A new ranking of anime movies has named Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 offering “Akira” as the best anime film of all time.
The cyberpunk action flick topped the list, which was compiled by Complex. It features some fantastic productions, ranging from movies made as far back as 1985, to those made as recently as 2025.
“Akira” was a truly groundbreaking movie with phenomenal animation, striking visuals, and incredible (albeit very violent) action. It completely revolutionized the global perception of anime and had a monumental influence on the world of popular culture and entertainment in general.
Per IMDb, the movie’s synopsis describes it as follows: “A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a teenage biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by his best friend.”
“Akira” features the voices of Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama and Taro Ishida as Shōtarō Kaneda, Tetsuo Shima, Kei, and Colonel Shikishima, respectively. The English dub stars Cam Clarke, Jan Rabson, Lara Cody, and Tony Pope in the same roles (with Kei renamed Kay).
A huge financial success, it grossed $49 million worldwide (per Vice). That’s impressive, given its production budget was just $5.7 million (per NetLab).
Director Katsuhiro Otomo Initially Doubted ‘Akira’s’ Chances of Success
GettyKatsuhiro Otomo wrote and directed “Akira,” which is based on his own hugely successful post-apocalyptic manga series – but he didn’t initially think it would share the manga’s success.
Otomo told Forbes in 2017, “Actually, when I saw the first rush of the movie version of Akira I thought it would be a failure.” He elaborated, “I left the theater very quickly and came back home to tell my wife that the movie was a failure. This was because I thought the first half was good but because the time and budget was limited, with so many cuts, the quality dropped as the story developed.”
However, over time, the artist, screenwriter, animator, and director started viewing the movie differently.
He said, “When Shoji Yamashiro did the remake with 5 channel audio, he invited me over and showed me the movie again. So this was a very long time since I had seen the movie back when it was released. Maybe time had made me softer but when I saw it again I thought, ‘Oh, this is interesting’ and that maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.”
‘Akira’ Beat off Some Stiff Competition in the New Ranking
Above is a social media post with 10 great images from “Akira.”
“Akira” topped the new list at the expense of some truly fantastic movies. Iconic offerings like “Ghost in the Shell” (1995), “Princess Mononoke” (1997), “Spirited Away” (2001), and “Metropolis” (2001) all lost out.
Here is the list in full:
20. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001)
19. Royal Space Force: The Wings Of Honnêamise (1987)
18. Redline (2009)
17. Robot Carnival (1987)
16. Promare (2019)
15. Suzume (2022)
14. Chainsaw Man—The Movie: Reze Arc (2025)
13. The Boy and the Heron (2023)
12. Your Name (2016)
11. Millennium Actress (2001)
10. Vampire Hunter D (1985)
9. Metropolis (2001)
8. Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
7. Ninja Scroll (1993)
6. Spirited Away (2001)
5. Perfect Blue (1997)
4. The End of Evangelion (1997)
3. Princess Mononoke (1997)
2. Ghost In The Shell (1995)
1. Akira (1988)
It’s genuinely quite hard to argue with that list. “Akira” in undoubtedly worthy of its position. That being said, the likes of “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004), “Paprika” (2006), “Ponyo” (2008), “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle” (2020), and a handful of other great movies might feel a little hard done by to be excluded from it.
Congratulations to “Akira” on earning its unofficial new title as “Best Anime Film” of all time. It’s undoubtedly an impressive label to have.
