Anime is sprawling, encompassing dozens of genres and thousands of different series, but rising out of all the noise, one film stands head and shoulders above everything else, and in fact, it’s not only one of the best anime movies of all time, but one of the greatest animated films, ever. Akira, released in 1988, had such a large impact on sci-fi and anime that, like The Matrix, Star Wars, and Star Trek, you can divide the genre into “before Akira” and “after Akira.”
Neo-Tokyo
Akira takes place in Neo-Tokyo in the film’s imagined 2019, where a government struggling to maintain control resorts to authoritarian methods and clandestine experiments. Pockets of resistance fighters are striking back, and the groups collide when Shotaro Kaneda and his best friend, Tetsuo Shima, lead their gang into combat and accidentally get wrapped up in a government plot centered on psychic powers.
Tetsuo is captured and experimented on, unleashing his latent psychic abilities that have the power to destroy what remains of Neo-Tokyo. 31 years earlier, Akira, with similar powers, destroyed Tokyo, prompting the resistance and the escaped psychics to try and prevent history from repeating.
Bloody Gorgeous
The basic plot sounds similar to countless other sci-fi properties, but where Akira excels is that not only is that half the story, but it does so with a sense of style and gorgeous animation that pushes the boundaries of the entire medium. The film is bloody and violent, and it never lets up the gas with enough happening that it would cover an entire season if this were a series and not a two-hour movie. Listing off the sci-fi properties not influenced by this classic would take less time than those who pay tribute to it.
The care went beyond drawing more elaborate explosions. BFI’s programme notes point out that the animators worked to dialogue that had already been recorded, letting the performances help shape the timing of the animation. That’s worth watching for on a return trip to Neo-Tokyo: the expressive conversations matter just as much as the motorcycle chases. The film’s technical ambition isn’t confined to the moments when the entire city is coming apart.
The Akira Slide
I’ve been watching classic anime, from Battle of the Planets to Golgo 13: The Professional, Macross, and Mobile Suit Gundam, which makes the silky smooth kinetic animation of Akira stand out as the history-making achievement that it was. Even if you’ve never seen the movie before, you’ll recognize moments, camera shots, and the iconic “Akira slide.” Kaneda’s slide on his motorcycle to stop and turn around has been used in countless anime, cartoons, and live-action films, becoming an instant part of pop culture.
New Wave Of Cyberpunk
The arrival of Akira launched a new wave of cyberpunk, from Ghost in the Shell to Cowboy Bebop, and was cited by the Wachowskis as an influence for The Matrix. Anime was already starting to break through in the West, but after Akira reached Western audiences, the floodgates were opened. Within a few years, we received Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon,Ranma 1/2, and countless others that ushered in a new age of anime.
Saved From A Live-Action Remake By Thor
As with many other seminal classics of the era, there have been talks of a live-action adaptation, but this one time, I hope it never happens. Taika Waititi was attached to direct in 2017, with a release date planned for 2021, but Thor: Love and Thunder took the director’s attention. In June 2025, Warner Bros. let the film rights lapse and they reverted to manga publisher Kodansha. That ended the studio’s version of the project, and I still hope the original is left alone.
The Must-Watch Classic
Akirais a seminal classic of not only anime but cinema, and over 30 years later, it still holds up. If you have never seen an anime before, start with this one. If you’ve seen hundreds of anime but missed out on this classic, go back and make time for it. Few films change history, and even fewer anime films can make that claim, but this is one time when all of the hype is justified.
