I had a similar experience when "Dune" was brought to the big screen.  
How would you pronounce "Atreides"?  "Harkonnen"?

If it helps, the Japanese language has only five different vowel sounds:

"a" as in "father"
"e" as in "make"
"i" as in "Pete"
"o" as in "tote"
"u" as in "boot"

Applying these rules to "Akane" will get you the pronunciation they used 
in the animation.

Hope this helps....

-Richard
sterman@sprynet.com