^ It has, and does. I saw Akira way before I checked out Pokémon. The latter I turned off after 5 minutes, and never bothered with again. I will personally never understand the draw to that cartoon for anyone over 5. Didn't help that some creature was complaining that its balls were sore.
As for my case, a friend let me borrow his dubbed copy of the original 3x3 Eyes OVA back in the day. I was like, "Hell yes! More of this!". Right after that, it was the quintessential Akira, and also Dirty Pair: Flight 005 Conspiracy.