Movie Trivia for Akira
Memorable Movie Quotes
The Colonel: It’s a soldier’s duty. You wouldn’t understand.
Kiyoko: The future is not a straight line. There are many different pathways. We must try to decide that future for ourselves.
Yamagata: You got a bad attitude, pops. Lighten up before your arteries harden.
Policeman: I’m not that much older than you, so don’t call me pops or you’ll find yoursef polishin’ my boots with your tongue!
The Colonel: Enough! Open up your eyes and look at the big picture; You’re all puppets of corrupt politicians and capitalists. Don’t you understand, it’s utterly pointless to fight each other.
Trivia
This was one of the first Japanese anime films to have the character’s voices recorded before they were animated. While this is the typical practice in U.S. animation, in Japan the animation is generally produced first.
The film was re-released in 2001 with a new voice dub and soundtrack, reportedly costing over $1 million US Dollars.
At one point in the 1990s, Sony contemplated a live-action version of the film, but scrapped the idea when the projected budget went north of US$300 million.
The music for the film was completed before any of the composers saw a frame of film or read the script. The music did have to be edited to fit some scenes though.
The production budget was nearly $10 Million US Dollars, a record sum in Japanese animation film.
The movie consists of 2,212 shots and 160,000 single pictures, 2-3 times more than usual, using 327 different colors (another record in animation film), 50 of which were exclusively created for the film. The reason for this statistic is that most of the movie takes place at night, a setting that is traditionally avoided by animators because of the increased color requirements.
Because Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd. licensed Akira through Manga Entertainment rather than Pioneer/Geneon, the Australian DVD release of Akira has both the original Streamline dub (which Manga has the license to) and Pioneer/Geneon’s new English dub.
Goofs
Kai’s socks appear to change color a number of times throughout the film, often from shot to shot within the same scene.
Near the beginning of the film, in the street bar, the sign on the jukebox changes from “, MASTAR” to “MASTER” between shots.
In The Credits
Credits roll with outer space-like footage of stars and galaxies, in the background.
Box Office Info In USA
Gross: $439,162