@Pleiades Rising:

When most people see PG-13, they do think family-friendly movies, mostly because some studios have tried to make their book adaptation movies fall into the rating in an attempt to both capture older audiences (and get more leeway to do as such), but still retain some of the original target audience (I would venture to say the Percy Jackson movies may be a prime example).

I did read the article and I saw what Hughes said about the project, but largely, he still has to work in the standards that WB sets. He may have wanted to going the R-rating route (I seem to pick up that's what he wanted from the intonations of the quotations in said article), but since there's a PG-13 limit imposed... =/ There's also the stigma set by past anime adaptations, which has already been mentioned by others.

The Dark Knight is a good example of how far the PG-13 rating can be pushed and still turn out a good movie. Whether that can translate to Akira remains to be seen, but it's possible.

(And honestly, I wasn't trying to troll the fandom. =p)

@Kei:

And the fact that DBZ Kai is airing again on Nicktoons.

Which I cannot watch without laughing thanks to the current arcs having been already covered by the aforementioned abridged series.

I tell ya, it really saps the drama out of a scene when all you can think of while watching it is "Oh, just a space duck."

@bellpickle:

You mean The Wings of Honneamise doesn't retain its rabid fanbase of a million strong? Yeah, I think I has something to do with tackling an anime with a more solid fanbase that's been around for years, thus having a more mature fanbase to support it. If this is so, this doesn't seem like a move towards it being purely "family friendly".

When I made my first (and second reply), I just quickly read theO's post for this item and left a brief comment. Now having more time, I had the chance to properly read the linked article. And, not exactly to my surprise, Mr. Hughes mentions what Christopher Nolan did with the Batman series: "Tonally, those don't feel like PG-13 movies."

Admittedly, Hughes wonders if the rating would hinder or challenge him. If looked at from the restricted perspective of the film's violent content, of course the rating would hinder it. But Akira isn't something like, say, Kill Bill where the over-the-top violence was essential to the story. You don't have to show severed limbs and blood sprayed everywhere to make it work, since it never worked that way in the first place. The PG-13 rating isn't as rigid as it seems, and there's nothing really inherent in that rating that says it should be read as "family friendly". The news title suggested it comes closer to being viewed as such, but it didn't say the film will be family friendly.

I understand the worries, but they can't be based entirely upon the (mistaken) idea that Warner Brothers and Mr. Hughes are making a family friendly movie. The article actually points the other way: how to make a PG-13 film feel like an R-rated film.

@DemonKingAtticus:

Not at all helped by the existence of Dragonball Z Abridged. =p

@bellpickle:

I think Warner Bros. is currently in talks to try to acquire BLEACH and I forget who, but an American live-action Death Note movie is also on the horizon. =/

@Pleiades Rising:

Agreed. Yeah, some of the impact is lost if the gore is cut out, but if every other aspect of the movie is solid (unlikely, but we can hope), then who could honestly say that the movie is 'ruined' just because of the lack of gore? As you mentioned, I don't think many people would complain that TDK sucks because most of the violence was off-screen. Rating doesn't determine a movie's quality... the cast and crew does. :3

Though what is up with this trend of making old anime into Hollywood movies? DBZ, Speed Racer, Blood... Why not at least do a few more recent anime series/movies? It's not like old anime have really active fanbases anymore. Seriously, what is this. @_@;

That's not going to be possible. I've been looking forward to this movie for years now and it turns out they're going to try to make it PG-13...well now I know it's complete failure because there aren't very many good movies that are rated PG-13. That's just going to ruin Akira.

I should've never trusted Albert Hughes...>.> Of course it would end badly.

And I can't change my mind on this because it is definitely impossible to make a somewhat family friendly Akira and make it good. The reason why I loved Akira was the extremities like with Tetsuo and all the violent details. But if they're not going to have that then there's no reason to watch it. (They probably want to get it done so badly that they're going to ruin it...)

Family-Friendly Akira??? THAT'S NEAR IMPOSSIBLE!!! *Facepalms* Looks like the violence is going to have to be a minimum...So...that means A LOT of scenes will be changed...

Heck to the mothereffing no.

@Kei:

I can understand that, yeah. There's also the scene where Tetsuo more or less mashes people into a pulp in a hallway. How to keep scenes like those PG-13 would be, to say the least, a tad difficult. But I just hope the fandom doesn't think that the violence is the sole reason why Akira is dark and edgy, and thus why all of it should be kept in the film.

@Pleiades Rising:

True, but you also have to keep in mind that one of the first scenes (if I remember correctly) was a person literally being shot to bits. There are some people that will say if it doesn't have that level of gore, it's not Akira, but we'll have to wait and see.

Akira was somewhat dark, but I don't think it can be attributed entirely to its violent content. I think it's possible to capture that dark element without having to go for gratuitous violence. Can this be worked out withing a PG-13 rating? Perhaps. The Dark Knight was certainly not a bright, happy film, yet it was rated PG-13. I think there's room to work there.

Family-friendly?
No.
Just, no.

I hope it's not too family-freindly, because if Warner Bros. wants to keep this movie faithful to the "Akira", there needs to be a good deal of Sci-Fi and horror elements as well as keep some grahic violence intact. For all you you know, a part of what caused "Dragonball: Evolution" to fail to capture the spirit of the "Dragon Ball" manga is the absense of bloody violence. Plus, it's already bad enough that 1994's "Spider-Man: The Animated Series" and "Super Hero Squad Show" were unbale to capture the spirit of the Marvel Super-Hero comics (which are drama in tone) due to censorship problems, including the fact they can't show or imply deaths of any main characters (good and bad).

However, I guess it's better to do a U.S. family-friendly "Akira" than having to edit an actual Anime for kid appeal (a type of practice 4Kids is infamous for). After all, this upcoming U.S. flick is no reboot, just an alternate telling of things.

A somewhay family-friendly Akira? Seriously?
Is that even possible? They'd have to cut/change alot of stuff...

TETSUOOOOO!!!!! XO *shot*