The movie is almost 30 years old. It’s crazy to think about, actually. It was years ahead of its time, in terms of its scope and tone.
I remember when I watched it for the first time. My college roommate David had the special edition DVD, the one that came in the tin pill case. I was *stunned* that it had been made in the mid-80s. All these types of anime movies I’d seen to that point had all been made like 10 years later. Probably just my own ignorance, but I do know that Akira was a landmark film for Japanese cinema.
I saw it tonight on Bluray, and it was dope. It’s easy to see why it was such a big deal. Characters in anime can have a really hard time translating sometimes for us “western” audiences, and this movie is really no exception, but they do *just* enough. The relationship between Kaneda and Tetsuo has a great pay-off in the end…the end: where sooooo many of these high-concept anime stories fall apart. Akira actually doesn’t. It has one of the more straight-forward of these existential endings, and it works because of the character relationships.
It’s not a perfect movie, guys. Watching it, you can see holes; a lot of which I’m sure are there because the movie was essentially a condensation of 2,000 pages of manga stories. Things that the movie just takes for granted that you’d accept, when there actually is no justification. Some of the characters, as well, especially the General bad guy/good guy are particularly one-dimensional.
In the end, however, the star is absolutely 100% hands-down the visual scope of the film. IT’S AMAZING. The animation, strictly-speaking isn’t all that super impressive (read: the movement). But the visuals, the pictures that they create…unparalleled. Still, I think. Even with Evangelion, which is really the only other anime that I have a ton of knowledge on that was super impressive with certain tableaus.
Today was a very nice day off. I didn’t get any work done, even writing, which means I’ll have to make those pages up tomorrow. But, man, it was necessary. My exhaustion level really caught up to me at around 7pm tonight, and I passed out for two hours. Like PASSED OUT. Solid. Woke up two hours later like “what the fuck just happened.”
We had brunch with our friend Jake and Brooke this morning at a Belgian place down the street. Good food, good convo, and Jake showed off his new car. He’s leasing a brand new Mini Cooper.
Then, it was agility with both the Coops and the Coco. Coco got some basic training off on her own with Liz while I ran Coops through the course in actual class. They both crushed it, of course. I think Coco is really going to like agility once she gets it to click in her head. She loves to run around, and she loves treats. Perfect combo right there.
I watched the Niners game, which I’d recorded. We won. That was nice. Then it was some apartment work for tomorrow, and off to walk the pups around for their nighttime walkies. And…that about sums it up. I plan to sleep in tomorrow, and take a least a couple naps. Really make sure I recharge these batteries before wading back into the working frenzy.
Good night, guys. See you tomorrow!