While not the first anime title to hit US shores, one of today's Blu-ray offerings is often credited with introducing anime to the western world. Based on a very popular six volume manga of the same name, '
Akira' tells the story of Tetsuo, a teenage gang member in post-WWIII Neo-Tokyo who, through a chance encounter, is introduced into a government program to harness and grow extreme mental ability. When Tetsuo begins to lose control, its up to his friends to save him, and the city.
The film's success can easily be attributed to the quality of the original production. At that time, many anime productions used cost-cutting measures like static faces (altering only a character's mouth for speech) and backgrounds to reduce the numbers of animation cels that were produced. Instead, producers of 'Akira' decided to lip-sync the film to the original Japanese dialog, and provide fluid motion throughout. The result was an almost unheard of over 160,000 cels of animation produced.
The Blu-ray release of this film should not only be at the top of the list for anime-fans, but science fiction and action fans as well. Staff Reviewer Dustin Somner commented in his
Blu-ray review of the title, he mentions that it includes, "remarkable audio and the finest picture quality ever made available for this groundbreaking film". For more information regarding the remastering of this classic film, check out
Jeff Kleist's exclusive behind the scenes report.
Fox is continuing their trend of releasing notable classic films on Blu-ray with this week's release of '
The French Connection' and '
The French Connection II'. When released in 1971, William Friedkin's 'The French Connection' won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture for that year. Gene Hackman stars as Popeye Doyle, a tough-talking cop who tries to take down the local drug ring using any means possible. A definite must-own for any fan of the 70's action genre.
Continuing the action theme, MGM is finally releasing '
Ronin' the the US, after spending many, many months on foreign shores. How long ago, you ask? Well, Japan got their first taste of 'Ronin' back in December of 2007, and bragging a MPEG-2 video encode, it appears to be the same disc coming out now. If that proves to be the case (early indications say yes), then
Greg Maltz's review of the Japanese disc is a good read before making a purchase commitment.
But wait, we're not done yet. Fox is also releasing '
Vanishing Point', who's car chase-theme can easily be seen as inspiration for more recent car films (such as '
Transporter 3' which is due out next week). Staff Reviewer Martin Liebman commented in his
review that it's "an all-out blast to watch from beginning to end with an incredible display of driving skills that will leave any viewer in awe at the maneuvers and the simplicity with which the filmmakers deliver the action".
And finally, a nod to '
Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder, which comes out today as well.
For a complete listing of all the Blu-ray titles released today,
click here.