For many, Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira will have been their first exposure to Japanese animation, especially if they grew up in the 80s or 90s. Even now, almost 24 years after the film’s original release in Japan, it’s considered one of the most epic and beautiful films to have come from Japan, and it’s inspired just as many writers, directors and animators as it has confused those attempting to understand its complex plot. The reason Akira‘s plot is so complex is that Otomo attempted to condense his 6 volume, 2182 page manga (which originally ran in Japan’s Young Magazine for 8 years from 1982 until 1990) into a feature length film, meaning it runs for just over two hours, drops many of the manga’s important sub-plots, and draws mainly from the first 3 volumes – although this is in part due to the manga not having been completed when the film was in production. Akira in its manga and anime form is considered a landmark; the drawing style in the manga, manor of storytelling and stupidly complex plot was something unheard of at the time, and the film revolutionised Japanese film-making and proved anime to be a legitimate and enjoyable form of storytelling (as an example, because most scenes took place at night, some of the colours used in the anime’s painstakingly hand-drawn cells had to be created especially for the film – most animes that came before Akira were set in the day time, or in bright rooms to save the animators work or hassle) to foreign audiences.
Guys, just squint. It's totally Neo-Manhattan. Totally.
Can you tell that I really, really love Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira?
Fanboy wank aside, Akira is in no way perfect. Not by a long shot. Like I said, it’s a bitch to understand, it’s over two hours long, and the manga is a fucking epic piece of work in itself. Don’t try and tell me that it’s easy to read because it’s a picture book. I will slap you upside the goddamn head. Akira is riddled with mistakes, and its fanbase is rabid. A bunch of mental, rabid lunatics. It’s fine for me to say that though, as I am one of those mental, rabid lunatics. I love Akira. I still remember the first time I saw it, and even though I didn’t know what was going on, I fucking loved it. As I got older and watched it more, I started to understand it – just a little though, it’s a pretty difficult film to get your head round. Akira – set in Neo-Tokyo in 2019 – tells the story of Shotaro Kaneda, leader of the biker gang the Capsules (he’s the one with the pill on his jacket and the cool bike), and his best pal Tetsuo Shima. One fine night, while picking a fight with rival biker gang the Clowns, Tetsuo crashes into a wee green midget with superpowers and gets his ass hauled off by the military to be experimented on. Kaneda doesn’t put up with shit like that, so he gets on his bike and tries to save Tetsuo from his uncertain fate. Unbeknownst to Kaneda, Tetsuo has acquired superpowers akin to the god-like Akira, a wee boy who accidentally blew up Tokyo 31 years before the story started. Tetsuo decides that he doesn’t need saved, goes a touch mental and decides to hunt down Akira for a showdown of epic proportions (destroying everything in his way), and Kaneda’s not cool with that, so in turn, he goes after Tetsuo to get his own epic showdown on. It makes you laugh, makes you cry, and although I make it sound like Tetsuo’s the film’s antagonist, he really isn’t. It’s got more themes than I’ve had hot dinners (cyberpunk, how the world will rebuild and regrow after a nuclear holocaust, corruption, the will to power and idolatry to name but a few) and is just generally good fun and fucking cool.
I would be surprised if you hadn’t noticed how much I love Akira by now. So you might not be entirely surprised to learn that I wasn’t particularly pleased with the announcement of Warner Brother’s live action remake/re-imagining that was slated for a 2013 released.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to show you how cool Kaneda's bike is. That is all.
Talks first began in 2002, and everything got worse from there. Gary Whitta (Book of Eli, Undying) was originally set to write the screenplay. Later, we learned Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Children of Men, Cowboys and Aliens) would be helping Whitta in this mighty task. We heard Leonardo Di Caprio would be in it, Joseph Gordon Levitt, that Keanu Reeves would be Kaneda (then 11 days later, we heard otherwise); we heard Helena Bonham Carter had taken the part of Lady Miyako, that amongst others James McAvoy, Andrew Garfield, Paul Dano and Michael Pitt would audition for the part of Tetsuo and that Ken Wanatabe will play The Colonel. But worst of all, we heard the plot.
This live action remake/re-imagining/whatever of Akira is set to be a two parter, the first part of the film focusing on volumes 1-3 of Otomo’s manga, and the 2nd part to focus on volumes 4-6. This is good. This would mean that the film would, if done right, be a comprehensive and complete translation to screen of the original manga, unlike the ’88 film. What are the chances of it being done right, though? By the looks of things – minimal.
Not long back, some bright spark noticed this post on Acting Auditions which gave away a bit of the film’s plot:
Kaneda (Garrett Hedlund) is a bar owner in Neo-Manhattan who is stunned when his brother, Tetsuo, is abducted by government agents led by The Colonel.
Desperate to get his brother back, Kaneda agrees to join with Ky Reed (Kristen Stewart) and her underground movement who are intent on revealing to the world what truly happened to New York City thirty years ago when it was destroyed. Kaneda believes their theories to be ludicrous but after finding his brother again, is shocked when he displays telekinetic powers.
Ky believes Tetsuo is headed to release a young boy, Akira, who has taken control of Tetsuo’s mind. Kaneda clashes with The Colonel’s troops on his way to stop Tetsuo from releasing Akira but arrives too late. Akira soon emerges from his prison courtesy of Tetsuo as Kaneda races in to save his brother before Akira once again destroys Manhattan island, as he did thirty years ago.
Which… doesn’t sound too bad. Ok, so Kirsten Stewart’s (apparently) going to be in it, and they’ve made Kaneda and Tetsuo brothers, and they’ve set it in Manhattan after some manor of attack, so it will inevitably have something to do with 9-11, because FUCK YOU WE MADE THIS FILM IN THE LAND OF THE FREE AND WE ARE ‘MURRICANS AND WE HATE TERRORISTS, etc., and most of the actors will invariably be white, but…I mean…it could be…be worse. Couldn’t it?
What really fucks me off, and why I really don’t want Akira made is that Warner Brothers are pissing on my biscuits, figuratively speaking. Imagine, if you will, that I love biscuits (which I do), and that I want to continue enjoying the same lovely biscuits I’ve been eating for years. Warner Brothers want to piss on those biscuits. They want to piss all over my lovely biscuits. They want to change the movie that I love, and I don’t want that, because I really don’t like change – especially change that looks like it’s going to be for the worse. They want to take Akira out of Japan, they want to fill it with Caucasian Americans, they want to cast KRISTEN “FUCKING FACE LIKE A SKELPED ARSE” STEWART. They’ll make Kaneda into a James Dean Rebel Without a Cause wannabe, they’ll turn Tetuso into the villain when he’s really just a kid overwhelmed by power; they’ll make Kai eye candy, or even worse, KRISTEN STEWART. They want to fuck with something I love, and if I could be assured that this wouldn’t be such a mess, I might not be so skeptical. But Americanizing foreign films is something that has rarely, if ever, gone right, and I don’t want to see a film I love being associated with such a massive piece of steaming dog shite.
But, thank the Gods, the film has been put on hold. For now, we are safe.
For now.
Tags: Akira, Akira Live-Action Movie, akira manga, Anime, Colonel, Films, Garrett Hedlund, James McAvoy, Japan, japanese animation, japanese film, Kaneda, Katsuhiro Otomo, Kirsten Stewart, Manga, Manhattan, movies, Tetsuo
