Akira influenced The Matrix

The Wachowskis handed producers Japanese animation as a reference rather than a storyboard pitch, and Akira is the film usually named alongside Ghost in the Shell when they describe what they wanted the picture to look like. What carries across is manner rather than plot: the neon rain-slick city shot from above, the way a body moves when it is doing something impossible, and the specific trick of holding on an ordinary object at high speed. Filed MEDIUM and Visual/Stylistic on purpose. Akira's story has almost nothing to do with The Matrix's; the debt is to how it looks and moves, which is exactly what those two subtypes are for.