Akira (アキラ) is a 1988 Japanese animated science fiction film directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto. The screenplay is based on Otomo's manga of the same name.
The film has become a hugely popular cult film and is widely considered to be a landmark in Japanese animation.
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Dubbing History[]
It should be noted that Akira is a trickier anime product to dub due to the fact that, unlike standard anime procedure, the original voices were recorded first and the mouth movements were drawn to match (pre-lay). Traditionally in anime, mouth movement animation is done with simplistic mouth flapping while the recording is done afterward (post-sync).
The movie was first dubbed by Electric Media, Inc. and Wally Burr Recording for Kodansha Ltd. for the purposes of export sales. Accounting for the adaptational challenges imposed by the film using pre-lay synchronization, the dialogue often eschews accuracy for the sake of conforming to the mouth movements of the characters. It was included on Laser-Video Entertainment Ltd.'s bilingual laserdisc release in Hong Kong. Distributed by Streamline Pictures, it saw a limited theatrical release in North America on December 25, 1989. This English-dubbed version of movie is often incorrectly referred to as the "Streamline dub" because of this, not helped by the fact that the voice cast had a number of regulars for Streamline's later in-house dubs.
In 2001, a new dub was produced by Animaze for Pioneer Entertainment's DVD release, which also saw a limited release in theaters. Compared to the original dub, this dub adheres closer to the original Japanese script, though still attempts to sync the dialogue with the mouth movements. The Animaze version was the only English dub distributed in the United States for several years afterwards, while the original dub appeared on the UK and Australian DVDs. Following the release of FUNimation Entertainment's Blu-ray version of the film in 2013, both dubs have since been featured in American home media releases. A 4K Blu-ray disc was released on December 22, 2020.
Cast[]
Additional Voices[]
Electric Media Dub
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Pioneer/Animaze Dub
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Notes[]
- There is contradictory information about the voice director for the original dub. The ending credits identify Sheldon Renan as the director and Renan discussed directing the dub in a 2016 interview.[1] However, Jan Rabson identified Wally Burr as the voice director in a 2011 interview.[2]
- Eddie Frierson, Barbara Goodson, L. Michael Haller, and Steve Kramer are the only voice actors to appear in both dubs.
Video Releases[]
| Distributor | Year | Format | Dub | Region | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Streamline Pictures | 1990 | 
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Electric Media | NTSC | United States | 
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| Manga Entertainment | 1991 | PAL | United Kingdom | 
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| The Criterion Collection | 1992 | 
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NTSC | United States |
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| Pioneer Entertainment | 2001 | 
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Pioneer | 1 NTSC | ||
| Manga Entertainment | 2002 | 2 PAL |
United Kingdom |
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| 2005 | All | |||||
| Bandai Entertainment | 2009 | + 
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Pioneer | A DVB-T |
United States |
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| FUNimation Entertainment | 2013 | All | ||||
| 2020 | 
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| 2022 | +
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| Crunchyroll | 2025 | |||||