Live Action Akira Director Says Its Characters Aren't "Interesting"

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Manga gets more across of the characters if that helps. But even in the movie I always found Tetsuo's shift from inferiority complex to deity really interesting, he'd never had to take responsibility for his actions because he had no power and Kaneda always protected him so when he had LOADS of power and Kaneda refused to let their roles be reversed, he lost his grip a little bit and did reprehensible shit just because he genuinely couldn't understand what it meant to be in the position he was...

Finally, someone who gets it. I think a lot of people can't seem to get past all the shouting of "Kanadaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" and "Tetsuooooooooooooooooo!" to see the character development in the quiet moments. There's things like the way Tetsuo takes out his powerlessness with Kanada on Kaori before realising he was being a dick. Then you have the brash, second in command Yamagata and the subservient but genial Kai. They're not given much screen time to develop, but they're not "boring", especially if you've read the anime. The only thing that seems a bit forced is the way Kanada falls for Kei (what's with all the "K"s?), but that's a minor quibble and again the anime expands on that.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

The original Akira movie was pretty overratted. Besides its phenomenally awesome animation, it's story was great for the first 40 minutes then stumbled to an ending for the rest of the movie. The characters were pretty thin, making it hard to care for any of them.

Akira the manga however, was about 6 volumes. Each volume was around 300 pages each. They tried to cram that into an hour and 40 minutes with the movie. It looked pretty but barely made sense.

If the director of this live action movie had simply read the manga, he'd have a better idea on how to flesh out the characters due to not having to work with basically blank slates.

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

Welp, this adaptation is DOOM-ED. Though I did dig "Chronicle", that's a pretty stupid generalization for this guy to make. Especially considering the plethora of movies/literature/videogames/manga/anime that are chock full-o fantastic and singular characters.

That said, it ain't like "Akira" (The movie, I've yet to dig into the manga) was some grand Shakespearean work, so I can see where he's coming from in reference to it.

 

[AstaresPanda]

There. Harry Partridge just saved them 3 years and $150 million.

lol when i watched this vid way back i though it was spot on, and the way this guy goes on makes me feel like he is trying to justify making it shit and just like every other hollywood watered down over hyped crap.

 

[Grabehn]

I know that Akira is a thing, but I've never seen it nor have been interested in doing so, but I do know that if a guy that I know nothing about says that it has nothing interesting about it... there's something weird there.

 

[vid87]

I will agree that Akira's characters weren't particularly complex and that they are indeed worth fleshing out. However, while I don't have a deep knowledge of Japan's philosophy on story-telling and characterization, him making that broad of a statement means I'm not seeing whatever the hell this thing turns out to be on sheer principle.

 

[Vausch]

>.>

No ... not even Tetsuo was interesting. No one was, the movie just isn't that good no matter how you look at it.

As for the 'Japan doesn't make strong story's' line.

That's funny at how laughably wrong that is (Grave of the Fire Fly's says hi, so does Wolf Children)

But what ever, his 'corrections' will likely make a below average movie worse, so at least we have the train wreck to look forward to.

Yeah, I mean what's interesting about a person discovering power that no man should possess as they gradually learn to control and abuse it, eventually alienating all those that he called friends since childhood to form a dictatorship as his former best friend works with the people that created him to put a stop to his reign as he gradually loses control over his own body as the metaphor of an all consuming but childish nature personifies itself as a huge, all consuming mess of flesh resembling a foetus?

In any case, the live action version is supposed to be more manga focused and that had 6 volumes as thick as phone books. There's a lot more fleshed out in there. The movie came out before the manga was even finished.

This is one of those times when you need a position in the script-writing process called the Book Smacker. They've read the source material and know everything about it through and through. When someone on the project says "It's good, but what if-", they're immediately smacked with the book.

 

[Infernai]

You used Berserk as an example of interesting and good characters.

My love for you...is like a truck.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Here's a new headline for you: "Online Anime Fan Says Live Action Akira Director Is A Braindead, Talentless Hack".

 

[faefrost]

"Never have strong characters", COME ON.

He's not wrong about the characters being flat in Akira though. The most interesting character is Tetsuo, because of all the changes he goes through, but the rest aren't very well developed. It's an action movie plot(or rather six of them), characters are not one of the stronger points and it's never the focus of that story. Having said that, I don't think I disliked any of the characters. They aren't bad, there just isn't much to them and they get short scenes so the action moves.

It's not really unique to the Akira anime either. Even in the Manga most of the characters are kinda flat and one note. Nothing ressembling an arc or story to the lot of them, save maybe Tetsuo. If they could be fleshed out a bit without radically altering their base characters or the overall story it would go a long way to actually building on and improving the story.

As a western non Japanese Example, honestly most of Tolkiens characters as written are a little flat and dull. At least outside of a core few. Tolkiens love was the world and the lore and the language. The actual characters were more just there to carry the rest along. Boromir in the books was a kind of un interesting douche. Now compare that to his portrayal by Sean Bean on screen. Love or Hate Jackson's adaptions, Boromir stands as the one thing he did right. Just a few simple lines or emotions here and there. A little back story and suddenly he becomes a full fledged character that had audiences in tears when he died.

If someone is bright enough to do this with Akira, to actually make Kaneda less of a flat one note douche, and to give him some personality and motivation, who am I to complain?

 

[yatterman1]

if he is losing interest or thinks the characters are not interesting then he needs to either 1 re-watch anime or 2 look for a new movie to direct.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Yeah, I mean what's interesting about a person discovering power that no man should possess as they gradually learn to control and abuse it, eventually alienating all those that he called friends since childhood to form a dictatorship as his former best friend works with the people that created him to put a stop to his reign as he gradually loses control over his own body as the metaphor of an all consuming but childish nature personifies itself as a huge, all consuming mess of flesh resembling a fetus?

Would help if there was any one in the movie to actually interesting enough pre super-power abuse to make any of that matter, sadly, there is not. For me, it felt like a chore to sit though, and any movie I'm sitting there going 'is it over yet' isn't gonna get a favorable write up.

This is one of those times when you need a position in the script-writing process called the Book Smacker. They've read the source material and know everything about it through and through. When someone on the project says "It's good, but what if-", they're immediately smacked with the book.

This is a good idea. Any movie based on an IP with an extensive lore should have some one like this.

 

[FPLOON]

Has ANYONE told this guy to read the manga before making a "blatant" comment about "every" major character in Akira being totally "uninteresting"? No?? ...Well, there's you problem...

This dude needs to pick up the manga books, read it, then come back to us with a re-statement... Considering I barely know this guy and his work, I really do NOT want this to be that moment of hating the fact that he's making a live-action version of an anime movie, that was based on its [better] manga counterpart... without him knowing about the manga he could always refer back to at any time, in case if he's stumped about how to handle those "uninteresting" moments in the anime movie version of Akira...

 

[SinisterGehe]

So what? You going to give Kaneda a pointless love interest subplot. Maybe put something in about Kaneda and Tetsuo having abusive father. Add few explosions and rewrite the story to have them both riding a motorbike to the sunset?

If the script has gone through more than 2 sets of writers and directors doesn't that usually already tell you something?

Also:
Princess Monoke, Little Viking Prince, Planeteers and Steamboy would like to say "Hi". And I am saying this as a person who doesn't like Anime/manga/japanese culture - I might not like it, but I sure as hell do respect and appreciate it as an art form.

Also hollywood is not allowed to complain about characters being 2-dimensional until they can make a serious action movie with female protagonist that is not "sexy", behaves like a normal human being and doesn't have tragic backstory, but is still able to hold audience's attention.
(Don't bring up Alien here or I slap you with a fresh trout, that was in the past)

 

[michael87cn]

Uh.... Live Action Akira? what....?!

Do people really want to see people morphing into giant blobs of flesh... the real life version?....

Akira was only popular because of its shock value and (at that time) unusualness... (not a word, but I don't care).

It's not actually that interesting of a story. Definitely going to be very very awkward to see live action...

 

[Vausch]

Yeah, I mean what's interesting about a person discovering power that no man should possess as they gradually learn to control and abuse it, eventually alienating all those that he called friends since childhood to form a dictatorship as his former best friend works with the people that created him to put a stop to his reign as he gradually loses control over his own body as the metaphor of an all consuming but childish nature personifies itself as a huge, all consuming mess of flesh resembling a fetus?

Would help if there was any one in the movie to actually interesting enough pre super-power abuse to make any of that matter, sadly, there is not. For me, it felt like a chore to sit though, and any movie I'm sitting there going 'is it over yet' isn't gonna get a favorable write up.

I guess I don't fully understand why you wouldn't find them interesting, but then again I've seen all 3 versions of Akira at least a dozen times and written papers on them for school, so I guess I was looking harder.

If that comes across as antagonistic, I swear it's unintentional. Just couldn't think of a better way to word it.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Yeah, I mean what's interesting about a person discovering power that no man should possess as they gradually learn to control and abuse it, eventually alienating all those that he called friends since childhood to form a dictatorship as his former best friend works with the people that created him to put a stop to his reign as he gradually loses control over his own body as the metaphor of an all consuming but childish nature personifies itself as a huge, all consuming mess of flesh resembling a fetus?

Would help if there was any one in the movie to actually interesting enough pre super-power abuse to make any of that matter, sadly, there is not. For me, it felt like a chore to sit though, and any movie I'm sitting there going 'is it over yet' isn't gonna get a favorable write up.

I guess I don't fully understand why you wouldn't find them interesting, but then again I've seen all 3 versions of Akira at least a dozen times and written papers on them for school, so I guess I was looking harder.

If that comes across as antagonistic, I swear it's unintentional. Just couldn't think of a better way to word it.

I was really only watching it cause I was told it was 'awesome, you need to see this!' and they brought it over. It's not like it was something I sought out, but the friend that brought it over wasn't really wrong about other anime so I gave it a go.

So there's nothing to figure out, I just didn't enjoy the movie. It's really just that simple.

 

[lacktheknack]

*Draws breath* AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

oh god i wish they would just stop, while it's far from some untouchable text why bother using it if you are just going to hack it to pieces.

Because anime translates to live-action about as well as a fish translates into a steak dinner.

They're two different animals entirely. Whereas anime can get away with more stylized everything and less emphasis on subtlety, live-action has to incorporate a different outlook or it's going to be terrible.

EDIT: And before you go telling me that I'm awful for saying that anime isn't subtle, A. it's not, and B. it's just an example.

Imagine if Disney tried to make "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" based entirely off the text. Yeah, book purists were scandalized, but to hell with that. A direct adaptation would have been painful and awful.

 

[seditary]

I'd like to ask this guy a question.

'Who do you think will come to watch your movie?'

Its bad when the director's answer appears to be 'hopefully nobody', just like everyone else.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Say what you will, but I have to somewhat respect a director who looks at the creative source material and just announces "Yeah, all of this, the stuff you all wanted? SHITE. Now stand back and watch how a professional does it!" It's like the worst kind of fan-fiction writer!