The undisputed definitive title.

Rating: 9/10 (16 November 2014)

Akira is a film that will live long after it's initial hype and praise. Akira is a shoe-in for the Criterion Collection, if it's not already being considered. Lauded as the anime to start all of the current anime's success, Akira holds firm onto it's iconic violence, cyber punk and dystopian elements to this day. An anime that is as advanced as it was the day it was released, that's something to be heralded.
The facets of the film that make it timeless are the same key points that are emulated by other titles. The psionics, kids who are psychic, clairvoyant and not allowed to age into adults, are copy pasted into everything to Pokémon. These entities are not only important in Akira's plot, but are also exemplary exposition units for unraveling the plot behind what's happening in the film. But they're more than just exposition, they are the reason why the protagonist and antagonist are dueling it out to begin with. The psychic archetype owes everything to these guys, and little kid espers as we know them wouldn't exist the way they do now if it weren't for Otomo's vision of how they would act and appear.
The protoganist, Kaneda, and his tongue in cheek adopted little brother, Tetsuo represent two sides of the same coin in Akira. The two are compliments to everything a young man has to contend with. Tetsuo's seriousness is mirrored by Kaneda's boyish humor. Where Kaneda has a girl that's crazy about him and he's "devoted to", Tetsuo acts the fool to impress whatever's in front of him. Where Kaneda can effortlessly impress, Tetsuo struggles to impress with limitless effort, even as the film goes into it's third act. Their relationship is Goku/Vigeta, Asuka/Rei, Cloud/Zack and any other anime dual hero archetype you've ever witnessed.
The cyberpunk genre owes its entire earnings to Akira. Where Otomo may have looked at previous futuristic robot mangas like Astroboy for inspiration, Akira sets the stage for cyber meets biological in a whole new fashion. For example, at one point a character must fuse their limb with discarded rubble, creating a synthetic metal arm to use as a prosthetic. Not only does biological meet metal, soul enters the equation at one point. Is Akira a mecha suit anime, no. Does it dabble in futuristic Tokyo cyber principles via vehicle, lasers, big gun and robot appendages, like no other.
Where Akira really shines however, is in it's underlying metaphors of control of innocence, totalitarianism, religion and big government. Everybody is under someone else's thumb in this film. Government is facing riots for fascism and corruption, the army is being thrown a coup via political muscle flexing, gangs are being chased and persecuted, the residents of Neo Tokyo 3 can't move without riot police involvement or being sanctioned by barricades, even the Psionics are told they cannot leave quarantine. The entire subplot of Kaneda telling Tetsuo what to do, and Tetsuo's revolt are all key to this same principle that the only one who's truly free in the film Akira is, well, Akira! If you're feeling personally exploited, watch Akira. You'll suddenly feel better about your own 1st world problems.
Akira stands the test of time visually, metaphorically, literally, and of course audibly. The film is just as detail driven from every angle as it was when it came out in 1988. If there's ever an anime to connect correlations to every existing anime genre, it's Akira. You'd be plain ignorant to think otherwise.