History Trivia / Akira

* The movie was aired on {{Creator/Toonami}} as part of a Month of Movies event on December 2013. In December 2014, it was given an encore showing, airing the same night as ''Dragon Ball Z: Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan''. Both airings used the Pioneer dub.

** Also, recently Katsuhiro Otomo admitted he was not happy with how the anime adaption turned out.

* OldShame: Not the manga or the movie, but rather, the [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames Amiga adaptation of the movie]], which is considered [[DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible one of the worst games of all time]]. When one guy [[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/akira-amiga/ tracked down the developers]] to get an idea how the game turned out so awful, everyone who was willing to talk wanted to distance themselves from the game and the development company ICE Software as much as they could. When he attempted to contact the former heads of ICE Software (which had gone under not long after the ''AKIRA'' game was released), he was told rather loudly to "FUCK OFF".

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Being an extremely popular manga (and anime movie overseas), there were [[https://docpop.org/2018/02/close-look-known-akira-video-games/ video game adaptations]] planned for various consoles. Few of these were ever finished or released, save for an Amiga adaptation ([[DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible and the less said about that one, the better]]), a Famicom version ([[TheProblemWithLicensedGames which wasn't much better]]), and a [=PS2=] pinball game.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Being an extremely popular manga (and anime movie overseas), there were [[https://docpop.org/2018/02/close-look-known-akira-video-games/ video game adaptations]] planned for the NES, SNES, and Genesis. None of these were ever finished or released, save for an Amiga adaptation ([[DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible and the less said about that one, the better]]).

** The manga has been translated and released twice into English: it was first done in the early 90s by Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}}'s Epic Comics, and released the entire manga flipped and in color with the approval of Otomo, who selected the digital colorist himself. This release is notable for being revolutionary in comic book coloring in that it was the first regular series to be colored digitally. The entire manga was released across 38 comics, but the collected editions were short-lived: only 6 of the planned 9 paperbacks were released and 5 of the planned 6 hardbacks were released before the license expired. Dark Horse Comics later released the entire series in six giant books in their original black and white, but still flipped, and with a new translation. When their license expired, Kodansha Comics USA rescued the series, but simply reissued Dark Horse's editions under their brand. It still has yet to be published in its original right-to-left format in English.

** The movie has two English dubs: one from 1988 and one from 2001. The 1988 dub was created by Kodansha for the film's initial US release and was distributed by Creator/StreamlinePictures, which resulted in it being referred to as the "Streamline dub", despite Streamline Pictures not actually producing it (it didn't help that many of its cast members would go on to do many dubs that Streamline ''did'' produce). The 2001 dub was done by Animaze for [[Creator/{{Geneon}} Pioneer's]] DVD release of the film and was created so the DVD would pass THX Certification. Until 2013, only the 2001 dub was distributed in the US, with the 1988 dub appearing on UK and Australian DVD releases. Both dubs would eventually appear on the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD and Blu-ray in 2013, which was distributed by Funimation.

* OldShame: Not the manga or the movie, but rather, the [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames Amiga adaptation of the movie]], which is considered [[SoBadItsHorrible one of the worst games of all time]]. When one guy [[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/akira-amiga/ tracked down the developers]] to get an idea how the game turned out so awful, everyone who was willing to talk wanted to distance themselves from the game and the development company ICE Software as much as they could. When he attempted to contact the former heads of ICE Software (which had gone under not long after the ''AKIRA'' game was released), he was told rather loudly to "FUCK OFF".

* ActorInspiredElement: Considering Kai's voice actor in the Streamline dub is Jewish, it's not all that surprising to hear him unfavorably compare the riot police descending upon the shopping center following a terrorist bombing to the Gestapo in that dub.

** The manga has been translated and released twice into English: it was first done in the early 90s by Creator/{{Marvel|Comics}}'s Epic Comics, and released the entire manga flipped and in color with the approval of Otomo, who selected the digital colorist himself. This release is notable for being revolutionary in comic book coloring in that it was the first regular series to be colored digitally. The entire manga was released across 38 comics, but the collected editions were short-lived: only 6 of the planned 9 paperbacks were released and 5 of the planned 6 hardbacks were released before the license expired. Dark Horse Comics later released the entire series in six giant books in their original black and white, but still flipped, and with a new translation. When their license expired, Kodansha Comics USA rescued the series, but simply reissued Dark Horse's editions under their brand. It still has yet to be published in its original right-to-left format in English.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The original color English-language release of the manga from the late 80s/early 90s courtesy of Marvel isn't ''too'' hard to find... until you get to the last batch of issues that weren't included in the collected editions. #38 in particular can go for huge money on auction sites.
** For US fans, the original 1988 movie dub that was distributed throughout the 1990s was impossible to find for years outside of old VHS and Laserdisc copies. [[note]]And the Australian DVD, but whatever.[[/note]] Creator/FUNimation's 25th anniversary DVD and Blu-ray re-release, however, features both this and the 2001 dub on top of the original Japanese track, so this is no longer an issue.
*** [=FUNimation=] themselves even said that they had not considered including that dub until someone who used to work at Intersound approached them at a convention and offered to give them its masters.

** The movie has two English dubs: one from 1988 and one from 2001. The 1988 dub was created by Kodansha for the film's initial US release and was distributed by Creator/StreamlinePictures, which resulted in it being referred to as the "Streamline dub", despite Streamline Pictures not actually producing it. The 2001 dub was done by Animaze for [[Creator/{{Geneon}} Pioneer's]] DVD release of the film and was created so the DVD would pass THX Certification. Until 2013, only the 2001 dub was distributed in the US, with the 1988 dub appearing on UK and Australian DVD releases. Both dubs would eventually appear on the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD and Blu-ray in 2013, which was distributed by Funimation.

* Unusually for anime, the film uses the western "pre-lay" style of recording first and then animating the mouths to match.

* DevelopmentHell: There have been several attempts to produce a live-action version by Hollywood studios, but they've never gotten beyond the pre-production stage.

* The movie is one of the last animated features to use traditional cel animation exclusively and it's entirely made by hand.

* AccidentallyAccurate: Both film and manga depict Japan, although the country is never mentioned, getting ready to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, 25 years before the announcement was made at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina that Tokyo will indeed host the 2020 Olympics in real life.

** The movie has two English dubs: an early one produced in the US for the Hong Kong market that was also used for its original Creator/StreamlinePictures release in 1988 (often referred to as the "Streamline dub", despite the fact that Streamline Pictures didn't actually produce it), and another one done by Animaze for [[Creator/{{Geneon}} Pioneer's]] re-release in 2001 after anime dubbing had become far more established in the west, and was recorded and mixed with updated technology. The writers also went out of their way to make the script and story easier to understand, since one of the criticisms of the 1988 dub was that the script was barely comprehensible.

* The movie is also notable for being one of the few animated movies to be released by Creator/TheCriterionCollection (specifically, it was given a laserdisc release in 1993), along with ''Literature/WatershipDown'', ''WesternAnimation/FantasticPlanet'', and the more recent ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox''.

* The movie is also notable for being one of the few animated movies to be released by Creator/TheCriterionCollection (specifically, it was given a laserdisc release in 1993), along with ''Literature/WatershipDown'' and the more recent ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox''.

*** FUNimation themselves even said that they had not considered including that dub until someone who used to work at Intersound approached them at a convention and offered to give them its masters.