Akuma no Riddle

I feel like people rating this show low are approaching it on a too literal level. I don't think of this as a story-driven anime, but as a surreal character blender. Underneath Akuma no Riddle's apparent absurdity lurks some pretty tightly crafted subliminal themes and exploration of morality, free will etc. The Haru-Azuma -love story offers a throughline to the show that you can latch onto, but the two of them will spend a lot of their time on the backseat, as most episodes basically elevate the "assassin of the week" as a temporary main character. I happen to like this kind of structure a ... lot - it's somewhat formulaic, but because it's so character-focused, the constant rotation keeps it fresh.

If you are the kind of person that can't stop screaming "why didn't they just..." at the screen, this is a hard pass. If you want a unique show that can be subtle with it's ideas but is not afraid of going over the top either, Akuma no Riddle is put together with lots of love and care. I'd say it's a hidden gem - a cult classic without much of a cult.

This anime was pretty good. I like the art style and everything. Takechi Otoya of course, is my favorite character out of all of the assassins. However, I don't like how they completely changed her whole personality when she came back. I liked her when she was more sadistic. Also, you could have added more shoujo-ai to this anime. Since it's basically an all girls anime. The pool scene was cute, but it wasn't enough. What would have made this anime perfect is multiple romances or a harem. lol

Akuma no Riddle. Assassins assassinating other assassins in order to assassinate a victim that has an assassin protecting her.

-Overall
The story of Akuma no Riddle is told episodically, with each episode focusing on one assassin to characterize. While this was fun in it's own way, it caused many problems. The premise isn't explained too much, and this way of storytelling caused the characters to be horribly underdeveloped. The art and sound were good, average really, but the characters, although interesting, end up laughably underdeveloped and not really likable at all. It's a shame, since Akuma no Riddle seems to focus on the action and characters, but ... the characters fall short of their goal. The action is good, though.
Story: 7
Art: 7
Sound: 7
Character: 6.75
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 7.15, Akuma no Riddle is good.
However, the last episode is utterly horrible and breaks the characters. I would rate a 6 in story and 6 in character if I seriously took the last half of that episode into consideration. However, I feel it unfair to judge the show based on it's "cooling down" conclusion portion. But anyways, Akuma no Riddle gets an overall score of 7.15.
More details down below:

-Story
The story of Akuma no Riddle is simple enough. While the premise isn't explained well at all, (What is this "assassins network" that Tokaku works for? How does it work? How are people recruited into this network?) I still enjoyed the episodes. Each episode a different assasssin has the spotlight alongside the main characters, who specialize in different weapons. While it can get monotonous, the action is well choreographed. Some episodes are "whatever", others are very good. (Episode 6 was probably my favorite episode. It was cool with all the Romeo and Juliet parallels) The plot isn't amazing, but it's nice in its simplicity. However, Episode 12 ruins the plot. Don't watch episode 12.

-Art
The art looks good. It seems to be "shinier" than contemporary works. Nothing special, though.

-Sound
The voices and soundtracks are average. They're good, but not extraordinary. The opening theme is pretty cool. The ending theme is different each episode, sung by the voice actors of the characters that "perished" in that episode. That's pretty cool, but I didn't really listen to them anyways.

-Character
There are many assassins in Akuma no Riddle with interesting enough backstories. However, because the anime is so short and each backstory gets on average 3-6 minutes, the characters end up being laughably underdeveloped and not really relatable. I mean, I can feel the anime trying to get me to feel sympathetic, but most of the time, I just laughed at how badly the story was delivered. Haru, the main character that all the assassins are targeting, is really dumb. She tries to make friends with the assassins... even though she knows they're trying to kill her...
Tokaku is a badass with a good backstory, and the teacher's just... the best. In the end, I did respect and feel sympathetic towards some of the characters, but episode 12... destroys some of those feelings...
Don't watch episode 12.

-Enjoyment
I enjoyed this anime. The episodic story telling was fun enough, and some of the characters were cool. The action is enjoyable. But the 2nd half of episode 12 is bad. Don't watch that episode.

I went into this anime without any knowledge of it whatsoever. After seeing the first couple of episodes, I began to wonder: is this going to be really smart or really dumb? The answer, as usual, is none of the above.

Akuma no Riddle starts off with a simple yet intriguing premise: there are 12 assassins in the Black class and one victim. The killers, of course, need to kill her, the target wants to survive. So, after hearing this, I thought the show was opting to be mystery: you can't trust anyone, everyone is suspicious and so on. This can be done and has been ... done to great success but there is one obvious and serious problem here: unlike, say, in Another, you don't have many usual people trying to find one special person; instead, only one is normal. Therefore, there is no reason for the target to check anyone, thus every suspicious or ambiguous bit of dialogue immediately exposes the character as an assassin. Handling that for 12 episodes and still maintaining the intrigue doesn't seem to be possible, and the anime wisely takes a different turn. The target is revealed very early on to everyone; instead, the hunt has rules, which basically mean everyone makes their attempts in order, and the goal is to be the first to succeed.

The synopsis is a bit misleading, though: Tokaku develops feeling for Haru, sure, but not that gradually. To be honest, it comes out of nowhere, really; what surprised me is the fact that it is actually explored later on. The number of killers (12) isn't coincidental, it basically means each episode has its villain. There are deviations from this rule but it's more or less true. So, everyone gets a chance to shine, even though it means there isn't much of a coherent narrative. The only question is: is one episode always enough for the writer to make a character interesting and memorable? At first, it seems like the answer is no, first attackers are not very interesting: there are either no redeeming qualities whatsoever or they are as boring and banal as you can get. Their methods can't be called cunning, too.

It does improve, though, some characters are actually compelling and easy to identify with, their resolutions well-handled. Ironically, those who actually didn't want to kill Haru all that much turned out to be most interesting. Their episodes are mostly around the mid point of the series. After that, however, the focus is more on Tokaku, Haru and their relationship rather than anyone else, so the killers serve mostly as a means for character development. As a result, they aren't that memorable but allow the leads to shine; thanks to that, Haru doesn't come out as a complete damsel in distress, and Tokaku is affected by these experiences, which makes their personalities more interesting. Which is good, since in the beginning they are more (Haru) or less (Tokaku) two-dimensional. The ending changes this radically, although it is pretty strange and, I'm certain, didn't appeal to many. It's probably happy, all things considered, but strange and surprising. I liked it, unsure as I am of how plausible the events were in terms of established relationships.

The art really worked for me, it's rather unrealistic but has a sharp feeling to it, making the atmosphere seem surreal yet not exactly threatening. Overall, the show looks and feels pretty energetic, helped by the score often choosing electronic music, though also utilizing traditional instruments. I also liked the decision to make everyone except the students of the Black class black and white, it just looks awesome. The character designs are great, no one looks the same and practically no one looks generic, too. The voice acting was great, I especially liked Tokaku; the voice is unusual but works well with her.

Most of my problems with the show I have already mentioned: while SOME characters I liked, some were boring or were only there to develop the leads; and one of the students is completely pointless and has little to no personality. The big revelation in the end (and of course there's the big answer to who's behind this and what do they want) is only good for the effect it has on Haru and Tokaku's relationship, it's not that interesting or surprising, for that matter, and ultimately comes out of left field and amounts to nothing. The anime, in my opinion, suffers from it only having 12 episodes; otherwise, character arcs could have been more explored, the ending built up better, so that it could make more of an impact. As it is, not everything is great with Akuma no Riddle but it is enjoyable, contains surprisingly little padding and fanservice and at least half the class consists of interesting characters. Overall, it's good. I just can't shrug off the feeling it could have been better.

I've seen a lot of low reviews regarding this anime. I recently watched it so I thought a fresh perspective might be beneficial. Story-wise, it depends on the perspective you take. I think the low reviews come from taking the anime much more seriously than it should have been. I didn't feel like the show took itself very seriously from the beginning. They wouldn't have included some of the characters if this show was meant to be extremely serious. They wouldn't have written some of the scenes the way they did, unless it was supposed to be amusing. The yuri aspect is a bit of ... a stretch. The main characters aren't seen building a relationship and the one kiss scene in the show is barely considered a kiss in the first place. I felt there was more romance between two of the supporting characters. If you're looking for a good yuri, this definitely is not that. I personally liked the art in the show. I liked the fact that each assassin got their own ending credits- except for one, but that really isn't a problem in retrospect. Now, character-wise, a lot could have been done differently. Each character had potential to be extremely interesting, but due to the duration of the series it wasn't possible to give each character extensive background. It's important to remember that they are supposed to be supporting characters, so technically it really shouldn't matter whether or not they have a background story because they aren't the ones we're supposed to be paying attention to. That being said, it is still very possible to enjoy the supporting characters with the bit of information we are given. I won't deny that I did find myself wanting more background for some of the characters, but it's understandable why that couldn't happen. Personally, I didn't like the two main characters (Tokaku Azuma and Haru Ichinose) and found myself more interested in the supporting characters. I found the series entertaining and I enjoyed it quite a bit- even with the problems mentioned beforehand. There's confusion regarding the ending of the series. A lot of viewers didn't quite understand what lead to the ending and refer to it as a cop out when that isn't necessarily the case. This is another instance of needing to pay attention to what the show is giving you. You have to actually use critical thinking skills for some parts. Overall, I rate it a 7. There are so many parts of this show that ARE likable. It's important to remember that this show isn't meant to be super duper serious. The show itself has a great amount of potential that wasn't necessarily carried out fully, but that doesn't mean that it's unwatchable. If the series was a bit longer there would have been more opportunity, which can be said for a lot of other series as well. I'd say give it a chance, but also understand what the show is conveying to you as a viewer.