When I heard that AKIRA was going to made into a LIVe action movie, I was stoked, I LOVED the animation and I welcomed a diferant take on a favorite as it would bring a refreshing perspective and be somthing new, THEN I read this article: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=84254&utm_source=crowdignite.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crowdignite.com
I fucking hate Hollywood, It could have been AMAZING, but no they have to fucking ruin it, what a bunch of plebian douche bags, some one should set those asshats strait and make them understand, DON'T FUCK THINGS UP.
Seriously, I was thining how could they fuck up a masterpiece, all they had to do was follow the animation but put there own spin on it, not tha hard an interesting thing to see, instead they can't even get that right, ASS!

i';m furious

oh no they ruined anime

They didn't ruin anime, they just fucked up a potentially good movie, Draon ball Z is differant becuase the hero "Goku" is An alien that resembles human, that could be asian or caucasian, they would still be human looking. AKIRA though is set in NEO-TOKYO,thats fucking japan, with asian people living there, this is completly taking it out of context just to suit western audiances, (not that dragonball Z live action wasn't the same, but the context is more flexible) simply put, When I see that shit going on for a  AKIRA live action movie, I see this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jafd97yJFOI

EDIT: I'm not saying dragon ball z is any more acceptable, just that at least they have the excuse that he's an ALIEN that looks human.

I understand that it is kind of disappointing when the mainstream appropriates something you like and then turns it into something that only barely resembles the original thing. They are exploiting the preexisting acclaim or fanbase, while also homogenising it enough with current trends so fuckindeadbrains will go see it. Why get involved in their game? Just disregard stuff like this, this is base level - nowhere to go but up.

I thought about it a little because my first reaction to the 'oh no they ruined your little anime? heh heh' responses was just...shut yer traps, snobs, but really I can't think of any reasonable reaction to the news that the big budget american remake of Akira is going to be total trash other than wow i'm surprised NOT, but I'd rather actually try to give you a response. I haven't watched Akira in a long time, but when I did I liked it and it had a lot to do with the animation itself. I don't really remember what the plot was, actually. I guess I'll watch it again sometime.

Anyway - I'm just trying to say that the entire purpose of these remakes is in opposition to whatever misguided hopes you might have for them. Why remake something that already exists? To exploit the preexisting popularity/cultural capital/acclaim or whatever you want to call it, to avoid having to take a financial risk on original ideas, to standardise this weird thing that people got attached to so that boring people will want to see it, all basically ways of saying this isn't for people who love the source material, they just want to take your thing, gut it and replace all the alive parts with bullshit. So don't pay them any attention, buddy.

@jamie: I'm not going to pay attention to it, I might watch it just to see how badly they fucked it up but no more then that, I'm just pissed off that they did it.

The reason I was looking forward to it was to see how it would be in a differant medium (live action instead of animation) and how they did things differantly, but it's one thing to change story elements so it fits better  but another entierly to change it so it's completly un-recognisable.
For example, Watchmen changed one of the story points, whilst it was completly differant from the source it still stayed true to "raison d'etre", that is to unite humanity against a common enemy, but this change serves no purpose other the just to change it for no other reason but to change it and make it homegnised to the target audiance (westerners in this case) which is a pointless reason, as it fucks up the thematic asthetic.

Honestly, I'm just dissapointed that somthing I was realy looking forward to was fucked up by a director who thinks they know what there doing becuase of one good movie.
Take michal bay and his transformers looking differant, I liked the look, it was new and fresh and definatly modern, what I didn't like was how the robots felt like secondary actors to the humans when it should have been the other way around, still I can live with it and I found it to be an enjoyable series of films. I'm not saying diferant is bad, I'm saying making it diferant just to be diferant when there is NO discernable reason other then to make it appealable is total bullshit, aka making AKira actors caucasian, Might as well call it somthing else becuase it's not AKIRA unless it's set in Neo-Tokyo.

Either way, Directors should better learn what to change and what not to change.

it wasn't ever gonna be all asians, idk if it's going to be set in neotokyo or not. it shouldn't be a surprise that it's not going to be a replica of the manga or the animated movie, and it doesn't need to be. it's not going to detract from the originals. I think any outrage must be saying "they ruined my thing". but they didn't, it just means this new version isn't going to be what you might have expected it to be

also it's been hell for a while:

In February 2011, it was reported that James Franco was in talks for the role of Shotaro Kaneda.[34] That same month, Vulture reported that Mila Kunis was offered the role of Kei, but turned it down in favor of portraying the Wicked Witch of the West in Oz: The Great and Powerful.[35] Deadline.com reported that Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Justin Timberlake, Joaquin Phoenix, and Chris Pine are in the running to play Kaneda, while Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy are rumored to be in talks for the role of Tetsuo Shima in March 2011.[36] Deadline also reported Robert Pattinson was in talks for a role, but he has denied any involvement with the franchise.[36][37] On May 6, 2011 Keanu Reeves was reported to have been offered the role of Kaneda, but 11 days later on 17 May, he was reported as having turned it down.

I haven't watched Akira in a long time, but when I did I liked it and it had a lot to do with the animation itself. I don't really remember what the plot was, actually. I guess I'll watch it again sometime.

I didn't really appreciate it when I was younger, I think it might appeal more to wastoids our age. it's got a good perspective.

if it's disappointing, it's because Kristen Stewart doesn't really seem to fit the role of Kei, a tough and impressive revolutionary fighter. idk much about her tho, and idk who in hollywood could better play that role these days

but at least all those hardboiled, mustached japanese men will be easier to tell apart

Yeah, the keanu think never made any sense, Kaneda is like 16 and still in school, how the hell would they explain that away?

i should really watch akira again. i never really got it when i was 12 either.

btw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jafd97yJFOI

I knew this about Hollywood for a pretty damn long time. Actually, when I came across this topic, I was hoping to get an actual explanation for why Hollywood is this way about pretty much everything. But another topic about another piece of evidence proving how much Hollywood sucks it big time is to be expected, given how they are doing this ALL THE TIME.

Not that having any sort of real explanation would feel even the least bit satisfying, but that way we could stop racking our heads trying to figure out why making things clearly worse entirely on purpose is thought of as "GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE"!

If you want to put the whole thing in perspective, just watch the live action DragonBall movie. Nobody could possibly make an Akira movie even nearly that bad, even if that is what Hollywood is trying for all along.

I also watched Akira when I was young and didn't fully get it, but you should definitely rewatch it. I saw it this year and the atmosphere is very well done. I don't watch any anime, but Akira is great.

Akira is up there also princess mononoke is good one.