Akira Slides Back Into Theaters September 4

If all you know about Akira is “bike slide” and “guy who morphs into flesh mountain” then…you’re probably like a lot of Americans, but there’s a cure coming for your gap in pop culture knowledge. The 1988 feature, regarded as one of the most significant steps toward anime’s breakthrough to Western markets, is returning to theaters in 4K and IMAX.

Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment have teamed up to present the classic fable once again, set in the distant apocalyptic Tokyo of 2019, where bike gang leader Kaneda is on the search for his childhood friend Tetsuo. He’s been captured by a sinister lab of dark science and Kaneda will stop at nothing to free him. But once the pair are reunited, Kaneda will start getting more than he bargained for.

Hollywood keeps threatening to remake this in one live-action form or another, be it a movie or a streaming series, but all their plans have so far fallen through. There’s nothing like the original:

As the leader of a group of young robust delinquents, Kaneda spent his nights tearing through the urban wastes, racing his motorbike against rival groups. One night while riding with his gang, his friend Tetsuo suddenly encounters a strange boy—the product of human experimentation—and is injured in the ensuing crash. Shortly thereafter, a military squadron appears on the scene to take the boy and Tetsuo away to an army research facility. Determined to free Tetsuo from capture, Kaneda sneaks into the army research lab. However, a regimen of extreme experimental procedures has awakened a new power in his friend, and now he is consumed by madness…

For one day only, Akira will be re-released in 4K and IMAX in the United States and Kaneda Canada, with both sub and dub showtimes available. Tickets aren’t for sale yet, nor is there a list of participating theaters…but we’ll get that info to you soon.