I only became interested in watching this movie after a recommendation from someone else. I learned that the character from The King of Fighter (K9999 or Kay Four-Nine) was based on a character from Akira. But I honestly didn't understand some parts of it very well, although I confess that I liked it a lot.
The character I'm talking about is this one:
Very interesting, I didn't know that.
The film may be difficult to understand because of the way it's told, they could have done a little better but it's still spectacular, as you say, it ends up liking it a lot.
Cheers!