The challenge, Day 12
I’ve always been a fan of animated film, even after my childhood. Something about them makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside… Yet some intrigue and excite me instead. I split animated film into two, in all honesty: Western animation (Disney, etc.) and Japanese Animation (Studio Ghibli, etc). So what is my favourite animated film? A Western or Japanese animation? Scroll down!
DAY 12 – Your Favourite Animated Film:
Akira is a masterpiece. This classic, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, is an adaptation of said director’s 1000+ page manga. This explains the pacing of the film, and sometimes the rush to quickly introduce characters at the start. Having said that, this isn’t even an issue with the film. Akira single-handedly put anime on the map in Western society, and has played a huge part in obliterating the idiotic stereotype that animes are for children.
Akira is an adult and mature anime; you wouldn’t show this to kids. Even from the start, it presents Neo-Tokyo in an extremely bleak and dirty manner through the dark colour palette and brash tone of the side characters at the bar. Fear is painted on the face of a man drinking at the bar, which also shows how scary and unpredictable this post World War III Tokyo is.
Why is Akira my favourite animated film? Its character development is commendable, especially when you consider that it has to transport 1000+ pages of manga into a 2 hour animation. Also, probably the most epic thing about this animation is that it is entirely pencil-drawn. Yep, you read that right. All pencil-drawn. After watching the blu-ray version of this, I was perplexed by its visual beauty. The grain remains in the film, which is great because you don’t want the quality to be augmented too much; you still want it to look natural. But the blu-ray does a fantastic job in making the film “hold up”. You could air this today on TV and it wouldn’t look like a film from 1988.
If you haven’t already watched Akira, then what the hell are you waiting for? Seriously. Go. Now.
— Day 13 tomorrow — Follow me on twitter: @MediaMoar —