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INTEREST: Wired Profiles New X-Men Comic's Similarities to Akira


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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3495
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 10:53 pm Reply with quote
Just a question:
Quote:
Like the Wachwoski Brothers — who lifted from Akira at will for The Matrix — Generation Hope writer Kieron Gillen and artist Salva Espin don’t really seem interested in covering the tracks of their iconic influences.

What?!?!? Ghost in the Shell I believe, but Akira?? I've read that manga and watched that anime I don't know how many times, and I've never seen a parallel between it and The Matrix, the premises are so radically different. What am I missing that's so obvious??

Generation Hope, on the other hand, if the pictures are an accurate representation, is ripping off Akira's imagery left and right, it isn't even subtle.
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jsieczka



Joined: 19 Jul 2008
Posts: 150
Location: Rochester, NY
PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2010 11:47 pm Reply with quote
After I had finished reading Generation Hope on Wednesday I was wondering if Katsuhiro Otomo was getting realities for the book. I'm usually one of the last people to say that something is a copy of another work, but this one is just way too obvious.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15614
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 12:44 am Reply with quote
vash:
Quote:
Ghost in the Shell I believe, but Akira?? I've read that manga and watched that anime I don't know how many times, and I've never seen a parallel between it and The Matrix,


The school with the kids for psychic powers. But I understand how you feel, as Anime News Service said that Spidey 3 would have homages to Akira, and I didn't really notice 'em, either.


Last edited by GATSU on Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Ohoni



Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 3421
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 2:18 am Reply with quote
It really was a total visual rip-off. It had both the "bio-goo+tech junk" tentacle arm sort of stuff, and also had a massive dome explosion like in Akira towards the end, which would be forgivable alone, as other sources have those too, but within the context of the other Akira lifts it was pretty inexcusable.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 6:25 am Reply with quote
Quote:
On Thursday, Wired magazine's website began hosting a preview of the second issue from Marvel's Uncanny X-Men spinoff Generation Hope, which the site describes as "lifting" the psychic character Tetsuo from Katsuhiro Otomo's manga and anime film Akira.

It would be quite amusing if the character bearing Tetsuo's likeness was named Travis.

As well as this characterisation, one recalls the character K9999 from the King of Fighters series bearing a similar resemblance.
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crazychild



Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Posts: 79
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 9:08 am Reply with quote
Seems a bit too direct of an homage to me. Then again, Claremont and Byrne lifted the Hellfire Club straight from The Avengers, and that storyline is considered one of the best in the history of comics, so what the hell.
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The Xenos



Joined: 29 Mar 2004
Posts: 1519
Location: Boston
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 9:22 am Reply with quote
Of course, this is nothing new. Even before and when I got into X-men in high school, you had the X-men fighting the brood which was a paper thin knock-off of the xenomorphs from the Alien films. As much as I like -some- X-men, a ton of it is junk. I must confess I just gave up on Marvel, with a couple X titles being the last vestiges, namely Ellis on Astonishing and David on X-Factor. This Generation Hope may be a decent title, but this characters is a blatant ri.. er.. homage to Tetsuo.

Hmm.. Aside from this character and the Brood, I know there are a number of other riffs in X-men comics over the years. Heck, Deadpool's a riff of DC's Deathstroke, but that's a clear parody. Well, maybe not so much at the very first outset, but he very quickly became one.

And speaking of Matrix, yeah, it was mostly Ghost in the Shell. Though I've heard friends and people online pick out stuff like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. The Wachoskis have said Ghost in the Shell was shown as a type of test of concept and they cited "obscure Japanese animation" as their inspiration when I read an interview back in '99 when the fist one came out. Meanwhile, comic scribe Grant Morrison swears they lifted stuff right from his trippy Verigo comic The Invisibles.
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Taiyz



Joined: 16 Aug 2005
Posts: 202
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 12:23 pm Reply with quote
Zin5ki wrote:
As well as this characterisation, one recalls the character K9999 from the King of Fighters series bearing a similar resemblance.
KoF has had multiple characters that were inspired by anime.

http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/Wolfgang_Krauser#Fighting_Style
http://snk.wikia.com/wiki/Brocken#Cultural_References
Regarding Maxima's name (also from the SNK Wikia)
Quote:
His namesake was taken from an AI program in the light novel, Blue Knight Beluzaga Monogatari, which is set in the same universe as the anime, Armored Trooper Votoms.

From Kyo's Wikipedia page,
Quote:
Developers from the game decided to make Kyo's main skill would be fire along with the other movesets from the other members of the original Japan Team being inspired by the anime Getter Robo. In addition, the three members of the Japan Team had similar personalities to the main characters from such anime.


I remember there being more than this, but can't remember any specifics.
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Supermutant



Joined: 26 Sep 2009
Posts: 377
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:00 pm Reply with quote
So let me get this straight 90% (or so) of X-Men books have sucked in recent years. So instead of trying to fix all the problems they go and steal ideas from Akira? House Of No Ideas is what I like to call marvel a lot lately. That image is from issue one then that looks like a good rip off straight down to hair style. Glad I didn't waste 3.99 on that book.
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Shenl742



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1525
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:20 pm Reply with quote
Well, although I'm not really defending Marvel or anything, I think there's a differance between a "rip-off" and an "homage"....

But I guess which your consider is which depends on how you feel on the subject Confused
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15614
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 1:36 pm Reply with quote
Still, I'm going to let this one slide because: 1) Marvel originally published Akira here, and even had Western comic artists draw fan art at the end of that run, 2) The company's partially entitled to it after the use of X-Men characters not approved of for Kenshin.

Last edited by GATSU on Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:09 pm; edited 4 times in total
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KAtchan15



Joined: 22 Dec 2006
Posts: 460
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Somewhat reminds me of "Incarnate-Nick Simmons", though the images in this article look quite similar, they do not look exactly the same [X-men/Akira]. Not justifying anything, if they copied it, shame on them.
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lilbro93



Joined: 01 Aug 2010
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 4:11 pm Reply with quote
on a related note, it appears that Warner Bros. is attempting to resurrect the live action AKIRA movie. they spent so much money on the rights, they are tring to make some money off it. What are they doing to bring the movie back? Give Zac Efron the main role. I S!@# you not. They already offered him a role in the movie.

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/11/05/zac-efron-akira-movie/
http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/11/05/rumor-zac-efron-albert-hughes-akira/
http://celebrifi.com/gossip/Akira-Wants-Zac-Efron-3898962.html
http://www.collider.com/2010/11/05/zac-efron-akira-hughes-brothers/

I didn't know where to post this, so I thought this would be the best place for now. Surprised it hadn't hit the main page yet. Any want to do me a favor and submit it for the front page.
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Keonyn
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Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 5567
Location: Coon Rapids, MN
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:04 pm Reply with quote
It's not surprising and hardly definitive. I mean, the new X-Men is based on the concept of mutation to a greater and more recognizable degree than previously. So seeing mutation of that scale is not exactly surprising and mutation is not exclusive to any product and has existed in media for well over half a century. Just another desperate attempt to claim "copying" when the "copied" concept is far from original in the first place. It fits in with the current obsession of finding controversy where no controversy exists.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15614
PostPosted: Sat Nov 06, 2010 8:12 pm Reply with quote
Keonyn: Actually, I've been tweeting with one of the animators on Akira, and she said it's "beyond homage".
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