This was made 36 years ago. And still puts most modern animated films to shame!

I don't believe CGI will ever be able to surpass the beauty of detailed traditional animation like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Zeta Gundam, Megazone Part II, Ghibli, etc. I wish this detailed style weren't so cost prohibitive these days.

Last summer, my 13 year old professed his love of anime. My response was to have him watch the grand-daddy of anime with me. I don't think he's fully recovered yet.

What’s insane is the film in 1988 has a stadium being built for the 2020 Olympics. In the real world, Tokyo was suppose to host the 2020 Olympics but was pushed back to 2021 due to the Pandemic.

The Akira slide in NOPE got a huge pop in the theater.

80's/90's hand drawn anime will NEVER be topped. You have to just love the scenes that are literally just the artists in a sense "showing off" how detailed they can get (for example: when they show a 30 second scene of just a fully detailed rain storm

I've honestly lost count of how many times I've seen the "Akira bike slide" in media.

I remember playing Final Fantasy 7 for the first time when I was a teen. When it got to the motorcycle highway chase all I could think of was Akira.

Back when it was released on VHS, Akira was one of the few anime titles that was mainstream enough that my public library had it. You can never look at a teddy bear quite the same way once you've seen it.

I'm only a few minutes in, but I just had to stop and comment to say this is one of the best plot summaries of Akira I've heard. The film is often very confusing for first viewers due to the frenetic pace (over 2,000 cuts) and ambiguous concepts. Although the Akira manga goes into much more detail and expands on the themes and even gives minor characters in the film complete character arcs, I think the truncated and somewhat confusing story in the film version has created a market for countless Akira analysis videos we see popping up. If Akira was super straight forward, there would be far fewer videos talking about the meaning of the movie. This isn't to say Akira is only talked about because it's confusing or because it has stellar animation - it's a fever dream of an experience that's impossible to ignore or forget.

Dan Larson and Galaxy team, thank you all for this! You’ve gut punched my nostalgia many times now, but this was like an actual nut stomping good time. Thank you all!

This was a gateway into Anime for myself and a lot of kids since it was widely available on home video back then.

Akira was the very 1st Anime I watched in the mid 1990's. Rented it from Blockbuster video when they finally decided to carry a few of the well known classics. To this day I am so thankful that the Legendary Akira was my 1st Anime.

The "Massive Head Wound Harry" aesthetic really works on Dan!

2 minutes into this video and I now understand the plot more than I Ever have in the 30+ years I've known of it's existence. Thank You Secret Galaxy.😄👍

My brother and I were lucky enough to see a screening of Akira while at the 1989 San Diego Comic-Con. Someone was handing out tickets from a booth and my cousin grabbed 3 for us. Later that day we found ourselves in a dusty old theater watching the anime that I would be obsessed with for years afterwards. It was truly a sight to see on the big screen, even as a 13 year old.

This movie!!!!! *"TETSUOOOOOO!!!"* *"KANEDAAAAAA!!!"* That's... that's how me and some of my friends used to greet each other after watching Akira.

“The order to stop construction” was released in the mind trip Anthology movie called Neo Tokyo or “Manie Manie: Labyrinth Tales” in 1987. It includes the full version of the “Running Man” short that used to play on M-TV during their experimental phase.

My favourite movie of all time. Tied for that spot with 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, in fact.

I remember my brother renting this for me at Video Village. The animation was great, but the ending when Tetsuo morphs and takes scarred me as a kid.

Akira is still the magnum opus of mature storytelling, detailed animation and with a spectacular visual splendor! No matter if you bought the VHS, seen it on Sci-Fi Channel, Adult Swim, Bought the Metal Case DVD or the many Blu-ray releases...your always in for a spectacle that still holds up to this very day!❤

I remember buying the VHS in 94. Was a gateway to other movies including Lily CAT and Biohunter. Both of which I still have too. Sometimes it's good to be old.

The most impressive thing about this video was that Dan was able to clearly explain the plot of the movie, something nobody who watched it could ever figure out. I owned the first two Marvel adaptation comics in color. They were beautiful. I'm still lamenting selling them. (Yes, I'm a dummy. I know they're worth a bunch of money.)

You just unlocked a memory of seeing the commercials on US TV for ordering the VHS cassette of Akira by phone. Unreal.

Akira is an absolute legend of an anime,thank you Toy Galaxy ❤👏

Damn you Toys Galaxy! You Maniacs! You Blew IT Up!

Normally I skip KZfaqr ads as part of a habitual fight-or-flight response, but you had me at dinosaurs. :D

I love cartoons that give an F you and middle finger to people who think imagination is just for kids.

With telekinesis you could just dampen someone’s blood vessel enough for them to faint. There would be no need to throw lots of heavy stuff around

Great, Dan went and blew us all up... Yes, Akira was my gateway drug into the world of anime. This sparked a slew of titles i ended up watching over the years and loving till this day.

Still one of my favorite films ever. My first exposure came about my happenstance - high school best friend had a buddy who went to japan and brought back a videotape copy (1989/90 or thereabouts). My friend got a dub and then me a dub after watching it with him. I took it to college and showed it to my friends there. Note that this was the original Japanese version - so we literally were trying to piece the story together through the visuals with NO idea what anyone was saying. We just knew it was incredible. (And since I was first exposed to the original version, for me it is always "Kahn-ayy-dah" and not the US dubbed Kah-NAY-da" lol)

I remember my mom subscribing to a monthly anime VHS thing when I was a kid and Akira IIRC was the first video they sent. It was *nuts*. I grew up with Mazinger Z and Ultraman but this was something completely different, definitely adult but it never felt like it was gorey or extreme for the sake of being so, just a venue of telling a grown up story. Loved it ever since, it's stuck with me through the decades :)

13:22 At first, I though my cat farted.

Bandai released a 1/35 scale plastic and die cast Kaneda bike (with a little rubber fixed pose Kaneda figure) in 1988.

A Fist of the North Star episode I’m sure would be a great episode to see

I first saw Akira in the early 90s, on BBC2, late in a Friday night. Introduced by Jonathan Ross…. It blew my 12 year old brains out.

Well, channel had a great run. See you guys when our atoms coalesce. Great video, and always appreciate your costumes and concepts!

Oh great! You just reset the *clap clap* multiverse. Way to go. As Spike would say: "Oh shit! What are we going to do now?!"

"Cartoons Aren't Just For Kids!" Ralph Bakshi proved that years before Akira.

The destruction of Toy Galaxy and the rise of Neo Toy Galaxy was inevitable with all of the experiments that were performed on Dan.

10:25 the score was so epic. My high school art teacher used to play it during art class. I borrowed the CD from him and made a copy for myself. This was back in 1996 when that was the new hotness of technology.

I was just looking up Akira slides and this popped up - get out of my mind!!!

I fully agree with you, I’d rather they leave it alone and produce no live action version. If it does get made, I’m not going to bother. Thanks to this video (and an article I read this morning about a couple of guys in Barcelona who are building working versions of Kaneda’s bike), I’ve decided that I may have to start collecting the trade paperbacks, as I’ve never gotten around to reading the whole thing. Now, the soundtrack. Gat damn, that soundtrack. I had it pretty much constantly spinning from 1997 to 2002 and it’s one of the few CDs I’ve held onto in the age of streaming-and I’m glad for it because it’s not available on the service to which I’m subscribed. Geinoh Yamashirogumi’s work was a revelation, it was like nothing I’d ever heard before and I’m pretty sure like nothing I’d hear since.

No opening or intro? Just a dive right into the material, huh? That's jarring.

Anyone sort of disappointed that Dan didn't fly off the screen at the end screaming "Unlimited Power!!!!"

One of if not the most influential anime for the West, my introduction to adult anime was Akira, and what an introduction it was. With that out of the way, the only way to make this flim into a live action version will flop hard as it would honestly be like remaking Jaws now into either a animated horror movie and expect to have the same financial success that film had for the blockbuster market of film making let alone have a pop culture influence it had in the 70's 80's 90's and beyond. It is that lighting in a bottle effect, and only a few films, in my opinion, have had that impact on a global scale. Now, if we take from what we learn from these to particular suggestions, Akira and Jaws stories in a whole are different enough time to make a difference in the media, so to do so you need to keep the product under wraps before comming out and giving only a slight amount of public engagement of the final product. Today, media is continually changing at a break neck pace, and it is for myself personally to become a fan of new franchises that takes a lot of effective marketing and engagement for me to take notice. We want to be able to find familiarity in a new franchise such as the Dino's that look like a certain teenage mutated ninja amphibians, for example, but those are my thoughts on it.

Akira related - I am still searching for that "new season" promo NBC ran as the 1992 Olympics winded down. One segment of the commercial was for Quantum Leap and Scott Bakula was running in place as a montage of the next season's time destinations were teased behind him. One of the clips in this montage was from the opening biker sequence from Akira. I remember seeing this promo myself and there is at least one person online who independently corroborated seeing this too.

I’ve watched the film numerous times over the years. I advise you all to read the manga because it makes way more sens than the film does. Katsuhira Otomo couldn’t include everything he put in the manga because he directed the film BEFORE he even finished making the manga So half the plot in the film is rushed

Best description of this film in only the first two minutes! Awesome!

Watched and re-watched the VHS of this so so many times. It has a special place in my heart. Hearing Taika Waititi and Akira in the same sentence terrorizes me

One of my alltime favorites - thank you for this!

A cool fact. The Akira class starship in Star Trek is named after the movie.

Thank you for mentioning 'The Order to Stop Construction'. I feel this work as well as the Neo Tokyo Anthology is an underrated gem. You can see the influence of Akira in this short piece.

I give to you a single line that has stayed in my head for decades and which I still have to stop myself from saying out loud context-free. "There is no *use* in hiding." Streamline dub 4ever indeed.

I had to watch this anime a good 3-4 times before it made any sense to me. But even the first time through, it just looks so cool. Very smooth animation. Very detailed characters, like Tetsuo at the finale. It’s one of those stories that you want to learn more about the second it’s over.

That 1/6 scale Bandai bike Kaneda figure is worth every penny a friend had it and it will take over your collection

I discovered Akira in a comic book store around 1988 or 1989 with the US colorized books and was blown away. The covers, the drawings of the characters & setting, the coloring and the story. It put so much of the US comic books at the time to shame.While my collection of them is still very far from complete, I still consider them as a major part of my comic book collection from that time.

Chris D, if you're out there, I am still sorry that I was too hungover that day we went to see Akira in Norwalk & ruined that day 😔

If nothing else, its a visual masterpiece. The balls to do animate Akira, that motorcycle sequence in a night time setting... i have no words, its just so beautifully done.

16:35 way to go, Dan. I was using that Earth.

Simply the best. If anyone reading this comment hasn't read the Akira manga it's a sci-fi experience par excellence and should not be missed.

They already made a live action adaptation of Akira. Its called Chronicle. Its a little more low budget so they had to change some of the story....but thats about as close to an American, live action Akira as I'd feel comfortable getting made. Im only half joking here...say what you will about Trank, Chronicle was pretty damned good.

My first exposure to this movie was an out of context showing by another student of the hospital toy hallucination sequence. I was not very familiar with anime at the time, Samurai Pizza Cats, the Saban 13 episode Dragon Ball classic dub, and generously all the cartoons from the 80's animated over there being my only frame of reference. So basically it scared the hell out of me at the time.

I saw this and other anime movies for the first time on saturday morning anime on the sci-fi channel in the 90s.

I understand the reservations around a live action Akira, but I think it's the way to go. But as a 4 season (min) series, bringing the best elements of the books and the anime together.

I still remember going to a gencon convention years ago and seeing a simple tv playing Akira to sell their VHS copies. I was instantly an Anime fan from that day forward and I will always remember 90s Cyberpunk/SciFi as pinnacle anime as I fell down the rabbit hole of Ghost in the Shell, Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed, Dirty Pair... ... excuse me while I go binge some anime.

This wasn't the 1st anime i saw but it was one of the ones that absolutely made me fall in love with anime. Love the cosplay. Always look forward to each weeks episode Dan thanks for all the great work.

That was an awesome being to your vid! You are upping your budget, and it looks great!

A+ video! Awesome history of Akira!

That Canon Camera ad was so well put! Damn, such an incredible video, and such a legendary movie!

We are reminded of the ancient adage "check yourself before you wreck yourself."

Oh yeah!!! Such a great, surprising animated movie! It was just unbelievable at the time. I remember mail ordering it in 1990 from starlog magazine, I believe, along with the Akira t-shirt, Project A-ko, Robot carnival, and dominion-tank police, all on VHS. Then I left for military service and forgot about it. Came home after training and got a wonderful surprise package waiting, a year later!!!! The best of times!!! Keep up the great videos!!! Love the channel!

When I first subbed to this channel I thought to myself, yep, Dan will end the world one day. We had a good run though.

Still one of my favourite animated films! It launched the anime boom in the UK and my own love for manga and anime. I owe a lot to this film. Great to see your spotlight on this film Dan

Picked up the VHS of this off a rental shelf back in the 90s and it's still my favourite animated film of all time. The amount of detail especially just in the environment and backgrounds is top tier even to this day.

Akira and Ghost in the shell are the two films that got me hooked into Japanese animation.

So cool to see you featuring this. Thanks for the knowledge 🧠 as well as the uncharacteristicly cinematic ending.

I first saw Akira in either 1989 or 1990 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. I'd been reading the colorized English adaptation. I took home one of the photocopied posters that were all over downtown at the time and used markers to tone it. that hung in my studio for a long time.

Akira was released in Australian theatres in 1995 .I was in senior high school and remembered the brief TV ads . Why did it take so long for theatrical release ?

Akira is the first anime I watched, the first one I owned, and the first anime soundtrack I owned. I still have it on VHS, LaserDisc, and Blu-Ray.

Might be one of the first anime movies i watched. I think my uncle had the vhs. Then my mom signed me up for some anime vhs club, and this was the first film they sent. Other films I remember getting are vampire hunter d, gologo 13, and barefoot gen

The very first time I laid eyes on Akira, it was walking around a local Circuit City store in 91,being showcased on a huge TV and impressive sound system... it was the opening bike chase scene of course. I would later obtain a vhs copy and watch it enough times to wear it out. Lol to this day I still stand behind the original English dialog is way better than the 2001 language update, no matter how accurate it it is, the original voices just work and sound better. I'm 48 now and it will always be at the absolute top of my Anime list with Ghost in the shell a very close second.

Did expect the ending, nice job team!

I saw this when I was a kid and decided to track down the manga... boy was that a different experience!

I really really love this movie! The bike is amazing, the concepts are crazy/intriguing and the art is (even now) beautiful!

there was in fact at least one Japanese toy released in 1988: a 1/35-ish Bandai diecast and plastic of Kaneda's bike with a plastic figure and decals from the film. it's worth noting that McFarlane wasn't able to get the necessary trademark clearance for accurate decals and instead made up fictional replacement brands for his bike.

I remember watching Akira in English during a test run at the Dobie Theater in Austin, which ran a lot of test dubs in the 90s. I saw the Troma Miyazaki dubs there as well....

I hope we do get a remake of this movie, one with more story and character development. Just not in live action.

My favourite KZfaq channel with my favourite dude talking about my favourite movie is the best excuse I have to be late for whatever I’m doing today.

I used to watch Cartoon Sushi on MTV and every episode had a commercial for Akira on VHS along with other anime. I thought it all looked so cool. I wasn't familiar with anime at all at this point except a Jungle Book anime that we had on VHS when I was a bit younger haha. I don't remember anything about Akira since I haven't seen it since 97, but I remember it being awesome

This is totally making me want to watch it again. 😄👍

I was wondering why Dan had bandages on his head. I thought it was the pounding on his head after picking the 2023 figure of the year😂😂😂. But it was really his cosplay…. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the movie. I wish they would put this in the theaters again. Love the explosive ending to the video…

2:19 Those Saurozoic Warriors look fun!

Bravo Your finest video to date!!

I have a Big O half sleeve absolutely can't wait for the video! Is escaflowne on your list? Thanks for all the videos

Naoki Urasawa (Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto) Once said while talking to other manga artists around his age (translated and paraphrased): "Hey, remember in the 80's when Otomo started, and you realised comics could look, good?"

I was lucky to see Akira 4K before Godzilla Minus One - almost perfect evening! (almost because I had to drive to next city ;p) It was an experience because visuals were crisp and sound rich and clear! I will remember this moment for long.

Saw this years ago on adult swim toonami month of movies ! Still have it on blu ray

Akira is the favorite film of Morgan Richter (from the YT Channel Morgan Richter), the USC film school graduate who does explanations and reviews of films and Miami Vice. She has a series called When Gen X Ruled The Multiplex, a collection of 100 films important to Generation X (it is a fantastic collection).

My intro to anime when I was MAYBE 10 years old, absolutely inspirational.