I’m warming up for the digital storytelling (ds106) online course by conducting some animated gif tests. Image sequence sampled from the animated film Akira. The ds106 online course commences Jan 10. I can’t wait!
Here we can see Tetsuo having a bit of a hard time after coming into contact with Takashi (タカシ, codename #26).
A friend of mine secured what I now assume was a VHS bootleg of that movie in 1989 or 1990 – no dub, no subtitles, and neither of us speak Japanese. I have vague memories of two characters incessantly screaming at each other “Testsuo!…Kaneda!…Tetsuo!…Kaneda!” and of some character – a child? a young girl? – uttering a whole lot of words at breakneck speed, ending with a breathless “Akira!” I remember the film being epic, but I clearly need to have another look.
Hi Professor!
My first Akira experience is reminiscent of your own. Same time period. Same bootleg format. Similar confusion. Fortunately, I was able to check out a sub-titled version not long after. Subtitles do help.
😀
What I remember about Akira was that crazy ass stuffed animal scene, something out of Stephen King meets David Lynch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsgWhhXcpE
Now that is nuts.
Oh yeah, the milky bear is great! The ‘blum…blum…blum…blum’ vocals on the musical score adds to the surreal nature of Tetsuo’s nightmarish vision.