After two solid weeks waiting for my US blu ray to ship from AxelMusic I canceled the order in derision. It's not their fault really, just Bandai being elitist gits. Bandai

After two solid weeks waiting for my US blu ray to ship from AxelMusic I canceled the order in derision. It's not their fault really, just Bandai being elitist gits. Bandai have told retails that the slipcover and booklet are now OOP and it's just the bare bones version from now on.

I ordered the Japanese version from CDJapan instead since it's indentical to the US disc. It comes with the booklet and slipcase as standard so I'll let you all know have I get with the image and audio comparison.

- Phillip

Can't wait for this one. I actually saw Akira in HD almost a year ago on Starz Edge and was fairly blown away then. But it will be nice to have the Japanese track on there. When it comes to the English dub, I'm one of those who greatly prefers the original English version--it's the version I first watched so many moons ago, so it made a lasting impression on me. In particular, the colonel's voice is way better and I like his dialogue better in the first dub: "They don't teach tact at the academy." A good summary of the versions is here: www.usaanime.us
So for the time being, I'll have to make do without my favorite audio track of the film, but this is still a must purchase, without a doubt. Akira remains by far my favorite animated feature, and it has lost none of its impact these last 20 years.

I have now done some proper comparisons between the Japanese and English tracks. The Japanese track is phenomenal. The English track, by comparison, is flat and lifeless. You are doing yourself a great dis-service listening to the English track. In the crowd scenes (at the bridge for example - no spoilers here ) you can clearly hear the individual people's screams and anguish overlapping each other. The music sounds gorgeous and when the action heats up...... This just isn't present in the English Track. The difference is astonishing.

The difference may be less noticeable on systems incapable of reproducing the 192/24 track however, so depending on our setup, milage may vary.

A few initial thoughts.

AKIRA (1988)
US Region Free release
AVC Transfer. 50GB disc
Dolby True HD Japanese
Dolby True HD English

After a very long Blu-ray wait (I had this on pre-order for it's original announced release back in 2007), finally it is in my hands.

A few initial thoughts.

I'm not going to discuss the film. If you know it and want to read the following mini-review, you don't need a recap. If you are new to Akira, you'll either love it or hate it. Take a punt or put "akira" in that google window and take a look. But if you do take a punt, rest assured this ain't no 80's anime like Astroboy or Kimba.

First it is pillerboxed. 1.7% to be exact.

Picture quality is a little dissapointing. There are many flecks and a few instances of dirt. At one stage I think I even saw the tape used to hold one frame together. That being said, this is all 100% source related. The flecks get a lot better after the police station. It's like the first reel has been shown a few times more than the rest. I am not sure how this could be rectified without a full restoration including full recoloring and that may destroy the integrity of the film. Not as bad as Royal Space Force: Wings of Honniamise, but disappointing nonetheless.

The picture quality is amazing. I know, contradicting what I just said, but, the color reproduction is amazing. These are the colors the painters saw when they painted the original cells. The detail is top notch too. Nothing is missing. Nothing is too dark or blurry or suffering from artifacts or compression issues.

The transfer itself is flawless. Any issues you have with the picture quality have nothing to do with the transfer and everything to do with the source. I have not yet detected a single artifact (in fact switching between my R1 DTS edition and the blu-ray I have found instances of banding and mosquito noise on the DVD have been completely eliminated in this blu-ray transfer).

The problem with the blu-ray is it is so good all the little things stand out.....badly. Rest assured though, any faults (including the annoying "jumps" when the girls complain their men are like fish out of water without their bikes) are sure enough there in the DVD release. They just seem more pronounced when viewed in glorious high definition. If you are in any doubt as to how good this transfer is compared to what we have had before (and I've had copies going back as far as a 1990 UK Vhs tape) stick in the DVD and be amazed. I only watched the DVD 2 months back and was very satisfied with that, but now.... WOW. And side by side and A-B comparisons between the DVD and the Blu-ray.....DOUBLE WOW! I am usually happy with DVD's. Not as good as blu-ray, but I won't eschew the entire format because high def is here (when I can get (and have) everything I want on blu-ray maybe I'll retire the old DVD player). I won't go back to DVD on this one (I did with Fearless, after I saw the Directors Cut on DVD I watched it over the HD DVD until the directors cut was released on blu-ray - HD is at times brilliant but the movie comes first and DVD is livable). This Blu-ray absolutely kills the DVD, and I am upscaling the DVD to full 1080p using the DVDO Edge upscaler so I am watching the best the DVD could be. (As a side note, the PAL DVD transfer suffers from bad interlacing issues. The NTSC releases don't have this setback. A full bitrate DTS track was also available in the US and Japan but sadly not in Australia. This was my favorite DTS track on any DVD release.)

The audio, well lets just say I think I have some new demo material. I am hearing things I have never heard in this track before (I have only listened to the original Japanese - and quite a few times at that). The opening drum beats alone are some of the best audio I have heard on any format (and I am including music formats as well on that). I could listen to an entire track of the drums and feel I was there. I do not think any film from this era has such a powerful audio track. It assaults from all corners of the room. The use of percussion as previously mentioned also helps move the pace of the story along. Any disappointment you feel in the picture while watching this will be constantly forgotten as you think "I don't think I have ever heard that before" or "man that is nice sound quality".

Back to the picture, to be fair, this is 100% hand drawn animated cells layered over each other and then photographed 21 years ago. No CGI. Without giving the source to an outfit like Criterion along with a blank cheque it doesn't get better than this. The film has never looked better. The film has never sounded better.

The subs are a slightly newer translation. Only minor changes though.

This ain't no Pixar digital to digital transfer. This is a 21 year old 100% hand drawn film. And it kicks ar$e!!!!!

To fans of the English dub, this is the newer Pioneer dub, not the original one. I listened to a little and aside from the voices all sound wimpy it was as good as the Japanese track.

The time of Lord Akira's return is here. Join the revolution.