I suppose whether or not you liked Akira really depends on what type of anime you like.

There are really three types of anime in my opinion, there is the stuff for kids (DBZ, Naruto, and even...ugh Pokemon), there are Adult anime titles (Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis, and Ebichu), and finally a middle ground that both can watch whether they fully understand it or not (Full Metal Alchemist, Mahoromatic, Scrapped Princess, any Miyazaki film). Personally I like all three types. It's nice not to have to think at all about a series, but if you only watch the stuff for children and popular, shallow stuff, you'll be missing out on some of the best anime has to offer, and it would be no better than watching American cartoons.

Akira clearly falls into second catagory. Most people just won't understand what is going on all the time or even after several times through. I know I still don't. I'm not sure I'm even fond of Akira, but all that really matters is someone thought it was really great, so they brought over a few other titles and here we are today, posting about anime all the time.

Akira may be more important than you actually think. If you look at it and other important titles like Ghost in the Shell and Macross, you'll see its influence in a lot of the really popular anime titles. I think its fairly obvious that characters and fights in Akira look at LOT like DBZ. Macross in the 80's is the reason we see a lot of mecha every once in a while and Ghost in the Shell is rather influential on the entire SciFi genre.