Last week's "Message" touched on the subject of movie franchise 'reboots,' as well as movies inspired by comic books and graphic novels. One of the possible reboots, actually more of a live action remake, that could have happened was a reinterpreted version of the Manga/Anime classic "Akira." I say 'could have happened,' because even though its been on and off the table in various forms since the 90's, it appears to once again have been put on hold. 

In The my opinion, it should stay on hold. One might suspect that a Hollywood remake would be a little too likely to get it wrong, and announcements of what the movie company wanted to do with the property only underscored those suspicions. Online fan sites have long since raised a ruckus over the proposal to set the film in New York and cast a bunch of Europeans, so there's not much more to do here than to agree. But if I was going to go ahead and rant anyways, it would seem that these movie people have a poor grasp of context. There's a reason why an apocalyptic story centered around an obliterated city has a greater resonance when set in Japan. Would "Roots" tell the same story if it were redone and set in Denmark? Besides, were they going to rename all the characters? If not, how would they explain Kaneda, Tetsuo, and Kei, played by Garrett, Michael, and Kristen, hanging out with Kiyoko, Takashi, and Yamagata in Central Park? Kinda hoping we never know. Plus, the original 1988 film was already great, and it was (appropriately) Anime. 

The comic series that inspired it was even better, insofar as it offered a much better opportunity to develop the characters and the world they lived in. Like the Judge Dredd comic mentioned last week, "Akira" was originally serialized in a larger magazine publication starting back in 1982. It also got collected together and republished, both in Japan and over here in the U.S. But what was the name of the Japanese Manga magazine that originally ran episodes of "Akira?"