We’re always hardest on our own work.
Released in 1988, the Japanese anime film Akira was of course based on Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga of the same name, and it was also directed by Otomo himself. Of course, it was a huge hit that’s now widely considered to be one of the best animated movies ever made, but you might be surprised to learn that Otomo initially thought he had failed to properly adapt his own work.
Speaking with Forbes, Otomo revealed his initial fears about the film.
“When I saw the first rush of the movie version of Akira I thought it would be a failure,” Otomo admitted. “I left the theater very quickly and came back home to tell my wife that the movie was a failure. This was because I thought the first half was good but because the time and budget was limited, with so many cuts, the quality dropped as the story developed.”
He continued, “However, when [composer] Shoji Yamashiro did the remake with 5-channel audio, he invited me over and showed me the movie again. So this was a very long time since I had seen the movie back when it was released. Maybe time had made me softer but when I saw it again I thought, ‘Oh, this is interesting’ and that maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.”
On a related note, Warner Bros. is actively trying to get a live-action adaptation of Akira off the ground. At this time, however, we have no updates to provide.