Akira

One of the most influential anime films ever made, Katsuhiro Otomo’s dystopian cyberpunk film introduced the western world to the cinematic spectacle that anime has to offer.

  • Director

    Katsuhiro Ôtomo

  • With

    Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Tesshô Genda

  • Japan 1988. 124min

  • IMAX with Laser

  • Certificate

    15

  • Japanese with English subtitles

A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by two teenagers and a group of psychics. Iconic and game-changing, Akira is a definitive anime masterpiece. The film obliterated the boundaries of Japanese animation and forced the world to look into the future of anime.

In July, 1988, World War III breaks loose. Then in 2019, in megalopolis Neo-Tokyo a leader of a group of young robust delinquents, Kaneda, spends his nights tearing through the urban landscape racing his motorbike against a rival group with his young friend Tetsuo. One night ride they encounter a strange boy who is then injured in the ensuing crash. Shortly thereafter, a military squadron appears on the scene to take the boy and Tetsuo away to an army research facility. Determined to free Tetsuo from capture, Kaneda sneaks into the army research lab. However, a regimen of extreme experimental procedures has awakened a new power in his friend, and now he is consumed by madness…

Returning to the largest screen in the country is the chance to revisit this most classic anime in IMAX with Laser.

Content warning: This film contains a sequence of flashing lights which might affect customers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.

Read 30 years of Akira – teenage kicks, anime-style.