Every frame of animation EXPLODES with the psychic powers of overworked and dedicated artists. One minor note: while the film is projected at 24 fps, it is a myth that the animation was entirely animated at 24 drawings per second (or animating on ones). Akira uses a healthy mix of 24, 12, and even 8 frames per second on certain movements. Most of the smoke animations are moving at 12 drawings per second, because 24 fps would jitter like crazy and ruin the effect of billowing smoke. EDIT: I just saw other comments talking about the frame rate issue, so sorry to belabor the point! Over all though this is an exceptionally well researched and well made video.

Almost 40 years later and it still looks more mind blowing than majority of animation today

I'm lucky enough to have 60+ original animation cels from this movie I've collected over the years. Each piece is a masterpiece IMO.

a small art theater in the east village of manhattan had the film for sunday afternoon back in 1989, i was 12… at the end of the film, the projectionist came out and told us he was going to run it again and if anyone wanted to stay we could. no one left. no one talked either, we collectively couldn’t get our jaws off the floor until after the second view and then everyone became an incoherent babbling loon. everyone there had their mind blown, animation never looked that good before.

1990's feature anime was a world ahead beyond. Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Memories, Steampunk, Studio Ghibli, and Satoshi Kon's masterpieces Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika... What a generation of great anime directors.

My uncle got himself a bootleg version of Akira back in the late 80's. I was about 11 or 12 when I got the privilege to watch it. It was mind blowing to me them and still to this day.

The ending of this film produces a very unique feeling that can't really be explained or compared to anything else out there. A true masterpiece.

Japanese subscriber here. My sister introduced me to Akira. She had the complete manga set. Soon we were both obsessed with Otomo’s works and saw his other films and read his other mangas (in real time during the 80s/90s). This video really helped me understand what made his work stand out and why we were so into it. Thanks for the great content!

I remember going to a friend's house after school one day. It was 1995 and I was 13. He showed me two movies of something called "Japanimation:" Akira and Ghost in the Shell. My mind was blown. I'd never seen anything before with such a high level of detail, realism, grit, violence, science fiction, and scope as far thematic elements, philosophy, etc. Almost thirty years later and I still love anime. And Akira still reigns as my #1 favorite. Thank you Kyle.

Here's the thing...ALL of Akira was shot at 24 frames a second. It was projected at 24 frames a second. That doesn't mean that there 24 *drawings* per second throughout the film - there aren't. A close inspection of the film reveals that the rate of drawings per second is variable. Some shots ARE shot with 24 drawings per second, however, others are clearly shot with less. This is done to provide varying degrees of impact in scenes and even with shots.

Akira is such a great movie. I wouldn't classify myself as an Anime fan but I do appreciate a good movie no matter what style it is made in.

I've never seen a more technically and artistically superior animated movie than Akira.

wake up babe, new CinemaTyler

Good one Tyler. It surprises me that AKIRA doesn't make it onto many horror "best of" lists. It has unsettling moments that rival anything that's been done in live action.

My favorite part of this film is how much love is put into it. You can tell that this is Otomo's magnum opus. 35 years on, it's still the best animated film I've ever experienced, and I'm not even an Anime/Japan guy!

Great video man! Akira still stands as one of my favorite movies ever.

to this day the only anime I still rewatch regularly. absolutely spellbinding. no other has blown me away like Akira.

The level of details in this anime never stops impressing me!

I’m glad the exaggerated comedy of Akira is touched on in this essay! Something I noticed that I don’t feel I’ve seen tackled is how /funny/ Akira is, even in its most intense moments. Brings levity and humanity to what could have risked being an only dark film. The humor in Akira and its impact on the overall film been brimming in my head as one of those “if I were a video essayist” ideas. Hope someone tackles it someday!

It took me forever to finally watch Akira, and out of all the movies I regrettably waiting a long time to see, this one is #1. There's so much inspiration and influence I feel this movie could've had for me growing up. But I am happy I finally gave it a chance.

It really is amazing that otomo pitched his akira vision during economic zenith of their country.

I just saw it last week for the first time in almost 30 years it’s better than I remember. Akira is an absolute masterpiece. Not only one of the best animated films ever made but one of the best films I’ve ever seen.

Thank you. Akira had gone to a nameless corner in my memory. The difference in quality was obvious even watching it as a kid. I’m going to watch it again.

God bless the 90’s sci-fi channel, Saturday mornings gave us so much, still enjoy Akira and Iria.

AKIRA is such a masterpiece of animation. A project so grand that it's likeness had never been seen before, and blew so many budgets and deadlines that it will never happen again. Having read the manga, I wish they had stretched out the storyline over two movies, as long as they could have maintained the same level of quality. The manga however, is just a bit too long. But I love them both for their shortcomings. Because, how can less be more? More is more!

Akira wasn’t shot on 70mm. That would be way too expensive, even for an Akira level production. It was shot on 35mm and given 70mm blowups. Not sure where the common belief of it being shot on 70 comes from.

It's cray that with ALL the time and money this film got, there were STILL time and budget restrictions and even with that this is still the best looking animation of all time. Just imagine what could be done with unlimited time and budget it would be incredible truly

this film changed my life! it deserves every second of appreciation, every ounce of hype that it gets.

its crazy how fluid this movie is. Its animation stands the test of time,one can not help but appreciate the time and effort that was placed in it's production,it is truly a wonder of the flim and animation realm

To this day even after nearly 30 years It still absolutely has not been topped

I just dont think anything could ever top Akira, not just the animation but the sound effects, design and soundtrack are insane. That stand out creepy "Toys and Milk" scene has never left my memory.

I didn't get to see the masterpiece until around 2001 but since then ive always owned a copy. I'll rewatch every few months and get blown away each time. it's amazing what can be made when an artist has such freedom to create.

I remember watching this for the first time and being amazed at the quality of detail each frame has, it's almost as if every frame is a painting of it's own. I had to pause quite a few scenes on my second watch just to appreciate the level of details the production studio put in to the film. A friend lent me his bootleg japanese dub copy of Akira and it alone made me interested in all of the works of Katsuhiro Otomo. Akira is a nice introduction to non anime matured fans, the only downside to watching the movie is it leaves you wanting more back story about the environment and it's characters. Luckily the manga explains everything enough and it's gives you that satisfaction of knowing all the details. It's better if you watch the film then read the manga afterwards. Lastly great content as always CinemaTyler, keep it up!

My introduction to this film (and anime in general) was through Fist of the North Star, I was so impressed with that that I rented Akira a couple of days later and it totally blew me away.... and still does.

Having recently purchased Akira in 4k. My now 6th copy of this film. I'm still finding new and interesting things all these years later. It's impressive how well the animation hold up so well.

I saw this in late 1989 before there was even an English dub because of a friend who was a Japanese foreign exchange student. I grew up with Macross and Mazinger Z and I knew Akira was drastically different but was too young to understand how or why. It still amazes me that I was lucky enough to get exposed to it so early.

I've always appreciated the work you did on your Stalker and Kubrick videos; so happy to see you're taking a look at this film as well. Never knew Otomo was inspired by new cinema, but it makes total sense!

This movie still gives me chills. I wonder if animation will ever be this good agian

its a masterpiece that with stands the test of time to this day. In cgi fantasy and AI art, akira still broke the mold somehow.

Amazing movie, watched it for the first time on VHS. Blew my mind and became my favourite movie instantly. Then I read the Manga and was blown away again.

A wonderful examination of this film. In particular, the section on AKIRA's color grading is well done. It's probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of the film. The heavy reliance on green and strange brown/orange highlights have been a problem for colorists and transfer artists for a long time. A bunch of the home video releases have had the incorrect color timing and it's nice to see it discussed here.

This film is a masterpiece, i have an altar at my home dedicated to memorabilia from Akira and i pray everyday to it, that´s how great of a film it is, thank you for this insightful essay Tyler, you rock as always!

As an Akira fan I will watch any analysis that KZfaq feeds me. And I appreciate you shining more light on such a masterpiece. But I hope you use the feedback from this video (everything has been said in the comments) to improve your research/facts on future ones. Perhaps reviewing your video/script with an animator when talking about how animation works could be useful.

A Yank here. This is my first introduction to anime. I'm really glad you posted this video, I never knew any of this information. My memories of Akira were thinking in some ways this reminds me of Battle of the planets or what is commonly referred to as Gatchuman.

07:15 Grave of the Fireflies also featured prescoring, and it was released a few months prior to Akira. Anyway, this technique was used by a small handful of anime movies other than Akira and Isaho Takahata's works. It never became the norm in Japanese productions.

I remember seeing this in the late 80s, it blew me away at the time and is still better than most animated movies today. A unique jewel in animation.

This is a truly incredible video, first of all. Another thing, though, is that I grew up watching Akira repeatedly and only just realized that I’ve never watched it with subtitles. The copy I kept for so long had Cam Clarke-who voiced Leonardo in the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-providing the voice of Kaneda. It’s a stellar dub. As someone who insists on subtitles over dubbed versions, I’m now realizing I need to revisit Akira in its original glory.

So yeah, after sleeping on this all my life I finally watched it a few days ago. Had to sign up for a Hulu free trial.....needless to say, you already know where this is going. Absolutely incredible movie that indeed is as good if not better than most modern equivalents. It's so anime.

Was very lucky to get the 25th anniversary edition of this for $5 at Walmart, and it looks so spectacular. It's actually hard to watch the characters sometimes because I can't stop looking at the backgrounds. It's how I notice little things like the scene where the Colonel gets out of a leather chair and see the animators took the time to actually animate the chair subtly inflating itself after his weight was removed- little things that are nothing special in a live action movie but are mind blowing when you think of the attention to detail the artists had.

Very interesting seeing you tackle animation, I learned a lot, keep up the incredible work Tyler!

When I was 15, I watched Akira and Ghost in the Shell on the same day. That was the day I decided to become an animator.

There is nothing quite like good animation. Whether it is 1 second or an entire movie of it you can tell instantly there is a master doing their work. So satisfying.

Just brought the 4K UHD limited edition. Excited.

Some classic miss conceptions here, and juicy infos missed. Firstly juicy infos on animation: -Otomo did animated some scenes himself (hopital’s scanner ones), and it truly shows his devotion to complexe volume. -Inoue said the anime was not considered classic at the time but since most animators that worked on it became very good, they start calling it a classic. -Yoshinori kanada (a legendary animator if not the anime master) scene looks quite... weird, not because of him, but the in-between animators didn’t got trained proprely. (Which is the scene tetsuo’s body swallow ppl and growth) -Lots of’the animators worked at production IG later, so they did Ghost in the Shell (1995). Innacuratte things: -it was revolutionnary for its time... maybe from U.S point of view, but in fact in 1884 anime just got a boom in quality, miyazaki’s movies, gainax creation, kanada doing his own oav, project a-ko, venus war.... it’s just one of it’s era. -24fps thing... at least he didn’t said 60 like others, but while it’s true that it’s the frame rate (and the one of most if not all anime), but frame rate modulation is there in the movie. (And that’s a good thing). (And the whole ”the more fps, the better” narative is really like saying ”tri-chromatics are better than mono-chromatics because more colors”) -slowmotion shoot... well for animation it’s not that technical, it was just clever to use it in animation the way he did. (And yeah it’s a bit hard because it require good on-modeling). -i think it’s otsuka in ”joy in motion” clearly state that doing cute girls was easy and should be avoided. Tenshi no tamago (1984) also took this approach, Logh (1988) and honneamise no tsubasa (1987) to. I think where akira shine is not being a one trick poney. Backgrounds are high quality, animation is, colors to. So a lot of non-animator (and cinephiles) could see theses qualities clearly.

A lot of Japanese 90's anime movies had awesome animation. Look at Macross Do You Remember Love? Gorgeous animation.

I saw this film in a tiny Vancouver art house cinema in 1991. It blew me away. An instant amine classic.

Still holds up today. Watch it in Japanese with subtitles. You get a better emotional impact with the original voice actors even if you don’t speak Japanese. The English dub isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t do the movie justice. I first saw Akira on a pirated VHS tape from Hong Kong with fan made English subtitles. I might still have the tape somewhere.

the first time i saw it i was really high. so all that detail i really appreciated. i always liked their drawing above all and never knew why.

This is such a well made video. I love it. Thank you, Tyler.

great video tyler! thanks for sharing :)

It's an absolute masterpiece. It was my introduction to anime in the 90's, and still one of my favorites.

I literally just watched Akira for the first time and you immediately post a vid on it, this is a certified hash brown moment

There was everything else and then there was Akira. Nothing made to this day touches Akira

This movie was ahead of it’s time.

A real masterpiece. I still rewatch it from time to time. At least twice a year 😁

One of my all-time favorite films. Great in-depth video!!

loved this movie since I was like 9. Crazy how much it's impacted my life!

Thanks for this. AKIRA is one of my favorite anime movies of all time. I rewatch it once a year, or at least try to. I have it on DVD.

Every time I watch this movie my eyes just FEAST

It is still amazing all these years later AKIRA has never been matched. It is truly one of a kind

Akira will always be a classic. And that reminds me that I need to watch it again...

Akira is truly timeless and this was a great info-packed video about it. Thanks 🏍

John Romita Jr. (the Marvel Comics artist) actually gave me a bootleg copy of Akira back in the day. I had met him by chance through my Grandmother, who knew his wife through a real estate showing.

Very interesting dive into the making of, thanks for this!

I still can’t believe Akria came out in 1988 I first saw it in 1997 I was 17 and thought it came out in the early 90’s a testament to its time

I remember seeing Akira at the cinema-maybe 1992/'93?-it was the first international re-release, iirc. It was an absolutely stunning experience.

A sub has been earned. Amazing video well done! I love Akira and the manga. Thanks for making this

4k Akira.... I'm seeing a little details I've never seen in my life!!!! I've watched this movie at least a hundred times growing up. It's great to see the art at 100%

Wow greaat video…very interesting techniques and love put into this i never knew…I have a huge appreciation for this movie now and have to go back and watch it

Ever since watching Akira I've been searching for something with a similar style and at least somewhat close to the same quality. I've had basically no luck and am sadly convinced Akira is a one of a kind miracle of animation cinema. I'm hopping to get proven wrong on that though one day

Yep! Another great job. I'll have to rewatch Akira and study the background now.

Truly blessed with an upload in these dark times 🙌

Good stuff man. Subbed, liked, subscribed. Also adds at the end is legendary.

Akira was definitely ahead of it’s time.Freaking adore this movie.

it seems like every few years I learn new crazy details about Akira

The way the film is made alongside the film itself makes this my all time favorite anime film.

The Akira 4K disk is my favorite in my collection or over 160 blu rays (over half of which are 4K UHD disks), it’s truly a stunning film

Very good insight, thx a lot for this vid!

Man the whole voice acting before animating i think would draw out so much more emotional animation from the artists. thats fucking awesome and sounds like a bonkers experience

Thanks for all the little tid-bits on the making, one that stuck out to me was the simple fact that he chose to film it on 70mm film (which is still very rare today)! That was genius and its one of the reasons we got 4K release of the movie - in fact modern 70mm can be scanned to 18K - so I can see re-leases at higher res coming as tech progresses... just crazy amount of detail to the project.

I have heard about this movie anime long when I was younger but I first watched it this year and man It was mindblowing. The animation was so unique and high quality that it almost felt weird.

This video was waaaay too short! I need more!

what a great video. Akira changed my life as a fan of animation

Love the celluloid touch with the coloring. End of an era

This manga/Anime changed my life as an artist. I waited for almost three months for the pre order VHS in 1989. I then set out to acquire the full set of American run of the manga. One of the best of all times. To this day i reference both

Sensational work CinemaTyler. Thank you.

I remember seeing Akira when I was 10 or 11. Blew my mind away, never seen anything like it, I became an anime fan almost immediately.

Nice tech explanation of the finest manga I've ever seen. The art and story line are the best in the business.

Thanks for presenting the background material of this wonderful anime. I was in Japan in the early 1990s and had a LaserDisc and so got Akira for it, in Japanese which I still don't speak very well having moved back to Canada shortly after along with the disc. I still have the disc but not the machine. It was the only anime that I wanted. I'll be getting rid of it soon as I'm downsizing but that's life for me. ... Cheers to you ...

Thank you for doing this video. For me it was like watching a magic trick explained out but without ruining it. Also there is so much story in the books that for me the film was hard to follow and figure out.