There was a time before, and a time after Akira. Katsuhiro Ôtomo's wildly influential adaptation of his own epic manga forever changed the perception of Japanese animation in the West – the first domino to fall in widespread cultural adoption of anime outside of Japan. Without Akira, it's possible we might never have seen Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle outgross Superman at the box office in 2025. Arguably even more impressive than this legacy: Akira has barely aged a day in almost 40 years.
Timeless is a word that gets thrown around a lot, but if Akira were released for the first time today, audiences would undoubtedly be blown away anew. In the grand tradition of 80s sci-fi (see also: Blade Runner), Akira did wildly overestimate the march of progress; it's set in 2019, and its vision of Neo-Tokyo doesn't exactly resemble the world we live in. But Akira's major thematic interests – disaffected youth, cyclical fears of destructive acts, unchecked military power – are just as relevant today as they were almost four decades ago.
