I didn't like it at all and found it a bit overrated. And even though the artwork is pretty good, the story is just meh. Main characters appeared to be one sided and no character development at all. Kaneda and Tetsuo started off as annoying and ended the same throughout the whole manga, but I liked some characters like Kei, the Colonel and Chiyako even Ryu. Even the title character Akira is boring and he just exist as a plot device, other children are more interesting. Maybe I'm just expecting a lot more considering it is called one of the best. It may be influential and even nostalgic for most people but reading it now late in the game just didn't worked for me. If you like post apocalyptic cyberpunk artwork with lame story then this is for you.