Question: Was it a GOOD airplane?
No. It was a crapy piece of junk that could barely fly and couldn't make a turn.
Conclusion: not EVERY "first" is the GREATEST. As a matter of fact, not every first is even AMONG the greats.
Akira, in many aspects, did for anime what the Wright brothers' plane did for aeronautics. It revolutionized anime. It changed many viewers' perceptions and expectations of what can be done with this weird art form from the land of the rising sun. It proved that it can do a lot more than disproportionate girls with eyes the size of flying saucers and foreheads you can land a 747 on. Heck, to be fair, it even looks a LOT better than the Wrights' ground breaking but rather deformed effort.
It did a bunch of other things too, though. Other, NOT so praise worthy things.
Akira set the trend for countless followers who thought LOOKING cool, IS being cool. Brought about the doctrine of "the hell with logic and cohesiveness as long as you have awesome visuals". It yielded a never ending array of smartass-wannabe anime and manga in which the amount of MEANINGLESS blood and gore and angry pre-pubescent protagonists were directly proportional to how fuckin' philosophically deep! the piece would be.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against blood, gore, or philosophical depth. But I need to see an effort on the part of the artist. An effort in creating a universe in which such extremities - or any other plot device for that matter - make SENSE. In creating characters from which such behaviour is justified, or at least understandable. Not a mish-mash of ideas pasted together SO haphazardly that you get the feeling not even the creator knew where he/she was going with it.
All in all, nobody can deny the influence Akira has had on the medium that is Anime. But just like the Wrights' plane, it can barely fly. And I doubt you'd be willing to take a ride on that thing even if Emma Watson would promise to tag along. You'd much rather appreciate it on display, in a museum, with both your feet solidly on the ground. Akira should be approached in the same way. It's a museum piece. A damn important one indeed. But not necessarily a good one.
