo inside it so he could not completely destroy the universe he was currently in.
The impact of Akira can litterally be seen everywhere.
My personal favorite anime is Perfect Blue by Satoshi Kon, a psychological thriller about a J-pop singer who transition into actress by having a small role in a local crime detective show (Double Bind) when a stalker starts making her life a living hell and bodies start to pile up around her.
Another complete mindfuck, by the midpoint you'll struggle to try to know wtf is going on but the end does clarify everything and it's truly a masterpiece. Btw, if you've seen Black Swan by Darren Aronofski, the influence of Perfect Blue is evident.
I don't think she realized just how highly detailed the animation actually is. It's mouth-droolingly amazing how many moving elements and characters there are in some scenes. Most 2d animation concentrates on a character or two on a static background. The effects and camera moves all done by hand are the pinnacle of any 2d animation.
8:25 No actually hitting but several teachers I've talked to in Japan have said when a kid gets in trouble the disciplinarian will literally scream at them, inches from their face, for 5 minutes straight.
yea watching this movie is exactly like riding a motorcycle. just nonstop anxiety from start to finish.
One element presented with Akira is that their Power not exists in everyone. But if mastered, the user can practically be a God that can do anything. Ex: The Manga had a moment where Tetsuo left earth and put a hole in the moon.
From my understanding, what really kicked audiences in the teeth was the huge shift change in animation from the style of "speed racer" to this. Few westerners saw anything of this quality.
Hope you are having an great and awesome day ❤
Akira!? Hell yes!
That slide on the Motorcycle has been recreated by so many things since this. Most recently in Nope.
The bomb at the beginning was Akira when his full power was unlocked. He was dissected and frozen because even in pieces he was too powerful
The biker rolling on the ground at 6:55 was lifted directly from the 1973 Hollywood motorcycle police film 'Electra Glide In Blue'. The final scene of the film, if I recall correctly. That's at really great, quirky film, BTW. Almost completely forgotten.
OMG... you survived watching Akira.... Very cool....
This movie is an absolute _wild_ ride, start to finish. It actually got *terrible* reviews when it originally premiered in the US because people had no clue what the heck they had just watched. It was really only in the early 2000’s I think that it really started to get mainstream appreciation (80’s cinema was largely a coke fueled fever dream but apparently Akira was where they drew the line).
I do feel _so_ bad for Kaori in this movie… she just got royally screwed. And that end 😢😢😢
It's normal to be a bit lost on some aspects of the film, because it's only an adaptation of certain earlier parts of the Akira novels so some plot points weren't able to be fit in
If you’re gonna dive into Japanese animation directors, I HIGHLY recommend anything made by Satoshi Kon! Tokyo Godfathers for something comedic and heartwarming, Perfect Blue for something ominous and nerve wracking, and Paprika for something trippy and visually amazing!
4:44 generations of animators agree with you that Kaneda sliding sideways to a stop is sick. Look up "Akira slide homages." :) Ekko sliding to a stop on the bridge in Episode 7 is probably a subtle homage to it too.
You're not dumb it's just crazy shit. It's easy for it to live rent free in our heads though.
The music is amazing. It's incredibly unique. The Akira soundtrack was my first CD back in the day. I hadn't transitioned away from cassettes yet but that music I had to get in the higher quality format. Yeah I'm old haha.
Funny I've never watched a reaction to Akira before but I just realized how grimdark it is.
In other words, there is a universe inside everyone's body. Start the Big Bang and your hopes will be fulfilled. What the film is trying to say is self-reliance. Well i want to watch movie with you mate haha
I wish we had movies that look like this, I gotta admit awhile ago when I first seen the movie or after I seen it a few times some parts had me scratching my head but after watching someone explain certain parts it made way more sense I mean I already loved the movie but it made me love it more now that I understood more
Akira Akira.
I never really knew that she could dance like this, she make a man wanna speak Spanish.
❤❤...Life Changing Movie for Me....Opened my eyes to International Cinema
it's amazing. it doesn't make sense. you're totally not alone. i've been watching this since high school and without the manga as supplementary info, this movie doesn't really make sense.. at all. so just light up a spliff and enjoy lol.
I saw this on mushrooms for my first time 20 years ago, it was insane!!
masterpiece
Yes! More anime.👍😁
There might have been less questions if they had adapted the complete story. The manga series ran for two whole years after the movie was released.
Perfect blue is a trip....scared the he'll out of me in my teens
GREAT movie
Saw this title and said, "That sounds about right." I got my brother to watch "Akira" probably in the early 90s and he said the experience was akin to banging his head against the wall, it feels so good when it stops. 😆 I still don't know if that means he did or didn't like it. I think he respects it, but don't know if he came out of it liking it. I don't know, I kinda like the idea of it being ambiguous. The only thing I, personally, didn't like about it (and it is a disturbing movie, don't get me wrong) was the ending, but I get it was because the manga was still ongoing at the time, so the ending wasn't a definitive one. It made me try to find the Akira trade paperbacks, but I didn't get them all and stopped searching after a while, so I still don't know how the story ends.
When it comes to hand drawn animation. Not sure if any film is so detailed and masterful as Akira.
Other anime recs... Project A-Ko, Perfect Blue, Lupin: Castle of Cagliostro, Cowboy Bebop movie and the series Chainsaw Man and One Punch Man... no relation.
The budget for Akira was insane. And I think they're still trying to make it back haha. Or maybe after all this time it's finally profitable dunno.
@@j.f.fisher5318 Akira was made for about $7 million in 1988, and grossed on initial release worldwide about $3.3 million. However I'm sure they made up the difference in video release over the next 10 years alone. There have been at least 3 different English translation releases alone that I know of. I personally like the original Streamline English audio the best, although it has its problems. I have the later boxed special edition as well, and its translation is terrible. (I know some Japanese.)
@@tarmaque I'm with you, I had the Akira VHS in middle school, and it's a great dub.
Please I beg please watch perfect blue! Love the commentary ❤
It’s totally okay to be pretty confused the first time you see this movie! I think it’s about six books worth of manga compressed into a two hour movie.
As cool as it is, it is a little difficult to follow the first time through if you have no reference to the manga.
"what are some of your favorite animes"
There's no S in anime.
I've watched many reactions to Akira and you seemed to have th nest grasp of what was happening in the film. I understand Jaoanese and even I missed themes and metaphors in th first few viewings. Since I'm a month behind, I'm sure you've picked your next selection already. If it's non Ghibl, I'll suggest Apple seed, Street Fighter 2(the English dubs are great on this one), oh~ I just remember an awesome hard-core one I've never seen people react to yet. DemonCity Shinjyuku (amazing art, very dark and gruesome, action)
Long time no see, Nics&Nacs. If you wish to see more Korean movies, check out “Innocent Steps” and “Baby and Me.” For me, those are throwbacks, when my mother started to watch foreign movies that expanded my horizons in the cinematic world. Also, when you return to watch animated movies, start with “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” For some, such as myself, this is a underrated classics made in the early days of Dreamworks that also introduced me to the greatest composer of our time. Until next time, cheers.
In terms of fully and completely handmade animation, Akira is the best movie of all. A joint venture of Japanese technological and animation companies was needed to re-design and animate the Akira anime comic to do this movie. But the whole movie plot is too complex to be understood at first sight. As my first anime movie to watch, I would have preferred Ghost in the Shell.
3:39 light trails.
Mandatory Satoshi Kon films (Perfect Blue is one of them, he has very few but masterpiece movies that Hollywood copies as lot like Inception => Paprika),
Berserk (memorial edition, and/or 1997) - if you're an orphan of Game of Thrones or just likes dark fantasy.
March Comes in Like a Lion (realistic drama w/ feels good)
Alita Battle Angel - this live action is actually pretty good.
Haven’t finished the video! But this movie is incredible, set the bar for animation and will make you cry and vomit at the same time!
Japan made some crazy ass animated movies and it is awesome.
Bravo👏
Good reaction.
But ,akira hurt your brain????
You say that because you didn't see EVANGELION😂😂😂😂😂
Iunno how popular it is, but *"Green Legend Ran"* is a great anime if you can find a copy of it. Also *"Robot Carnival"* (GL finding that)
P.S. Glad you will be watching Ghost in the Shell and La Blue Girl, too! GitS's Anime adaptation is better done than Akira, but you'll still get a lot more context if you check out that Manga, too.
Please react to A silent voice
I had to watch this several times top fully understand it but maybe because I was like 16 when I saw it.
This was the first anime I ever saw, besides Speed Racer or Thundercats.