Akira - Movie - Steelbook 4K UHD
A**R
Akira nuff said.
Nice red shiny case. The visuals are still amazing after all these years. AKIRA is a true masterpiece of anime cinema.
J**
UHD AKIRA
No issues, Good price, I'm happy.
W**T
Collectors must
Such a nice steelbook cover absolutely love it
R**T
As shown
Well worth it.
F**D
4k Review
4k looks great. Very filmik, sounded great.
R**E
Some improvements here and there, but some scenes not as good as the regular DVD
This Blu-Ray isn't much better than the DVD that I've had for many years. Some scenes may appear to be sharper on Blu-Ray, but some scenes are better on the DVD. So, since there is an inconsistency of the improved quality of the film, I see no reason to buy the Blu-Ray version. I borrowed my nephew's version to compare because the store I saw it at wanted over $35 for the Blu-Ray. But, I've learned by watching them both, side by side, that my DVD version is just as good.You know, my previous Samsung Progressive scan DVD player with the HDMI hook-up option, really made my old DVD's look better than my first DVD player did, anyway. So, if your DVD player has the HDMI hook-up, you're going to find that replacing your DVD's with Blu-Ray may not impress you with any visual improvements that you'd be hoping for. Although, I have discover that some Blu-Ray releases have shown a greater re-mastering effort, but only because the DVD version wasn't mastered very well in the first place. I've got some great looking DVD's. I don't think it will be necessary to replace them with Blu-Ray unless they sell for maybe $10 or less.Anyway, this is a movie that I have on DVD that I thought would probably look better on Blu-ray Hi-Definition, but I wasn't impressed. Besides, I made an expense vow that I plan to stick to. I will only replace my absolute favorite movies (which are about 60 of my 500+ movies) at any price under $30. But, anything else that I already have on DVD that's not incredibly fantastic, I will only buy the new Blu-ray version if it's $9.99 or less, and if it is a great movie. I have to initiate a discipline for myself so I don't go wasting my money on replacing movies that I'll just watch again, once more maybe, and then have it just sit on my DVD shelf as a part of a proud collection that may never be watched again anytime soon.I'm definitely going to be very selective of how I buy Blu-Ray discs. I've bought just 30 BD discs in the past year and I just bought my first Blu-Ray disc player. I just wasn't that anxious to buy a Blu-ray disc player although I know I've bought some Blu-Ray discs where I'd like to someday see a better quality picture of a film that I truly enjoy.. When I eventually bought about 24 Blu-Ray discs, I bought my first Blu-Ray disc player. But, I must maintain spending discipline on my Blu-Ray disc expenses! It's very important that I live this way for my movie library. Because, before you know it, they will eventually come out with something better than Blu-ray, like 1500p resolution. You know, that's not too far-fetched to imagine. Blu-Ray is simply not the end to improved video quality. I hope you all know that.UPDATE: I've just recently bought a new 47" LCD TV. Maybe this was a mistake because it is NOW that I see a great improvement of my Blu-Ray DVD's over my regular DVD's. So, I guess the only way that I can continue enjoying my regular DVD's is to keep watching my DVD's only on my 32" LCD TV with the HDMI hook-up because at 32 inches, DVD's look very much like High Definition. On the 47" TV, regular DVD's just don't look that good.
M**E
Perfect release
Absolutely stunning release of one of my favorite anime films of all time, the HDR, detail and colours are fantastic!
K**1
About the 2-disc DVD set
The 2-disc DVD set of AKIRA surpasses in many ways even the excellent Criterion's laserdisc edition from 1992. The brand-new video transfer is noticeably better: colors, especially the primary reds and greens, look more brilliant, flesh tones are more realistic, and there is a bit MORE picture at the bottom (in particular, the shot at time 1:16:23 reveals part of Kaneda's crouching body that was not seen on old transfers). The 5.1 English track, though not state of the art, is highly active and satisfying. The new English dub and subtitles are better written and spoken, making the characterizations more real and the story more comprehensible. In the scene where the colonel meets the senator (Chapter 8), the old English dub had the senator sounding concerned and supportive. On the new dub, he sounds cold and indifferent, in keeping with his subsequent body gesture of fiddling with his plants. The new dub also has characters speaking in correct pitches -- Kei's voice is now lower, and Masaru no longer sounds like an old man, but like a child, just like on the Japanese track. Also welcomed are the correct pronunciations of Japanese names: AH-kee-ra, KAH-nee-dah, KAH-oh-ri. Last but not least, the new dub makes more frequent uses of strong language to enhance reality. The DVD supplements include interviews of the voice actors for the new dub, who certainly deserve to be mentioned.Here is one thing that this DVD pales in comparison to the Criterion LD. The LD included still-frames of the entire first issue of the original Akira comic novel. It is a shame that this DVD does not include even one screen shot of the actual comic strips that inspired this movie (it does include shots of the COVERS of the comic novels) just to benefit those who have never seen them or do not own the LD.Other DVD supplements include an excellent 48-minute making-of documentary (the Criterion LD had excerpts of it). It has plenty of behind-the-scenes footage: artists drawing pencil tests, actors recording their lines, musicians composing a score with wood xylophones, photographers taking shots of finished "cels". We are told that it was not the norm in Japanese animation films to record the dialogs before drawing the pictures, as it was done for AKIRA. The youthful director Katsuhiro Otomo appears in his own 30-minute interview segment (not on the LD), where he recalls various processes of making the Akira comics and the Akira movie, and speculates on what he will do next. Yet another half-hour segment, "Akira Sound Clips", explains how the movie's score was conceptualized and recorded. The most prized supplement on the DVD is perhaps the mammoth collection of the film's storyboards, character designs, and background designs. The storyboards, done by Otomo himself, are the most meticulously designed ones I've ever seen; each of them is denoted with Scene/Cut number (under "S" and "C" on the left), notes, dialogs, and time of duration of the shot. To help locating a storyboard among the 4500 of them, the printed chapter index is cross-referenced with Scene/Cut numbers of its corresponding storyboards. Rather disappointing is a short featurette that tersely describes the new video transfer of the DVD with only interviews of 3 technicians and no demonstration of the restoration by way of before-and-after comparisons.There is also an interesting feature called "capsule option". When it is enabled, a capsule icon pops up on the screen from time to time while the movie is playing, and when you activate the icon, the screen pauses and shows you English text translation of the Japanese words on the screen -- traffic signs, graffitis, postings, etc.
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