There is a sentiment going around that Akira is mid. Richard Lewis, Thorin, and MonteCristo are here to tell you that the internet is wrong, but also that the people who told you it was a flawless 10 out of 10 masterpiece were wrong too. The truth is more interesting than either side.

Akira's animation is a genuine 10 out of 10. Nothing from 1988 looks like this. Almost nothing from 2026 looks like this. The craftsmanship is immaculate, every frame hand-drawn with a fluidity and detail that makes anime produced a decade later look cheap by comparison. The soundtrack is spectacular. The world-building drops you into Neo-Tokyo without a single line of exposition. You don't even hear the word "Akira" for 50 minutes in a movie called Akira.

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