Akira is available on 4K Blu-ray for $18.44 (was $30) at Amazon. This version of Akira’s 4K remaster released in 2022. It also comes with a standard Blu-ray disc with previously released bonus content, including storyboard collections, original trailers and commercials, featurettes on restoring the film, and more. In total, you’re getting over two hours of bonus content.
If you don’t have a 4K media player or want to save some additional cash, Akira’s 1080p Blu-ray and DVD combo pack is up for grabs for only $11.49 (was $35). This edition was released for the anime’s 25th anniversary in 2013. The Blu-ray disc contains the film and the two-plus hours of bonus content.
First released in 1988, Akira remains one of the most beloved anime films to this day. The alternate-history film takes place in Neo-Tokyo in 2019, 31 years after World War 3 was brought on by the destruction of Tokyo. The futuristic metropolis is now rife with seedy characters and rival gangs vying for territory and power. The story follows Shotaro Kaneda, the leader of a biker gang, and his friend Tetsuo Shima, who possesses psychic abilities that, in the wrong hands, can lead to destruction and ruin.
Akira’s plot is not the easiest to follow, and it’s not always readily apparent who is good and who is bad. The movie is also quite different and drastically condensed, understandably, compared to the original manga by Katushiro Otomo. It released before Otomo’s manga even ended and only covers roughly the first third of the story.