At Long Last, Crunchyroll Brings Anime’s Most Influential Movie Back To IMAX In Stunning Remaster

Published Jul 2, 2026, 1:42 PM EDT

Joshua Edward Ryan Fox is a freelance writer for Screen Rant with a passion for pop culture. Joshua grew up in Connecticut where he developed an appreciation for writing and entertainment and has earned a Master’s degree in professional writing and technical writing. His writing has been quoted by both the anime streaming site Crunchyroll and the anime YouTuber Gigguk.

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At long last, Crunchyroll is bringing the most influential anime film in history, Akira, back to theaters. In recent years, Crunchyroll has taken great strides toward making its output of anime films just as big as anime shows; not only will Crunchyroll often make the gap between the English and Japanese releases as short as possible, but it’ll even devote specific nights and events to old and new movies alike, so there will always be something fun for someone to watch.

Crunchyroll’s recent output of anime films has been great, and it’s about to get even better, as it’s just been announced that Crunchyroll will bring the legendary anime film Akira back to theaters on September 4 in IMAX and 4K. This marks the first time Akira has been released in American theaters since Crunchyroll absorbed Funimation in 2022, and with how great the re-release looks to be, it’s sure to be well worth the wait.

Why Akira Is The Most Important Movie In Anime History

It’s been almost 40 years since Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira first premiered, and its importance cannot be understated. The sheer depth of its animation, direction, and mature storytelling was unlike anything else at the time, and it all came together in a movie with incredibly thoughtful and intense writing with the visuals to match, all of which still hold up amazingly well. That, in turn, made Akira one of the first anime adults could feel comfortable watching in America, and because of that, it was one of the main reasons anime took off in the 90s.

10 Times Hollywood Copied Akira’s Most Iconic Scene For Better (or Worse)

Akira is one of the most iconic anime films of all time, and the bike slide from the movie so memorable, Hollywood couldn’t help but copy it.

The way Akira influenced pop culture as a whole also needs to be studied. The iconic status of the legendary “Akira Slide” goes without saying, but countless creators from around the world have cited Akira as an influence on their work, with shows and movies like The Matrix, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and even South Park and Rick and Morty paying reference to it in some way. Even Dragon Ball’s Akira Toriyama thought Akira was a masterpiece, and decades later, it’s easy to see why.