Akira - 4K & Blu-ray

🏍️ Akira 4K SteelBook Edition – A Cyberpunk Masterpiece Reimagined Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira is a landmark in animation and science fiction, and the 4K SteelBook release elevates this classic to a whole new level. Whether you're revisiting Neo-Tokyo or experiencing it for the first time, this edition delivers a stunning audiovisual experience wrapped in collector-grade packaging. --- 🎥 Video Quality: Native 4K Brilliance - Format: 2160p UHD with HDR10 - Remaster: Native 4K scan from original film elements The remaster is jaw-dropping. The hand-drawn animation bursts with detail, and the neon-soaked cityscapes of Neo-Tokyo look sharper and more vibrant than ever. The HDR grading enhances contrast and color depth, especially in scenes like the iconic motorcycle chase and Tetsuo’s psychic rampage. --- 🔊 Audio: Immersive Soundscapes - Audio Tracks: Japanese and English 5.1 surround - The sound design is immersive, with the haunting score and explosive action sequences filling the room. While some fans still cringe at the English dub’s dated delivery, the Japanese track remains the definitive experience. --- 📦 Packaging & Extras - SteelBook Design: Sleek, minimalist artwork with embossed details - Bonus Features: Includes interviews, behind-the-scenes content, and a retrospective on Akira’s cultural impact - The SteelBook itself is a collector’s dream—sturdy, stylish, and worthy of display. --- 🧠 Final Verdict Akira 4K SteelBook Edition is a definitive release of one of the greatest anime films ever made. The remaster is pristine, the packaging is premium, and the film’s themes of power, identity, and dystopia remain as relevant as ever.

A great movie that is even better in 4k and Blu-ray. It was also a great sale price. Own physical because they can take away digital whenever they feel like.

The 2-disc DVD set of AKIRA surpasses in many ways even the excellent Criterion's laserdisc edition from 1992. The brand-new video transfer is noticeably better: colors, especially the primary reds and greens, look more brilliant, flesh tones are more realistic, and there is a bit MORE picture at the bottom (in particular, the shot at time 1:16:23 reveals part of Kaneda's crouching body that was not seen on old transfers). The 5.1 English track, though not state of the art, is highly active and satisfying. The new English dub and subtitles are better written and spoken, making the characterizations more real and the story more comprehensible. In the scene where the colonel meets the senator (Chapter 8), the old English dub had the senator sounding concerned and supportive. On the new dub, he sounds cold and indifferent, in keeping with his subsequent body gesture of fiddling with his plants. The new dub also has characters speaking in correct pitches -- Kei's voice is now lower, and Masaru no longer sounds like an old man, but like a child, just like on the Japanese track. Also welcomed are the correct pronunciations of Japanese names: AH-kee-ra, KAH-nee-dah, KAH-oh-ri. Last but not least, the new dub makes more frequent uses of strong language to enhance reality. The DVD supplements include interviews of the voice actors for the new dub, who certainly deserve to be mentioned. Here is one thing that this DVD pales in comparison to the Criterion LD. The LD included still-frames of the entire first issue of the original Akira comic novel. It is a shame that this DVD does not include even one screen shot of the actual comic strips that inspired this movie (it does include shots of the COVERS of the comic novels) just to benefit those who have never seen them or do not own the LD. Other DVD supplements include an excellent 48-minute making-of documentary (the Criterion LD had excerpts of it). It has plenty of behind-the-scenes footage: artists drawing pencil tests, actors recording their lines, musicians composing a score with wood xylophones, photographers taking shots of finished "cels". We are told that it was not the norm in Japanese animation films to record the dialogs before drawing the pictures, as it was done for AKIRA. The youthful director Katsuhiro Otomo appears in his own 30-minute interview segment (not on the LD), where he recalls various processes of making the Akira comics and the Akira movie, and speculates on what he will do next. Yet another half-hour segment, "Akira Sound Clips", explains how the movie's score was conceptualized and recorded. The most prized supplement on the DVD is perhaps the mammoth collection of the film's storyboards, character designs, and background designs. The storyboards, done by Otomo himself, are the most meticulously designed ones I've ever seen; each of them is denoted with Scene/Cut number (under "S" and "C" on the left), notes, dialogs, and time of duration of the shot. To help locating a storyboard among the 4500 of them, the printed chapter index is cross-referenced with Scene/Cut numbers of its corresponding storyboards. Rather disappointing is a short featurette that tersely describes the new video transfer of the DVD with only interviews of 3 technicians and no demonstration of the restoration by way of before-and-after comparisons. There is also an interesting feature called "capsule option". When it is enabled, a capsule icon pops up on the screen from time to time while the movie is playing, and when you activate the icon, the screen pauses and shows you English text translation of the Japanese words on the screen -- traffic signs, graffitis, postings, etc.

I just watched this via Amazon Prime for the first time. I've heard sop much about how "legendary", "inspiring", and "epic" this anime is. Constantly hearing "If you like anime you MUST WATCH THIS". I usually avoid those types of things. Let the hype die down and what not. but this specific film doesn't have hype, it has accolades. It has awards, and to this day is STILL part of pop culture. It's like an Atari, a classic beatles album, NWA's Straight Out of Compton, no mater how old it gets it gets the same response and respect. Since I now have no reason to NOT see this film I decided to give it a shot. First, this is full on anime. This is what anime is. Only hting it doesn['t have is giant robots. So if you are a casual anime watcher who only watches simple things like pokemon or something, the early parts can probably get confusing and you'll loose intrest. I'll admit, I almost did, but the story has a good way of throwing stuff at you like you're supposed to know what's going on but keeping you interested enough to keep watching to figure it out. It doesn't hold your hand through the story, you're just as lost and out of the loop as the citizens witnessing the event unfold but it does get explained, somewhat. At no point was I bombarded with loads of dialog explaining what was happening and why, I got the basics and was left to come up with my own why. The climax is huge even though the build up is swift it last quite a while. I found myself texting people for the first 10 minutes while trying to grasp what was happening to being fully ingaged and ignoring all other things. The art is amazing, one of the highlights of the entire movie. Characters are enjoyable and though many aren't seen often you do get invested in wanting to know more. The sound is amazing, just as good as any big blockbuster action film. I normally don't go around saying "you must see [insert movie]" but this is now one of the five movies I feel everyone, especially anime fans,. must see. I will admit I'm no die hard anime fan, I only watched dubbed anime and am pretty picky about it but this film proved to me why it earned it reputation, and I have a greater respect for anime that follow in it's footsteps.

Neo-Tokyo 2019: Kaneda is the leader of a biker gang. His best friend, Tetsuo, gets injured during a fight with another biker gang, the Clowns. Kaneda and his gang get interrogated, while Tetsuo is medically examined. Colonel Shikishima and Doctor Onishi discover Tetsuo's incredibly dangerous psychic capabilities. Tetsuo, tired of being treated like child and always being saved by Kaneda, goes on a rampage across the city and Kaneda attempts to stop him from releasing Akira - the young psychic that destroyed Tokyo 31 years prior. Akira is a magnificent film from beginning to end; epic is an understatement for this captivating anime. The story in this film is fantastic. Yes, some aspects of the film are predictable, but it is still an insanely captivating story - I was hooked from beginning to end. The conflict within Tetsuo is particularly amazing to watch, especially as he changes; changes you can see his frustration from the beginning, and you can see how power-hungry he becomes when he realizes his power. The ending of the film is amazing and even thought-provoking to a point. If you're looking for action, this film is loaded with great action sequences, especially the second half of the film. The futuristic Tokyo setting is mesmerizing, and works well with the story. Although I prefer the Japanese, I found the English dub to be more than tolerable. The music is one of my favorite aspects of the film; it is so epic, so well-fitted and a soundtrack I can listen to without the movie. I own the Blu-ray of this film, which seems to be out-of-production now. It features both the Japanese and English audio, as well subtitles. The picture quality is superb, and the audio quality is great. (the visual style alone is beautiful.) If you can find a copy of this blu-ray, I highly recommend it. Overall, Akira is a superb anime; it is an action-packed, visually beautiful and epic film with a magnificent finale, while also being subtly thought-provoking. It is pure entertainment of the highest caliber. A must-own for fans of the genre, and fans of film in general. Akira has strong violence and gore, and some nudity.

Awesome classic. Would be better if digital came with it

plays great, looks great, has both soundtracks (original and remaster), yes my inner nerd is happy

Good value

Very nice edition of one of the great movies of the 20th century. Animation at it's finest, great sound too. The extras are ok but could be a bit more complete

Amazing movie, really well done with the HDR Re master as usually it is difficult for an animated film... This is one of the best written films ever do check it out

Yo era de los que tenía el DVD que salió hace unos años, de la cual si podíamos de quejarnos de la calidad de imágen, que yo en su momento tuve a un amigo en casa preguntandome si eso era normal (yo disponía de la edición italiana y la española, y se veían igual... de mal) pero se ve que era así en todos los paises. En el Blu-ray se arreglaron todos los problemas de imágen y sonido, y casi parece una película actual, envejeciendo muy muy bien. El problema es que los extras para variar son pocos, e incluso hay algunos que desaparecen de otras ediciones. Por ejemplo, en la italiana del DVD se incluían entrevistas con Otomo que aquí, al igual que en el DVD español, tampoco están. Los extras son los típicos de trailers y poco más. Yo voy a aprovechar para extraer la peli en DVD (creía que al ser una edición sencilla no tendría, pero viene) y poner en su lugar el de extras que tengo de la italiana, o bien comprar una caja amaray para 3 discos.

Een can die beste movie allertijden

No me arrepiento de optar por esta edición tipo Steelbook (aunque la distribuidora no lo considere un steelbook, sino un "estuche de colección") en lugar de la edición Blu-Ray regular que está más barata, pues esta edición vale muchísimo la pena. El estuche está espectacular y tiene un acabado metálico de muy buena calidad y unos colores brillantes. Tiene un relieve en cada uno de sus elementos como el logo o las partes de la motocicleta y las arrugas del chaleco de Kaneda. En cuanto a la presentación del empaque, definitivamente se lleva cinco estrellas. Digna de colección por ese hecho. Y claro, otra razón para preferir esta edición, es el libro exclusivo de 32 páginas sobre la película. Sin mencionar lo que contiene, pues me gustaría que lo compres y lo averigues tú mismo, debo decir que es un libro muy interesante. Se siente delgado, pero tiene muchísimo por leer, aunque (puede parecer obvio pero quiero decirlo) está en inglés. Tiene tres discos: Un DVD de la película solamente, un DVD del material extra de la edición en DVD y el Blu-Ray con la película y material extra. Cabe señalar que el material adicional es el mismo tanto en el Blu-Ray y el DVD de extras. A pesar de que no tienen arte interno (como algún dibujo o ilustración de la película) el color de los discos se ve muy bien, siendo un color negro para el disco DVD de la película, rojo brillante para el DVD con material extra y un azul celeste para el Blu-Ray. La calidad de audio y video en el Blu-Ray es impresionante. La pista de audio en Japonés (idioma original) Dolby TRUEHD 5.1 pondrá a trabajar a tu teatro en casa, pues cada sonido se escucha con completa claridad. Es una experiencia quente hace realmente sentirte parte de la película. En cuanto a imagen solo puedo decir que es una muy buena remasterización de una película animada de 1988. Se ve cada detalle de cada personaje y fondo con perfecta claridad. Como punto negativo (no para mí, pues no me molesta) podría ser el hecho de que no está en español (no tiene subtítulos al español, ni mucho menos doblaje) solo tiene subtítulos y doblaje en inglés. Ni siquiera la versión en DVD tiene el idioma español ni ningún otro idioma. Solo inglés y japonés. Otra cosa a tomar en cuenta es que los DVD son región 1 (es decir, no se puede reproducir en un reproductor de México a menos que sea en una computadora como yo o tu reproductor sea multiregión), aunque por fortuna el Blu-Ray sí es región A y sin problemas lo puedes reproducir en tu reproductor Blu-Ray. En resumen: Una edición perfecta para fans de esta película, fans del anime o simplemente fans del buen cine, pues no te tiene que gustar el anime para disfrutar de la majestuosa obra maestra que es Akira. Si ya la viste y te encanta, definitivamente cómprala, aunque el precio es un poco elevado, vale cada centavo. Y por último, excelente servicio de Amazon. Llegó en tres días (dos días antes de lo prometido) y en perfectas condiciones como muestro en las fotos, ¡muchas gracias!