Akira is a legendary manga and anime that has inspired generations of animators. One of the more iconic scenes in the anime is the ‘Akira slide’ where Kaneda slides to stop his bike after defeating the leader of the Clown Gang. This moment has been spoofed, copied and homaged to the hilt and a video has been created to show the influence.
Kaneda's Theme Disco Reprise is Italian Awesomeness
Akira was a seminal film for so many reasons and the soundtrack is a large part of why it blew away so many people. The stirring and haunting soundtrack by the collective Geinoh Yamashirogumi is a masterpiece, mixing stirring beats with more traditional elements of Japanese music, such as gamalan (check out my review of the vinyl soundtrack here). YouTuber Peter Zimmerman has created an Italian pop mix of the 'Kaneda' track and even though it sounds like a weird mix it works. Check out the track below and let me know what you think.
Anime Architecture Exhibition at the House of Illustration
The House of Illustration is a great gallery that holds some wonderful exhibitions. I've been to a few but when I heard that they were going to be holding the UK’s first ever exhibition of handmade background illustrations for classic sci-fi manga and anime films, including works from Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Patlabor: The Movie and Metropolis I was sold! I was a huge manga nerd in my teens and so the chance to see some of the original artwork is too good to miss out on.
The exhibition will run from 26 May to 10 Sep 2017 and I will definitely be going. The link to purchase tickets are below.
Akira CGI Trailer
Whilst Otomo's masterpiece Akira is in Hollywood development hell two fans of the epic comic series and manga have taken on the challenge to create a CGI Akira trailer. The results are suitably awesome with famous scenes from the animation recreated in amazing CGI. The trailer starts with Kaneda and his biker gang, the Capsules, pursuing the rival gang, the Clowns. The Neo-Tokyo scenes are recreated and the red colour bands from the lights snake in their wake. Check out the trailer below and let me know what you think!
Ghost In the Shell Movie Teaser Trailers Released
The first wave of trailers promoting the Ghost in the Shell movie have been released. The movie, based on the manga comics by Masamune Shirow and the animation from the 90s, is a classic of hard sci-fi. I can't wait to see it and whilst disappointed about the main role not going to an Asian actress I was actually quite pleased with the casting of Scarlett Johansson as Major Kusanagi and especially Takeshi Kitano as the Chief of Section 9 Daisuke Aramaki is great. So now it's just a 6 month wait to see how the movie turns out. If it's good we may finally see the Akira and Battle Angel Alita movies we have been waiting so long for... and being optimistic, they may actually be good. Well, one can hope anyways!
So without further ado, let's see the trailers.
Springfield is About to E.X.P.L.O.D.E with Bartkira
One is the manga that brought Japanese animation to the masses and is considered a bonafide classic, the other the longest running comedy series of all time with some of the most iconic characters of all time- combine them both and you have Bartkira.
Artist Ryan Humphrey had the idea of merging the worlds of The Simpsons to that of Akira, however what started off as an internet meme has grown into a collaborative project of over 100 artists who are recreating the 2000 page Otomo epic in Matt Groening's image. The first 3 graphic novels have been complete and are available to read for free. Also recently there has been a Bartkira trailer created and whilst it is a bit shaky in places the fact that this is a collaborative fan-made passion project is really heartening to hear.
Akira (Kaneda's Theme) from Player Piano
Akira is an undisputed classic manga, even if no-one fully understands what is going on. Part of the charm is the otherwordly music composed by Shoji Yamashiro and recorded by Geinō Yamashirogumi. Award winning Composer & Pianist Sonya Belousova and Director Tom Grey bring the classic Japanese manga to life in the premiere episode of Player Piano on the Geek & Sundry Network. Featuring ace Cellist Eru Matsumoto the music video recalls the manga and anime film well with authentic looking costumes and mood. Enjoy!