"The Masterpiece Returns!" At least that's what it says on the back of the box. Yes, AKIRA has returned, and with a vengeance. This re-release of AKIRA has been given a spit-shine polish, meaning that it has been digitally re-mastered with THX and a new English script.

The story starts off pretty much like in the manga, which you can learn about here. In the year 1988, a large explosion occurred in Tokyo that led to World War III. Thirty-nine years later Tokyo, which is now Neo-Tokyo, is a very different place. It is a sprawling metropolis of neon and steel full of crime, unemployment, protesters, and terrorists. It is here that gang leader Kaneda and his friend Tetsuo reside.

On one particular night Kaneda leads his motorcycle gang in a battle against a rival motorcycle gang known as the Clowns. It is during this battle that Tetsuo, while driving through an abandoned highway, comes across a small boy. But before Tetsuo runs into the boy, his bike explodes, causing him to be mortally wounded. Moments later Kaneda and the rest of the gang show up, and not far behind them is the military that takes away both Tetsuo and the mysterious boy.

From here the movie version starts to differ from the manga as Kaneda meets a female terrorist named Kei at the police station he was sent to after the military took Tetsuo away. Meanwhile, Tetsuo's fantastic powers start to develop in the hospital he was taken to. Tetsuo manages to escape and, with his girlfriend, he tries to flee Neo-Tokyo on Kaneda's motorcycle, but he is eventually picked up again by the military after a fairly disgusting hallucinatory fit. Later, he starts to gain some control of his powers and escapes from the hospital a second time, but this time he is out on a mission to uncover the answer behind the mysterious Akira that keeps popping into his head.

For those of you who have read the manga, or those parts of the manga that have been released in the U.S., you will notice that the movie version of AKIRA is overall nothing like the manga except for a couple of scenes. But this seems reasonable because it would be near impossible to fit a two thousand-page epic into a two-hour movie. So Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of AKIRA manga as well as the film's director and co-screenplay writer, did a relatively smart thing by making the AKIRA movie a whole different story than that of the manga while still retaining some of the major themes. So you can't really spend too much time comparing the two versions because they are essentially different stories. I can't comment too much on how this new script differs from the old Streamline one because I saw the first domestic release of AKIRA many years ago, and my memory has become clouded by college and too many adult beverages. But from what I have heard, the Streamline script caused AKIRA's story to be pretty convoluted, yet when I watched this new version I had no trouble following the story or figuring out most of what was going on.

One of the things that I had hoped would be explained in the movie version that wasn't, was why the giant explosion in Tokyo (which was caused by Akira) would start World War III. I haven't read enough of the manga to find the answer to this and the failure to have this question answered in the movie is my only complaint about the story. It's kind of a big complaint because this was a catalyst for most of the events that took place during the movie, but it was never explained.

The animation quality is fantastic. This is in part because of the THX re-mastering, which makes the picture crisp and clear, but also because this was just one finely animated movie. It's a true achievement in cell animation and even though it is over ten years old, the animation quality holds up extremely well. In fact, I would have to say that the animation quality is far superior to most anime that is released today.

One of the most notable things about this new dub, besides the new English script and new voice cast, is that Akira is properly pronounced. Remember, the Japanese don't pronounce the letter "r". Also, all the other Japanese names and places seem to be pronounced correctly as well. And, from what I remember of the old dub, this one is much better. Kaneda is voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch, who you might recognize as the voice of Vash from TRIGUN or from his days with the POWER RANGERS. Luckily Bosch doesn't try to emulate the tough-guy New Yorker accent that the actor in the Streamline dub had. Also, Wendee Lee who played the English voice for Faye from COWBOY BEBOP is the voice for female terrorist, and Kaneda's love interest, Kei. My only complaint about the dub is that even though I enjoyed it, it seemed to me that at times the voices didn't match up with the lip movements of the characters.

Also for those of you who want to know about the extras on the DVD, there weren't any except for this Capsule option that translates the Japanese graffiti into English, but that's not really an extra. I only have the standard DVD, so if you want anything even remotely resembling an extra you're going to have to shell out an additional ten bucks for the deluxe version, which is a two disc set with all the behind-the-scene stuff on the second disk.

So, overall AKIRA is truly a masterpiece of animation. It may not be the best thing ever made, but it's still darn good. Despite the somewhat ambiguous ending, which could have used some Pink Floyd playing in the background, AKIRA had a thoroughly engaging story as well as some incredible animation and a good dub. For the four of you out there who haven't seen AKIRA yet, or for those of you who were turned off by the old Streamline version, I highly recommend that you check AKIRA out. Also for those of you who have already seen it, you should still see it because it just had its ten thousand mile tune-up and runs great.