Whether you’re an old man binging the 90’s masterpieces to remind yourself of the old days or a ‘zoomer’ who just got into anime, Akira is a name that needs no introduction.

In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone here is well aware of the fact that Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira might be one of the most influential anime to ever exist. To be honest, we could sit here all day and still words won’t be able to fully convey all that this movie offers.

So, in order to prevent any of us from passing out, we’re here to discuss how Akira influenced some of the big names in anime, heck even media!

Sky-high Standards!

When you look at Akira, everything from the opening sequence to the frame-by-frame flawless execution of the movie is just so on Fleek that it’s unreal.

Hell, you’ll even turn a blind eye to the godly hand drawn animation that the 20th century was all about once you dived into this Neo-Tokyo. Frankly, no other anime has delivered that so magnificently to this very day. And, to bring that to the screens, you have to go to infinity and beyond, right?

Akira uses 327, yes you heard it right, 327 different shades to fully bring you a metropolis that would have you binging the movie for generations to come. Any anime being even 0.1% close to this futuristic setting would have to take on this cult classic and doing so is no easy task!

Too Advanced for it’s Time

Let’s take a trip back to the 80’s, an era where anime series were all about a bunch of monkeys yelling at the top of their lungs, all the while making their fists do the talking for them. But Akira approached things differently.

What could have been an overpowered psychic kid taking on the final boss at the end of the road was replaced by a tale bringing peculiar and rather controversial topics to every screen out there. As ballsy of a move as that is, only a few would risk their entire career, deciding to be a part of that project. But that ended up pioneering a genre that has given birth to so many masterpieces that it’s hard to keep count of them.

Besides the story, the theme it delivers gives such depth to the title that it’s hard to take it all in, in one go.

Many Titles Followed Suit

If you stop thinking about Mob, Saiki and Accelerator for a second and give the world outside of anime a chance than you’ll come to know how so many titles in modern media are inspired by this cyberpunk legend.

From the recent cyberpunk 2077 featuring a similar futuristic metropolis to the world-famous rapper Kanye West making a music video because of it, it’s just wild. And here you thought only ‘Stranger Things’ was the modern title that makes sure grandpa gets the credit. As a whole, it just paved a way for the future generation of anime titles and brought forth so many brilliant and story rich names that not considering it as one of the pioneers would be nothing less than a sin.

The Verdict

Without a doubt, Akira is pretty up there when we look at the titles that made anime as big as it is now. Plus, it is one of those movies that still manage to hit hard despite being more than 3 decades old, ready to give the new kids a run for their money in a heartbeat. Plus, if you haven’t already, check out the perfect editions of the manga, the art is just so heavenly that it’d only make you a bigger fan than you already are!

The featured image at the beginning of this post is from MenielDM of PixaBay.