A word of advice to prospective purchasers of the
Akira Special Edition DVD:
Make sure it's Region 1. This is a mistake that I, and countless others as far as the Akira 2002
message boards will attest to, have made. Allow me to explain.
The Region 1 DVD of Akira Special Edition will feature all the groovy extras that Edame described in his writeup. All the good stuff, like that half-hour Making Of special that was dubbed so horribly on the double VHS set, only now subbed. The Behind the Scenes of the restoration and re-dubbing of this decade-and-a-half old classic is something I would love to see.
The Region 2 DVD, however, has none of that. Here is a complete (!) feature list of the extras on Disc 2 of Akira Special Edition, British version:
- The "Making Of" featurette from 1988, completely untouched from the original VHS source tape - still dubbed
- A useless "Make Your Own Akira Trailer" feature, which consists of picking out four video clips from a selection of eight and having them played back
- An Akira trivia game, where the same five questions are repeated - in the same order - every time you play
Manga Entertainment UK have yet to come up with any rational explanation for this.