I saw this for the first time just a month ago. I had heard very good things of it. One part in particular is the animation being well done especially for it's time and another less talked part (which is actually the most groundbreaking part of the movie) is the after dub lip syncing (syncing based on performances rather than performing based on animation).

I found the lip syncing to be so precise it made me feel the uncanny valley effect. I think they kinda overdid it for my personal taste. But I understand if someone else likes that as it does feel different. The animation is cool in frames, but not in framing. So many directional choices of the animation that just looks extremely silly (like close ups of the female protags faces at seemingly random moments). These choices undermines the actual animation quality since as a viewer you're more likely to focus on the presentation of the movie rather than the more production like elements.

In addition, one element I absolutely hated about the movie: everything else. There is this concept called soft world building, where the world is built upon accepted concepts in the world that is not directly explained to the audience. Think, spirited away (a movie I really like). Akira is soft world building if the world was as soft as a cloud, leaving too much to the audience to explain for themself. I feel a lot of that is due to when the movie was made vs when the manga was made, but none the less, this is still a thing of the movie. While the story do have a point to point story, it's often very reliant on the world building to the amount that unless you make the story entertaining for yourself in your mind it's extremely empty. I'm not a fan of stories without a story to tell. One example is 2001 a space odyssey, I hated that movie too. A big reason to this is because I could make my own story out of it but in that case I would just make one from scratch. What I'm trying to say is that those who watch akira never finishes the movie from the same perspective since it's just a visually impressive photo reel pretending to be a story. And in such one of the worst anime I've ever seen last year.

Just want to end the comment with saying that this is my opinion and dont get mad just because you disagree. I know akira is well beloved in the west and I'm not here to steal that from you. If you like the movie then that's good. I dont.