Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

@socketwench - Akira really comes across as ground breaking animation and hugely influential in the US, but like you said, had a so-so reaction in Japan.

Japan had had cinematic animation for a while by the time Akira came out. The Macross and Dirty Pair movies are lovely to watch (And a few of the Urusei Yatsura movies, while not as detailed, had been out a half decade before all these). So when Akira released, for them "it was Tuesday."

For us, though...Streamline took a chance releasing Akira theatrically, and while it was critically panned, it at least showed the US audience that "animation for adults is a thing, and it can be great looking if you you put money into it."

I know those of us in the C/FO were celebrating Streamline's release in the US. Sadly, I think it was the failure of Akira in the US Box Office that kept Troma's (absolutely straight) dubs of the Studio Ghibli movies from being released outside of a few test runs in Austin. We had an almost ten year way before Disney would pick up that thread.

@pandora_parrot - I had a moment like this with Monopoly of all things. My mother and I were massive monopoly players. She still plays a video game version every night. But at one point, there's came a lightbulb realization of "Oh, wait, the cutthorat rent collection and bankruptcies...THAT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING." And it really hit home after it started happening to me.

Can't play the game anymore - it's too dark for a family home fun game.

[Thoughts Before Bed]

Suddenly thinking about the early 2000s, driving around a very quiet Hyde Park in Austin at 3AM.

Those were good times, with good people, and good vibes. And I miss that very much.