38 Is The Criterion Edition Of Akira Subtitled? How Is The Extra Footage?
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This article is from the Anime FAQ, by Steve Pearl with numerous contributions by others.
38 Is The Criterion Edition Of Akira Subtitled? How Is The Extra Footage?
A short review of the Criterion Collection AKIRA:
- The film print was a theatrical print. As such, it has such things as reel change marks and scratches which wouldn't be present on a virgin print. One would hope Streamline Pictures had provided a better print to Criterion.
- The audio (save for the dubbing, that's a completely different issue) is quite good. The surround effects (particularly in the Council meeting scene) sound better in the Japanese soundtrack than in the English one.
- The supplements (described below) are about par for Criterion. One caveat: they mispelled "manga" as "magna" throughout the supplements (a text note with the disc explains this as well).
Contents of the Criterion Collection AKIRA laserdisc:
- The movie (124 minutes long) in CAV format
- English soundtrack in digital tracks, Japanese soundtrack in analog tracks
- Supplements (all supplements are in the disc itself in CAV format):
- Japanese and English trailers for the film
- A description of the various stages of the production of the film (the AKIRA manga, storyboards, character model sheets, layouts and backgrounds, sound production, pencil tests, cel production, photography). Apart from being an excellent description of the process of making an anime film, this section contains a never-animated storyboard for a sequence describing exactly how the "Akira Event" initiated WWIII.
- The first issue of the Epic translation of AKIRA, both in full-page and "video comic" format. The latter is a presentation of panels of the comic, with fades, sweeps, and other special effects to show transitions between panels. I don't think I can really describe it.
- Thousands of pencil tests, chara and mecha designs, and storyboards.
What the laserdisc doesn't have:
- Extra footage (there never existed any extra footage)
- An actual animation cel
- Subtitles (or Closed Captioning)
--From a posting by Enrique Conty
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