Years ago, Tokyo was destroyed by an unknown force that sparked WWIII. Now, in the middle of the 21st century, Neo Tokyo has been rebuilt on the ruins of the old city. Ravaged by aimless youths and bike gangs, rife with political intrigue, cults, and the undercurrents of revolution, this new city a sight to behold. Somewhere in the underbelly of the city, a young punk, Tetsuo, runs into a strange boy. The boy is part of a military experiment involving psychics, and a mysterious project known as AKIRA. When Tetsuo begins to manifest psychic powers, along with bizarre hallucinations, he becomes a target of a shadowy government organization dedicated to stopping a repeat of the incident that destroyed the city once at any cost.