Dir. Katsuhiro Otomo. 1988, 124 mins. DCP. In Japanese with English subtitles. With Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Taro Ishida. Welcome to Neo-Tokyo, a metropolis painted in strokes of neon and cruelty, built on the ashes of a Tokyo annihilated by a mysterious blast in 1988 that triggered World War III. Thirty-one years later, bike gang leader Kaneda battles the combined military, political, and scientific forces of a corrupt shadowy government agency in hopes of saving his abducted friend Tetsuo, who has manifested strange, supernatural powers. Katsuhiro Otomo’s visually stunning science-fiction masterpiece is considered by many to be the finest anime film ever made and marked a watershed moment for the popularization of the art form in the United States, where it became a cult phenomenon on VHS and opened the floodgates to countless stateside anime releases.