1988: World War III is underway. Tokyo is devastated by a mysterious black explosion of unprecedented magnitude. 2019: Thirty-one years later, Neo-Tokyo, hastily constructed on the ruins of the old city, is a sprawling landscape of neon excess. It is a blend of towering skyscrapers and advanced technology, saturated with an explosive, hyper-violent mix of biker gangs, poverty, and revolutionaries. In this decaying metropolis live Tetsuo Shima and Shoutarou Kaneda, two bikers who are both best friends and fiercest rivals, despite belonging to the same gang. Desperate to prove himself equal to Kaneda, Tetsuo inadvertently performs a stunt that leads to the awakening of a cryptic entity threatening to alter the face of Neo-Tokyo and the lives of its residents—the awakening of a government secret simply known as Akira.