AKIRA.....THE FILM????? !!! I just heard about this..

[ParanoiaDragon]

Was this the english dubbed one?

It likely had English dubbing, but it was the LaserDisc and it probably had both soundtracks... can't recall if it had subtitles.  But it was also one of the first animes I had seen, though I probably didn't watch it until 1991 or so. 

The first true anime I saw was at some convention in 87 or 88 maybe of a girl in a sailor suit jumping around kicking holes in giant robots.  It was playing at some dealer's booth and when he saw that I was just standing there watching it, he turned it off.  I have no idea what it was, but for a long time after that I would look at LaserDiscs to see if I could rent it.  Imagine my surprise that nearly ALL animes have some chick in a sailor suit.  I rented one and I'm not sure if it was it or not.  One of the other girls in the video I rented was very interested in making the main sailor suit girl hers.  It had great dialog like "I must make her mine!".  No further explanation was offered.  Japanese with English subtitles.  I maybe have a clip of it on S-VHS somewhere.  It sucked.

If you're still wondering what that anime was that you saw years ago, it deffinitly sounds like Project A-ko.  I have the collection, though, I haven't watched them all.  I just recall watching the first one eons ago, & enjoying it.

[albinoMithos]

Hah - Keranu understood what I meant 

Ha......I totally misread your post Bonknuts.  Many apologies>  

[Digi.k]

There is a new English dub version.

I sure as hell bought it as soon as it came out on Pioneer's anime DVD range.. on Import of course!

Maybe 'cause you guys didn't see it bank in '89? It was a big deal then.  Also, "anime" wasn't around back then.

You're kidding right?  1989?  Anime was around then.  Was it in America, not the large volumes of it we get today, but it was around.

Akira is what brought anime into the mainstream so yea its kinda a very big deal.. I along with a lot of my friends watched anime long before Akira came out, but until akira arrived we just called them "cartoons" like most of the stuff being shown on saturdays/sundays/after school hours with very little knowledge that they were made in japan etc.. 

Only after Akira debuted in the west did anime explode into western mainstream and things like Transformers, Ulysses 31, Mysterious Cities of gold and other stuff that they showed on TV did people began to be informed that it was coming/associated from Japan..

I'm also pretty certain that if you visited chinatown or went to japanese stores or joined a fan club (where people shared their tapes and newsletters) could you get some exposure to anime parafinalia.  Anime/manga was rarely sold in comic shops back then.. it was mostly Marvel, DC comics and a few smaller independant ones.

Plus internet was hardly around then..and importing stuff like pc engines were in its infancy when it was mostly Atari, colecovison, Intellivison, Commodore, Spectrum, and  Nintendo started world domination

This is especially true to English residential folk like myself.. but even going to hong kong and watching loads of japanese animated shows (and i can only seem to remember stuff like Candy Candy, Magical Angel Creamy mami, Doraemon to name a few)  I still didn't know it was called anime till Akira movie arrived.. Although I can't quite remember when the Akira manga was translated and released officially in Western shores.. but it was in colour and released either by Dark Horse Comics or Epic comics...  bah i was an idiot to sell them back then .. poor student blah blah blah

sorry about all these pics but I just had to load up AKIRA again because of this thread!

[Bonknuts]

I had tons of anime back then ('90). Lots of it wasn't even subtitled. There was no mention of anime anywhere though. I remember seeing the term japanimation quite often. It wasn't until later that I saw japanime and finally anime.

[RR1980]

this may be completely out of topic but has any of you guys played the Akira game on the Famicom? I don't understand Japanese so I didn't get beyond the begining when they were at the police station but I thought for a famicom game the graphics looked pretty awesome and it really did the source material justice. I am surprised with so many Akira fans out there there still hasn't been fan translated! :-S

[rainbow_bright]

Haven't played it, but oddly enough, there is an Akira game for the Amiga cd-32!

[ceti alpha]

I had tons of anime back then ('90). Lots of it wasn't even subtitled. There was no mention of anime anywhere though. I remember seeing the term japanimation quite often. It wasn't until later that I saw japanime and finally anime.

I also was more familiar with the term "Japanimation".

[Joe Redifer]

So, what is the appeal of Akira?  It seems pretentious to me.  Or at least its fans do.

[Ninja Spirit]

AKA the first level of "Last Resort" on Neo Geo

[Bonknuts]

AKA the first level of "Last Resort" on Neo Geo

 Haha. It does. I originally thought Snatcher when I first saw that posted pic.

[TR0N]

AKA the first level of "Last Resort" on Neo Geo

I thought that as well when i frist played last resort on the neogeo.

[Joe Redifer]

No, Snatcher unabashedly rips off Blade Runner.  Last Resort unabashedly rips off Akira.  The Japanese sure are not shy about ripping off styles.

[Ninja Spirit]

Try this on for size. Randam Hajile and Feyd Rautha

[ceti alpha]

lol I always knew Sting was a ripoff artist.

[Necromancer]

lol I always knew Sting was a ripoff artist.

Did Sting borrow Muad'Dib's prescience?  Dune came out four years before Snatcher.