Akame ga Kill!

A lot can be said about a show's 1st episode. It's our first encounter with the world presented, and could often be used to gauge whether or not the content on display could be something that would interest you moving forward. Of course, this isn't to say that that's always the case, but for the most part, it serves as a helpful jumping off point and is often the reason why studios place so much stock on its television pilot. And nowhere is that more evident than with Akame ga Kill! With just one episode, it manages to establish a myriad of things, all of ... which interesting in their own right, but perhaps more entertaining when viewed as a whole. There's comedy, fanservice, ultraviolence, corrupt politics, eccentric characters, melodrama, and a sleuth of other tidbits littered throughout. All of these aspects by themselves are fine, but it's the assembly in which these ideas are presented that gives way to content that's comedically problematic.

Like ingredients for food, it's not a matter of what you have to work with but what you choose to make out of it. In the hands of capable creators, I'm sure all the elements of Akame ga Kill could have been turned into something of high-end value, but to no one's fault but its own, what this title decides to do instead of measuring out its ingredients was to dump it all in at once with no rhyme or reason. A tasty stew in the hands of credible creators was effectively turned into a cauldron of foul witches brew. A slimy substance bubbling up, one that sees gruesome deaths followed by comedic fanservice, politics served on a platter layered in melodrama, reanimated corpses of shows prior refusing to die off, their festering lack of "character" like primordial ooze, desperately seeking out originality to munch down on. A Schlocky, sleazy freak of a thing, over-the-top, and violently lashing out, its drool dripping with hackneyed writing and a complete disregard for decency as it spazzes about on the floor.

What we have here was a Frankenstein of lowbrow content, and boy was it entertaining!

The story is very straightforward, if only by design. A corrupt kingdom takes advantage of their citizens through tyrannical rule, and to fight against this oppression, rebel forces send aid by hiring a band of assassins tasked with killing off high-ranking members of the capital. It's like Assassin's Creed, but with a lot more boobs and nakama power involved. Our protagonist, PussyBetaMale-kun, or Tatsumi, if you prefer, joins this hit squad.

The goal of these rebel forces are pretty basic; overthrow the governing body and establish a new order of equality. Seems like a simple enough story to execute right? Well, that's where you'll be sorely mistaken, with AGK, plunging your IQ down a few pegs is the only way to keep up with its scatterbrained thought process when it comes to figuring its own shit out. In substitution of a fairly paint-by-numbers plot, AGK decides to globetrot across its world, not out of a need to explore anything, no, that would be too "smart," but solely for the sake of encountering as many comedically vile people as possible. And in that regard, its meandering was a success. In place of a rebel uprising, what we got in its stead was a bunch of superpowered edgelords engaging in giant cockfights to see who was the strongest. Assassin Super Bowl was in full swing, and while they were duking it out like reject members of a Mad Max film, the highborn nobles were strolling along in the background, torturing its citizens with so much glee that you can't help but root for their cartoonish villainy.

The setting was never explored, feeling equally perfunctory as the characters inhabiting it. Attributes of its world bullying the audience into accepting it for what it is. Wild monsters with no domestic quality to their world and flying Manta-rays; just accept it. Giant mecha in a medieval setting with no prior inclusion of advanced technology; just accept it. Macroeconomics that's impossible to exist when the aristocratic class torture and kill their citizens, effectively crippling its economy's breadwinners; just accept it. Supernatural occurrences that happen at one minute to simply be forgotten by the next; you get the drill, just accept that shit.

They didn't even bother to properly flesh out the city or corresponding areas that our characters navigated across. Deciding to only let it serve as a backdrop for the Assassin Super Bowl to play out seemed to be the unified thought process that the creative team all collectively arrived at. And when that isn't enough to keep the viewer's interest, the show places a character's neck on its Guillatine chopping block, where it turns these Mad Max rejects into blood-splattered firework displays to keep things entertaining. All you end up remembering them for was their deaths and not who they were as people. But who got time to worry about proper characterization or decent writing? Fuck it! On with the show! More shocking deaths, more blood, more ultraviolence, more more more!

Crimson blood-spray animated with such vigor that it makes it readily apparent that the people behind this project are having as much fun slaughtering their cast as we as viewers get from watching them die. In a way, it's like this show's animators were a part of the noble class themselves, as they hyper-fixate on bringing these death sequences to life. Sadly, when no one is being turned into blood confetti, the actual quality of the animation drops off significantly. Stiff body motion. Lazily panning across flat landscapes. Shading devoid of effort or care. Scene compositions setup with zero creative foresight; all of it expressed with complete apathy. As if it was an impatient child twiddling its thumbs waiting for the director to give it the green-light for the next fight sequence or public execution to occur.

The same also applied to the soundtrack which was painfully uninspired. Tunes humming along without an inkling of interest shining through. A type of "pretending to care" in the way the orchestrations felt oddly familiar-sounding to many things heard in the past. But unlike the animation department, the disinterest expressed here was actually surprising once you discuss the person responsible for the bringing it together. Taku Iwasaki is not an amateur. This is a man with years under his belt. Why this wasn't audibly expressed was a bit perplexing, but then again, this is coming from a show named "Akame" ga Kill, where the titular character only gets 5 episodes worth of screentime. They must have been fans of The Legend of "Zelda" games to come up with such an absurd name choice.

The moment you start trying to "figure out" AGK's issues is the moment you're "doing it wrong," so let's proceed to dispell that idea right now by asking the impossible question: what the "purpose" behind this wonderful work of artistic vandalism was.

So what was it about? An active effort to discuss subserviency in society? The oppressive consequence that occurs when "absolute power corrupts absolutely?" A tale of personal ideals clashing, resulting in bloody politics? A sobering story of discrimination?... Well, honestly speaking, no. It was about none of that. Overthinking anything that AGK does would be no different than waxing philosophical for the reason behind Patrick Star's Hawaiian shorts. There's no pretense behind AGK's actions, and as long as the viewer doesn't graft any grandiose ideas onto it, it could be enjoyed for what it truly is: schlocky, over-the-top deaths with shounen characters that had the stylistic sensibilities of a seinen but the emotional authority of a 15-year-old's wet dream.

And you know what? That's just fine. I sure had fun watching it. A silly thing, flailing about with no sense of purpose or integrity. A good ole dumb time to be had, IQ-reducing, but worth every popped brain cell.

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

Question: What do you get when you try to make an action-comedy based around the brutal torture, rape, and mutilation of innocent people? Apparently, you get Akame Ga Kill. It’s a blood bath, but it’s also light-hearted. It has deathly serious themes such as the loss of close friends, but it also has frequent fanservice. It has characters with tortured pasts seeking retribution, but they also have slice-of-life comedy personalities. …Have you noticed the problem with the show yet? Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting one of the most hyped anime of the year: Akame Ga Kill (By the way: no. I haven’t read the ... manga and I don’t care if “everything is better!” in it; this review is of the adaptation and the adaptation alone).

Synopsis: A boy named Tatsumi sets out on a journey for “The Capitol” in order to earn money for his starving village. However, when he arrives, he only finds a world full of unimaginable corruption. People are murdered, tortured, and manipulated on a daily basis for no discernable reason other than the fact that the government is super evil. After seeing this corruption, Tatsumi joins the “Night Raid”: a group of assassins dedicated to eliminating the corruption throughout The Capitol by mercilessly killing those responsible.

There are several problems with AGK’s plot, and all of them are related to the very core foundation of how the show was written, making them absolutely crippling. The first issue is that its style is completely unrelated to its substance. This anime can’t decide if it wants to be an edgy, dark, violent action show or a light, upbeat, comedy-action shounen with lots of fanservice. Since it can’t decide, it tries to be both at the same time. This, of course, results in it being neither. AGK has absolutely NO concept of tone what so ever. In fact, the first episode contains arguably the worst writing decision in a TV show I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

We see Tatsumi, our protagonist, witness one of the most traumatic and devastating things imaginable. It’s very graphic and the viewers are prepared for Tatsumi to absolutely break down. You know what happens instead? He mourns for about 10 seconds and then gets comedically dragged away for more fanservice and jokes with the other characters as he becomes visibly unfazed by the incident. There isn’t so much as a second allowed for a transition between comedy and tragedy. Oh, but that’s not where the joke stops; for the remainder of the series, our intelligence is insulted to the point that the show tries to constantly remind us how “devastating” this event was for Tatsumi; you know, the devastation that never happened. He supposedly has nightmares about this event frequently and TONS of his characterization is based upon the effect that this event has on him. Well, great job AGK: you managed to entirely kill the most integral character motivation in your entire show before the very first episode was even over. It’s not like this is the only instance of AGK’s incompetent tone either; there are many, MANY more examples. This show treats serious themes such as rape and torture like they are one big joke; they are used only to over-exaggerate the “evilness” of the antagonists to the point that questions of “good vs. evil” couldn’t be any more black and white in a traditional, cliché shounen fashion. Speaking of clichés, let’s touch on the characters:

AGK’s characters fail to stand out in any way what so ever. Not even slightly. The entire cast is full of tired archetypes from a harem comedy that somehow found their way into the wrong genre of anime (much like Higurashi, but in a bad way). Seriously: you’ve got the naïve, personality-less male protagonist (Tatsumi), the airhead (Sheele), the tsundere (Mine), the outgoing/sexual one with giant boobs (Leone), the blunt/emotionless one (Akame), etc. I mean come the fuck on! I AM watching a harem, aren’t I? You can probably imagine how badly this cast clashes with the antagonists, who are the most obviously evil, stereotyped, motivation-less, cardboard cut-out “characters” you could ever imagine. They rape, they torture, they manipulate, they do the most morally awful things that the writer’s mind could physically dream up. Why? …Just because they’re evil. Even everybody's FAVORITE character (Esdeath) is completely worthless; she has no damn motivations what so ever people! Every time they "try" to give the villains development, it is painfully rushed and short-lived, making it essentially useless. This is one of the cheapest writing tactics in the book and it’s just the icing on the cake to a cast of characters that lacks a single ounce of originality or any depth at all. As a result of the poor cast, nobody cares whenever something happens to any of the characters. This, predictably, takes a massive element of the show away entirely.

In conclusion, Akame Ga Kill is a trainwreck. It has some good ideas and can be decently suspenseful at times, but complete lack of direction makes it borderline unwatchable unless you can completely shut off your brain. From its horribly confused plot to its inane characters, this show never presents us with a single, solitary reason to tune in to the stereotype parade they have created. I do not recommend Akame Ga Kill to anyone.

When I first heard of Akame Ga Kill I was rather hyped It sounded like it'd be the new fullmetal alchemist a shonen with a great mix of comedy drama and action the similarities are there in in both shows a Boy Is coming from a village to a city to become a military dog of sorts both for different reasons The start admittedly had potential Then right when the first death of a main character happened the show began to fall apart

Story(3/10) The story is quite generic a typical boy coming to a big city to join Military the so He can earn ... money to send to his village Little does he know how corrupt the capital is after some events occur he ends up being recruited by the assassin group night raid that wish to overthrow the government a rebellion of sorts Sounds pretty cool right?

Unfortunately Immediately after the first Dramatic scene of the show one that should be effecting Tatsumi on an emotional level to develop his character the Writers thought it would be a good idea to have a comedic moment less then 30 seconds after And that is one of Akame Ga Kill's major faults is there is no tone to it whatsoever, Not to mention The humor is bland as hell almost all of it could just be cut out and you wouldn't even notice It makes it hard to take the show seriously story

Characters: (3/10) Where to even start with this... Akame tries desperately to make us care for these characters they are killing off but the show kills Characters off so frequently The Characters don't get nearly As enough development as they should of The deaths of each characters is treated as a 3 step process. 1 Give the Character some screen time In the previous episode 2 Give them some sort of backstory and flashbacks Then finally 3 Send them off to some fight and watch them die It sounds like I'm being harsh on it but that is what it is the only death that was unpredictable was in the final episodes and that Didn't even happen in the Manga. I don't have an issue with Character Deaths but Atleast develop The Characters due to a lack of Characterization It just made their deaths feel meaningless As for The Characters themselves they are pretty generic But I still for some Reason Liked most of them Especially Bulat Because of how Entertaining and funny He was and Sheele Who I Only like Because I have a fetish for Glasses And Purple Hair Some of The Characters felt Completely useless Mainly The Night Raid Leader Najenda You would expect Her to be badass and important But sadly She Really didn't do anything for the entire show Even though She has potential to be a badass and capable Female Character The Show just didn't Use any of the Potential The Characters Had

Art (4/10) The Animation for the Show While it looked Nice it Just looked kind of Standard Nothing To Special in it However The Action Was nice as Expected But There is a lot of Still Images and Movements The only real issue I have is there is so much blood coming out From The Characters it feels so unrealistic because I doubt there is even that much blood in a Human Body.

Sounds (510)The Music was pretty Average The Openings were decent and fit the Show Nicely but there was nothing Distinct about it For Instance If you Listen to Any song from the Sound Track of a show like Death Note It should be instantly Identifiable You could tell what Anime its from because it has its Own Style Akame doesn't have this it sounds like it was from any other anime. Its not a bad OST Just not Worth a Download.

Enjoyment (510) It was Entertaining at times But The Lack of a Consistent Tone For the Show just Took Me out of the Mood Its Nothing Thought Provoking at All But the action is entertaining for what it is.

Overall (3/10) This Show is a Shonen trying to be a Seinen it thinks if they kill Characters off for no Logical Reason its dark and edgy If They would of Developed some of the Characters it would of been a Much Better show It does nothing New for the Shonen Or Action Genre But It does have a Decent Premise and it Stays True to itself The Entire show If you like Watching entertaining Action Scenes and Characters being Treated like Sheep Being sent to the Slaughter House There's a Chance You'd Enjoy this But if You Enjoy Thought Provoking Well Written Shows look Somewhere Else Final Score

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(This has been adapted from my reddit thread)

There's an implication drawn from war that, no matter how much we desire it to be false, people will get hurt. Now, this isn't strictly between countries. "War" in this context encompasses all battles. Mental turmoil, physical skirmishes, and verbal bashing are simple examples of such altercations. In some way, shape, or form, the people involved will not leave entirely unscathed. And depending on the severity of the situation, death is a possibility. Akame ga Kill! is all about such death, but is not much more than violence without substance.

STORY

The journey starts with Tatsumi, a young village boy ... who moves to the Capitol in search of his fellow companions. What he finds within the city leads him to join Night Raid, an assassin-filled group whose goal is grand in scope but simple in nature: overthrow the kingdom.

Akame ga Kill! relies on the notion of emotional appeal. Death is rampant within the show, meaning no characters are safe. Akame, Tatsumi, Sheele, literally everyone attributed to the anime are at risk of being eliminated. In order for this to work, Akame ga Kill! requires that the audience become invested in the characters themselves. This is the first problem the anime encounters. Most of the characters are, at times, given their moment of spotlight. Usually involving a single episode or so, much of the cast is given some slight background in order to provide insight about who he or she is and where he or she came from. But there's a rift in this story-telling. For a vast majority of the characters, the appeal mentioned earlier either isn't enough or is hastily thrown in. This creates a disconnect that causes a loss in the show's intended effect. More specifically, the anime has too many characters with too little time to make the deaths meaningful or impactful enough.

Akame ga Kill! also suffers an identity crisis. It constantly reverberates between being a serious, "dramatic" battle shounen and a comical, light-hearted romp. The show demonstrates time and again how brutal many of the situations can get. But when it is interspersed with funny jabs or quips to lighten the mood, it doesn't add anything. Rather, it portrays a lack of focus. Then, when the show slides back towards its more serious self, the same issue arises again. Thinking about both aspects, the show shines brighter when it is following the more serious tones. This is mainly due in part to the more "adult" subject matter of murder, espionage, and torture. Sadly, the show doesn't stick to this thinking until the final few episodes. Meaning, one must wade through the entirety of the show's lack of direction.

A glaring issue that Akame ga Kill! also harbors is in what actually occurs. Much of what happens has little or zero consequence on future scenarios. The goal behind Night Raid is to topple the current government. They say that what they do along the way is striving towards that goal, but it never comes off that way. Instead, each fight is standalone. Destroying the lab monsters, getting rid of a high officer, or killing a member of the Jaegers doesn't directly affect the group's ultimate dream. In this way, every episode isn't a step towards a resolution, but is instead just another time slot dedicated to potentially killing off another cast member.

ANIMATION

Akame ga Kill! tends to do well in this department, regardless of the awful story.

Beginning with the art style, the show is, more or less, generic. Forests, safe havens, and inner city towns provide some variety, but are usually not detailed too extremely. The character designs, on the other hand, are actually quite pleasant. While most stick to a "this is my color" formula, the designs are done in such a way as to express that character's personality. Akame appears mysterious and foreboding with her jet-black, straight hair and red eyes, while Lubbock seems energetic his disheveled attire. This applies to both the good and the bad guys. It's easy to see that much attention was paid to make them stand out.

Animation-wise, the show does above average. The fight scenes are both large and small in scale, with many opportunities to show off its prowess. Examples include a flurry of swords between duelists or a massive explosion as the byproduct of an Imperial Arm. Since most of the show is steeped in fighting, and the quality of the fights never seems to falter too much, the show should at least be credited for this.

One last note. The show incorporates some rather impressive shots that are more paintings than drawings. These occur usually once per episode. They don't do much other than show case a heavily detailed scene, but they're a nice addition to provide the animators involved a chance to showcase their talent.

CHARACTERS

This is perhaps the most difficult category. Again, Akame ga Kill! requires a big investment towards the characters involved. Some may argue that this is true for all shows. And to an extent, they are correct. However, this one makes it paramount that such a bond is established. Since death is the name of the game, if the death doesn't matter, than neither does the character. To avoid spoilers, I'll focus on my personal favorites.

Having an anime titled after you is no easy feat. Akame, the sort of "poster child" for Night Raid, is an assassin known for her unmatched swordplay. Resolute, quiet, and unusually hungry, she takes it upon herself to remember the foes of her past in order to provide strength for her future. Despite being in the title, she is relegated to the sideline for a good portion of the show. Character background is given for her, but it comes too little too late. It's strange, to say the least. In the beginning, when she is first introduced, it seems as if her role will be quite huge in the context of the story. But that is not the case. Instead, Tatsumi takes this position, leaving Akame on the wayside. Seeing as Tatsumi is a rather lame protagonist, I think this decision was a poor one.

Most girls like to dress up and put on make-up, and Chelsea is no different. Her flowing orange hair and signature candy sucker make her not only attractive but also "human." That is, among everyone, she seems the most out of place within the fantastical world. Her personality is upbeat, and often clashes with Mine. However, her cheerfulness should not be mistaken for passiveness. Chelsea's main problem is that her inclusion serves no larger purpose. She's pretty much just there. While she may be a confident and fun young lady, she brings almost nothing to the table.

Esdeath, and Akame ga Kill!'s "best girl," is technically not the main antagonist. However, her presence on the battlefield certainly makes it so. Icy and cold, like the Imperial Arm she wields, Esdeath is the epitome of war. Her beauty is striking and so are her skills. Throughout the show, it becomes apparent just how unstoppable a force she really is. Yet, behind her cool demeanor lies a gentler side that she can't quite seem to understand. Her motivations are simple (she just loves to kill and fight), making her a rather plain villain. However, her decision making is not without reason and her personality, despite her torturous ways, makes her adored by all.

Objectively speaking, I find Seryuu Ubiquitous (what a last name! :P) to be the strongest character. Absolutely staunch in her convictions, she aims to bring justice upon the evil-doers of the land. She is quite two-faced, acting bubbly and happy by day but ferocious and insane by night. Her ideals rival that of Night Raid. That is to say, while what she is doing seems wrong, to her she believes that her actions are just. That what she is doing is for the good of the Capitol. Out of the entire cast, she seems to provide the most insight: sometimes, it's important to take a step back and truly think about what you are doing.

The rest of the cast is either largely forgettable or doesn't do much to make a lasting impression. They may have their moments here or there, but there just isn't enough character development or attachment to any of them to make them worthwhile.

SOUND

The first OP follows a rock-n-roll approach, with hard guitar and drum beats. The vocals involved are quite tame in comparison. The song itself is okay, with the best portion coming through in the end with the final guitar riff.
The second OP is a step up from the first. It's very gradual, starting almost as a lullaby, but picking up tempo with the guitar and choir singing. Once again, the final guitar pieces take the cake, but accompanied with even more of the choir singing, it makes it all feel quite strong.

The first of the EDs is very gentle, contrasting well with the show's overall atmosphere. The violin playing adds to this, as does the slow drum beat. Vocally, the singer does a nice job, too.

The last ED follows its counterpart, being rather gentle in nature. The multiple voices singing in harmony give a rather pleasant feeling. In fact, the visuals provide a lot of the sensation; it feels as if the song flows like rippling water.

The soundtrack doesn't have anything particularly amazing. If there was anything, I usually enjoyed the sound effect of Akame clashing or slicing through someone. It's a distinct "whoosh!" sound effect that always sounded pretty cool.

Voice acting wise, there are no stand out performances to be had.

ENJOYMENT

Much of the fun for this one derives from the fights themselves. It was usually awesome to see the varying Imperial Arms at work and how they would clash with one another. In particular, the final duel is quite impressive, both in its length, the variety of moves, and the ultimate, final technique.

A lot of the bad guys that pop up throughout the anime are really quite lame. They are just there to be evil and killed off. Meaning, I was never really fazed by anyone that Night Raid had to encounter, because they never added their own spice or originality. This is obviously not true for the Jaegers, but before their introduction (and even during their time), the rest of the villains are nothing more than boring fodder.

At the end of the day, Akame ga Kill! is an anime that really doesn't do much. The characters are very hit or miss and the story is nonsensical. However, if someone is looking to have a semi-enjoyable time, wondering who will prevail after all is said and done, this wouldn't be a bad place to start.

SUMMARY

Story: Terrible, disconnected, doesn't know what it wants to be, no purpose

Animation: Good, nice character designs, above average actual animation, picture-esque still frames

Characters: Bad, fun cast, but the majority are non-memorable

Sound: Fine, mix of okay and good OPs and EDs, forgettable soundtrack, average VA work

Enjoyment: Fine, action and death galore

Final Score: 4/10

To say the shonen action genre needs to move on from DBZ is like saying that Taylor Swift should never rap ever again. Everyone knows this, and yet nothing is done to fix the problem and we continue to expose ourselves to it, basically telling the producers that we want more of this shit. We want more lazy ridiculous action with worse choreography than Lethal Weapon 4. We want unironic humor with less wit than Lethal Weapon 4. We want our shows to go on for more than one-cour because the longer the better, and whilst the details are a little different, guess what production ... decisions were made that caused one of the worst fourth entries in action series history to exist?

And it says alot about the genre when all it takes is one new thing to stand out and suddenly we jump on it like a Marvel fanboy who discovered that Thanos would be in the newest Avenger movie. Now don't get me wrong, I've always rolled my eyes at the fact that people could partake in duels that send you flying and cut off limbs and yet nobody dies in the end. But I never felt the stairway scene in The Protector would have been much better if we saw those goons getting their heads kicked off, because at the end of the day, I'm watching action stuff for the action, and anything else that comes with the territory either supports the stuff or comes off as a natural consequence. Akame ga Kill doesn't do either of those things though. Instead, it does everything Lethal Weapon 4 did wrong, and it proceeded to drag that pain out for more than six times the length.

But before we get into that, let's talk about what Akame ga Kill is about. Well, it's about how many shonen stereotypes you can fit into your standard fantasy setting and still expect to be taken seriously, is what it is. Despite not having his name in the title - and said titular girl having less importance than Zelda did in her own franchise - our main protagonist is Tatsumi, your typical village idiot who ends up digging himself into deep shit when he ends up befriending a cheerful girl who is actually EVIL. And believe me when I say she isn't the only one. There's a lot of characters in this show who act like rejected Pokemon characters until you give them a reason to kill you, in which case they turn into Dennis Hopper impersonators.

However, his life is saved from this EVIL girl by a bunch of assassins called Night Raid, who wear their title about as well as Epic Movie does due to being about as sneaky and dangerous as Black Star, and he ends up joining their ranks in order to take revenge for some throwaway friends the story forgets about within six episodes. Once in, he must deal with the harsh life of being an assassin such as uncovering the true nature of these EVIL characters, gaining the resolve to kill them for justice, coping with the loss of teammates, and fighting off an Ilsa reject who has the hots for him because he's the main character.

It should be noted that Akame ga Kill is made by White Fox, whose record in terms of fight scenes is worse than Jon Favreau if he had the shakes. They also have a bad record in terms of animation quality, with the decently animated stuff being reserved for KyoAni-level light hearted entries and the horrendously awful-looking stuff reserved for everything else. And boy does that apply with this show, because it looks it was made in the late 90s by people who don't grasp the notion of shading and color schemes. Even more unfortunately, it's not just the visuals that are washed-out. I've seen JC Staff shows that have had more imaginative character designs and action scenes than this crap and whoever thought them up deserves to be sent back to whatever art school they graduated from. Just compare the Milky Holmes finales (the good ones I mean) to this show's "target one spot and use stills for the finishing blow" and prepare to not go blind from visual whiplash. Or alternatively, watch Terra Formars at the same time and see which can bore you more in terms of ruining visceral impact.

But it's not just the bad action that the studio brought with them in terms of adapting the manga. They also brought their usual pacing problems along with them. The one thing that stands out about the show - the fact that characters die - ends up working against it because the author uses it less as a way to lend gravitas to the plot and more in the way of padding things out in order to get a two-cour length out of this thing. Only the non plot-important characters ever get the axe and because the show always gives you (shallow) background information on them right before they die, it's hard to really summon any enthusiasm for when said axe is swung, especially when they keep introducing new unimportant characters to get killed off shortly after to the point that the formula becomes more repetitive than each installment of a first-party Nintendo franchise. The actual plot-related characters barely push things forward, and when they do, it comes in the form of tired shenanigans like being trapped on a deserted island or running away entirely, just preventing anything from getting done.

It also doesn't help that none of the characters - main or extra - have any flavor to them whatsoever. All of them are defined by one trait and it never evolves into anything even remotely resembling complexity. I've heard a lot of people talk up Esdeath prior to watching this, but her utter devotion to her masters along with her one-sided love for Tatsumi and handling powers that no human being should be able to handle makes her more the perfect wife for Tatsuya from Mahouka rather than someone I'd want on my side if she wasn't trying to kill me. Jet Li didn't even talk much in Lethal Weapon 4 and yet he had more charisma in one shitty movie than the entire cast throughout this two-cour trainwreck.

And just to turn up the heat on this burnt-out mess, there's the issue of the show's ending. Now Akame ga Kill's manga wasn't finished by the time the show was put into production and thus the studio had to take some liberties with the actual source. Now whilst I'm all for removing the clowns and changing source material altogether, this only works if the changes have some creativity put into them. Not only is a giant immobile mecha shooting up the city incredibly boring to watch, the finale is more rushed than a university student trying to prepare for his exam two hours prior whilst constipated. Combine that with the flat characters and you've got one of the most underwhelming auto-piloted endings to a revolution I've ever seen in fiction. Say what you want about Episode III. At least the destruction of the Jedi was done in an epic way.

Which leads me to the big question I have regarding this show before I end this sea of paragraphs: why was it ever popular to begin with? It adds nothing new to the shonen action genre and whatever potential new thing it could have added is lost in a sea of tired cliches and production problems. I tried looking at a few anonymous forums to see what all the hype was about, but I got turned off by people stating "they kept this rape scene in. Awesome!" or "I was so scared that Leone was going to die because of this show's 'no one is safe' atmosphere". Yeah, because I was so scared for a character who never had her origins explained and whose apparent "deaths" were severely lacking in drama compared to everyone else's.

And as for the people wishing for an army of John Wayne Gacys to show up and do their thing, what the fuck is wrong with you? There's liking violence and then there's just being plain psychotic. And you enter the latter territory the moment you purchase the newest Grand Theft Auto over the newest Saints Row willingly.

Ah, Akame ga Kill, a show hyped up immensely for the Fall of 2014. To be honest, I was really looking forward to watching the show when it was first announced. I have read the manga, and I thought it was at least decent, if nothing else, and it should’ve been decent as anime material as well, but no, it wasn’t.

Instead what we got was a messily-written, poorly adapted mess of a show that killed itself by the end of it all.

Now, before I start this review, let me just note, that even though I’ve read the manga, I will be judging this show based ... on its own merits. There’s also a TL;DR at the end for anyone who doesn’t want to read so much.


Story:- 3/10

The story of Akame ga Kill revolves around a young boy, Tatsumi, from a village who sets out to join the military in the capital in order to gain money for his village. Unfortunately, once he does reach the capital, he realizes that the capital is in fact, a corrupt place which was all caused by the person who manipulates a young emperor to his whim, the Prime Minister. Later, through a strange course of events, he is semi-forced to join a group, named Night Raid, which is in fact a band of assassins who are attempting the break the empire.

Seems good doesn’t it? Well, yes. The premise is a pretty good setup. But don’t let that fool you. The show starts off pretty good, especially the first 2 episodes, but after that it’s all downhill.

The main praise that the story of Akame ga Kill gets is the praise that it had the guts to kill off its own characters. While that may be, you barely get to know anything about the character before they die, meaning that, the character deaths never got to me at an “emotional scale”.

The story has very weird pacing, one episode a main character could’ve died, while in the next, the rest of the characters are on a beach laughing and playing. The story keeps jumping around, and at times it became incomprehensible. The show also has a harem aspect, which at times, got really annoying since it was completely unnecessary and it just wasted time.

Along with this, there’s also the fact that the story feels very rushed. There were a lot of things that were left unanswered, and while I won’t specify anything, the last 5 episodes were completely asinine.


Art and Animation:- 6/10

The animation of Akame ga Kill was done by White Fox, a studio known for such works like Steins; Gate and Jormungand. Unfortunately, this is definitely not their best work. The most I can say about the animation is that it’s very bland. The lack of attention to detail is, quite frankly, disgusting. The only real thing that stands out in the show’s animation is its average quality, and that is not what I look for in an animation studio.

Though, there are two positives to the animation, those are, the well done fight sequences, and the excess of blood shown, something that a lot of recent anime seem to avoid.

Overall, while the animation of the show isn’t bad, it’s nothing great.


Sound:- 5/10

Moving away from the art, we have the music, which is just as average as the art, if not worse. The soundtrack of the show is so bland, that I had to go re-watch a few episodes just to see how good or bad the soundtrack was, and now, I still can’t remember how it was.

Both openings of the show were pretty decent, and the second ending was also good, the first ending though, didn’t do that much for me.

But now we arrive at the voice actors. Oh god, these voice actors. This show provided me with some of the absolute most clichéd voices I’ve heard in anime for some time. If someone’s and antagonist, then their voice just shouts “I’M THE BAD GUY!”, and if someone was a protagonist, their voice shouted “I’M THE GOOD GUY!”.


Character:- 1/10

This is the section where this anime, like many others before it, falls flat on its face. But this one doesn’t just fall; it falls into a bottomless pit, never to be seen again.

Let me just say it flat out. The characters in Akame ga Kill, are the most clichéd, stereotypical and straight up least developed characters I’ve ever seen. Even some terrible shows, like Pupa, had more interesting characters that had some kind of depth to them, and I’m not kidding.

Let me just spell out the stereotypes for you.
Tatsumi is the young hero who wants to become strong. Akame is the classic case of a cold uncaring assassin, who also happens to be a food junkie. Leone is the Onee-San, who loves to make sexual references to the youngest in the group, in this case, Tatsumi. Lubbock is the perverted guy who’s actually nice-hearted, but still tries to sneak in a peek at some ladies. Sheele is the airhead. Bulat is the strong dependable older brother of the show, to whom Tatsumi looks up to. *cough*Kamina*cough*.

Chelsea and Najenda were the only two characters who I actually cared for, not because they were developed, but because they were the only characters who were even remotely realistic.

The we have the most classic case of Mine. Mine is a tsundere.

What? You expected more? Well tough shit, there is nothing more. That’s it, she’s a pure Tsundere with no effort put into her character.

We also have the ever so popular Esdeath for you Yandere-lovers out there. She’s a Yandere, and a sadistic one at that. Again, there’s nothing more to her character.

In the end though, I did care for a certain group of characters, the rivals of Night Raid, who are the assassins for the empire, the Jaegers. This group was a bit more interesting and entertaining in comparison to the shit-fest that was Night Raid.

So in the end Akame ga Kill, has one or two decent characters, but the negatives completely outweigh the positives in this section.

Enjoyment:- 7/10
This is the best part of this anime. Regardless of its numerous flaws, I enjoyed watching the anime, even if it wasn’t exactly enjoyable for the right reasons. In the first half of the show I enjoyed watching the anime without noticing its flaws. Towards the middle, that enjoyment turned to distaste as I watched while noticing most of its flaws. By the end I was laughing my ass off as to how hilariously bad the show had become.


Pros:
-A good premise
-Average animation
-Decent action
-Good openings and endings
-Slightly enjoyable
-There wasn’t any censorship

Cons:
-Terrible execution of story
-Horribly written characters
-Forgettable soundtrack
-Poorly adapted(For manga readers)
-The ending was awful


TL;DR :- Overall, Akame ga Kill, was a poorly adapted show. It had a decent premise which went wrong. In its technical department it could not have been more average, and the characters are stereotypical, bland and underdeveloped to no extent. The show starts off as a dark and gritty shounen that could've become a seinen, but eventually it just devolved into a generic shounen that was as average as average can be.

OVERALL: 4.4/10

Akame ga Kill is not the worst anime ever made, but it sure is one of the least genuine. The writing pieces together mismatched elements of shonen adventure and gives them a screwball seriousness about death until the word ‘death’ has lost all meaning. The script is oversaturated with character introductions and sensationalized death scenes that feel simply slimy. The grubbiness that Akame ga Kill exhibits come right from the very bottom of the medium complete with unexplained power ups, an impossibly simplistic corrupt fantasy setting, and hundreds upon hundreds of flat characters.

The amount of fried chicken consumed in this anime is painful. The Prime ... Minister’s beloved son dies? It’s time for fried chicken. Akame is on stakeout? It’s time for fried chicken. Wallowing in sadness about the death of a main character? It’s time for fried chicken. The fried chicken gag is indicative of the narrative depth here. It doesn’t go deeper than visual indulgence. There are no subtleties in Akame ga Kill. The good guys simply move on without meditation on death, and the bad guys are simply bad without any logical reason. The protagonists are protagonists because the show needed them scripted like that, and the antagonists are the same way. Even with the introduction of the Jaegers (why a German name?) and Tatsumi’s foil (more like clone) the show simply ramps up the stakes. The bad guys get bigger as the good guys get stronger and they keep introducing new characters that are “stronger” and occasionally an old face is replaced with a new face (Bulat becomes Susanoo).

Akame ga Kill manages to create a cast of both heroes and villains with no positive traits. Seryuu Ubiquitious as an example, is a character that exists solely to be an antagonist. She has catchphrases, she has special moves, and she has “moral values” that contradict our protagonists. Except none of the characters ever make any sense. Why does she want to Kill Tatsumi? It’s her job to eradicate all evil no matter what it is? It doesn’t make any sense on a literal level and it doesn’t make any sense on a realistic level. I’m not saying anime characters moral codes should be realistic, but then shouldn’t they serve a greater thematic purpose? Having to hear about why Akame needs to be the one to kill her sister makes for some of the stupidest monologues not because it’s a flawed idea at its base but because there is no basis for her needing to kill her sister to begin with. And when the show moves towards characters like Esdeath and her talk about love it feels as if the largest and most blunt plot device starts pressing harder and harder on the script. Akame ga Kill is serious about a whole lot of nothing other than reaching its embarrassing (near direct Madoka rip-off) anime original ending.

How did someone come up with the character designs and fantasy setting for Akame ga Kill? Just like Shingeki no Kyojin, it is some sort of walled city with a corrupt government. Except our protagonists are a pink haired goth-loli, a schoolgirl with a sword that instantly causes death, a generic guy, a green haired steam punk dude, a gay guy, a Japanese god-turned-golem and a buxom cyborg-like leader. The bad guys are a dog that turns into a full arsenal, another generic guy, another schoolgirl, another gay guy, another buxom leader, and a man in a gas mask with a flamethrower. None of these things even follow a design scheme! It’s like a party with the most interesting people in the world who all leave before you can ask them how they managed to get to there. Where Shingeki no Kyojin can get by with flat and often ridiculous characters sadly Akame ga Kill does not have the production value. Visually it’s bland and static, with very few dynamic camera angles and often whole fight scenes skipped or scratched for reasons beyond explanation. My favorite was a scene where a series of “danger beasts” – almost forgot about these - approach Tatsumi out of nowhere and he announces that it’s going to be a tough fight. Immediately the scene cuts and he is sheathing his sword, and announces that it was indeed a tough fight. For an action and adventure show, how could you have the brass to write that? There are show’s that are plucky enough to get away with it, like the entirety of episode 4 of Katanagatari, but Akame ga Kill is not that smart. You wouldn’t realize how stupid Akame ga Kill is if it wasn’t this loud.

The show is a mistake from beginning to end, but it’s not without entertainment. And that’s the whole hook of it. You’ve seen this show hundreds of times before but maybe never this simple. It really is the mindless violence action anime of 2014, whatever that title means to you. I do not recommend it over anything but if you want mindlessness you have it's essence distilled right here. I look at Akame ga Kill as a failed version of Shingeki no Kyojin because it is even more indulgent in terms of gore and has less of a mystery element. This anime is mighty popular, but you are not missing anything by not watching it. The ancient relics have no boundaries in terms of power scope, and the bad guy is named Prime Minister Honest. I can’t believe someone wrote this.

(Potentially Spoilerific)I began watching Akame ga kill recently, after a long hiatus from anime in general caused mostly by the trials and tribulations of adult life. My time is more precious than it's ever been and I have a limited amount of time for BS. Akame ga kill is BS. This is simply one of the worst shows I've ever seen, the only reason I stuck it out to the end was because I wanted to see how horribly bad it could get.

From the get-go, the show is confused, it doesn't know whether it's telling a serious and meaningful story or whether it's just ... making fun of itself. A number of moments in the show that are supposed to be heart-wrenching or intended to leave a lasting impression are cheapened by silly one liners, tropes, and awful humour.

The shows humour isn't even original, don't come here if you're after comedy. The same old recycled cliches are thrown at you.

Akame ga Kill isn't afraid to kill of its main characters - this is usually a good thing, but in akame ga kill it's almost a testament to how awful the show really is. The show fails to form a connection between the viewer and the characters. Summarily, they'll die and you won't care because they're such one dimensional recycled clones.

The show's "unique" blend of humour and violence is almost disturbing. As is their glorification of what are essentially terrorists. Issues like this aren't black and white though, there is rarely an "entirely evil empire" and an "entirely good group of assassins" the first few episodes really cement this paradigm as the various members of Night Raid confront one dimensional power rangers baddy X Y and Z before being given a bunch of Night Raid clones to fight against.

In terms of action, the battles are unbelievable and badly choreographed. Although the show kills its characters it does not maintain a shred of credibility when it comes to how strong people are, or how they fare against one another, it's all quite random. It's the sort of thing you'd spoon feed to a 3 year old making airplane noises and expect them to swallow.

I'm going to end this review now and throw up. I really feel like throwing up now, that's how bad this is.

Akame ga Kill! is probably one of the biggest train wrecks of 2014. That's really the only way to describe it. It is a train wreck. In the beginning, the train began running. In the middle, it began to waver a little. By the end, it's crashed into the lake. That, of course, is Akame ga Kill! right there.

Do note that this review will refer to the anime and only the anime, so there will be little to no mention of the manga.

STORY:

As the summary says, the story of Akame ga Kill! is basically about the main character, Tatsumi, being roped into an organization called ... Night Raid dedicated to taking down the corruption within the Capitol, said corruption stemming from the evil Prime Minister who controls the young king like a puppet. It's nothing ground-breaking, but it works. At least, the premise does, anyway. See, some problems with Akame ga Kill! stem from sounding good on paper and then turning out to be lacking in execution, like the aforementioned premise. To name an example, there's the decision to introduce a rival organization called the Jaegers that works under the Capitol to fight Night Raid, and though it's a little cheesy to have a "good team vs. bad team" in a vein similar to the Super Friends vs. The Legion of Doom, but it would have been nice, considering the story spends some time focusing on the characters within the Jaegers and establishing character relationships in it like in Night Raid. Another concept that sounded cool on paper was the fact that the majority of the cast is not protected by plot armor, so truly, anyone could die at any moment. This is one concept that probably drew in many people who were tired of anime or manga where characters kept being resurrected, like say Naruto and Dragon Ball. However, the fatal flaw for both of these examples, if not a half-assed execution, would be lack of characterization that makes you care for what happens to anyone, but we'll get to characters later.

For the world, there's very little to say about it. The only thing you can say about it is "it's a medieval-esque fantasy world." It looks like it's straight out of a Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, or Legend of Zelda game, what with the towns and exotic monsters, except it doesn't have nearly as much thought put into the world-building, so the setting essentially doesn't contribute much to anything either.

All I can say for the rest of the story is, well, it's a train wreck. It completely jumps the gun sometime in the later half, stops caring about anything, and starts going all Urobuchi on the characters who are still alive at this point.

ART:

There's nothing much to say in the Art department. The art style is generic and somewhat uninspired, but it works, if nothing else. The designs are simple but varied enough, whether it be for the monsters, weapons, etc. The animation is standard fare; the characters look shaded well enough and the fights can be fun at times, but nothing really sticks out but it's not necessarily bad either, except for whenever they'd keep showing still-shots like this was a PowerPoint presentation.

SOUND:

Like the art, there's really not much to say here in my opinion. The voice acting is okay, and the screams are even delicious to listen to (if that makes any sense), but I wouldn't be giving out any awards. As for the soundtrack, there also aren't any songs that really stick out, though if there's one highlight, it would be the first opening, "Skyreach," by Sora Amamiya. While the second opening, "LIAR MASK," by Rika Mayama, was also good in its own right, as were the endings, I probably won't remember them tomorrow, so that's that.

CHARACTER:

The characters aren't noteworthy at all. Like, any of them. At all. It's difficult to go into more detail because there's frankly not much more to go into more detail about. There's the main character Tatsumi, but he's ultimately bland and unmemorable in terms of personality. He's brave, somewhat heroic, and determined, like millions of other fictional protagonists out there. That's really all there is to describe him. There's also Akame, who despite having her name in the title, has little to do with the plot. In the beginning, she's introduced as arguably the best killer in Night Raid, and as for personality, she's depicted as somewhat gluttonous and insensitive, but ultimately very caring, but eventually, most of these traits fail to develop or completely disappear. There's also side characters like Leone, the hot older sister type, Lubbock, the perverted laid-back guy, Bulat, the cool older brother type, Sheele, the cute ditz (for the most part), Mine, the tsundere loli-esque girl, and many others. Most of these characters also lack notable depth and come with their own sad backstories that are mentioned once and then never again. Speaking of things that are mentioned once and never brought up again, let me tell you one thing, they handle the deaths of their friends and loved ones really, really well. Well enough to smile carelessly the very next episode.

Like the protagonists, the antagonists lack memorability and depth. The majority of them and their motivations can just be described as "they're evil!" and it's left at that. It doesn't really help that their evil nature are brought to the extreme; anyone who doesn't agree with the protagonists, the "good guys," are all depicted as sadistic and love nothing more than torturing and slaughtering people. Really, the only notable villain is General Esdeath, and that's because she's the best girl, of course, but I digress.

Lack of ample characterization really did hurt this show. If the characters were better developed or had at least thirty minutes of screen time, maybe their deaths would have mattered and have had more impact to the audience, but we're not dealing with "would have" thinking, hence the characters are probably the weakest aspect of the show.

ENJOYMENT:

Now, I've called Akame ga Kill! a train wreck, but I'll be damned if it wasn't a really entertaining train wreck. At least near the end anyway where, as I mentioned earlier, it just stopped caring. But for the majority of the show, I had serious mixed feelings. I had fun during the fights and whatnot, but there were a few things that threw me off, like the inconsistent tone ("My friends died? Well, okay. I'll just be sad about it for like five minutes and then get into a comedic / romantic misunderstanding with one of the girls."), the overall edginess, for a lack of better word, and subplots that really didn't lead anywhere (an episode dedicated to introducing a small group of villains kills most of them off by the end of the same episode). Overall, it was a mess, but it was a fun mess.

CONCLUSION:

Was Akame ga Kill! doomed from the start? Well, probably not. It could have been a good show if the writing was better, but, well, this isn't a good show, plain and simple. With bad execution, lackluster art & sound, cardboard cutout characters, and a later third that completely jumps the shark, the only way to enjoy this show is to turn off your brain and have some popcorn to go with it, but if you're looking for a piece of work that's actually good, look somewhere else.

Akame ga kill; it is a hit or miss completely. Either people like it or people want to write as many complaints to the author asap. I personally loved the plot and how they animation company was following the story so very well until the last five episodes. That's where everything went wrong; they anime veered a different direction than the manga. Akame ga kill is supposed to be dark and have it's light comedy to ease the viewer so they can enjoy the bitter sweetness of it. They problem with this anime and manga is that the target audience wasn't clear. It had laughs ... and enjoyable fight scenes that would make it seem like a shounen anime. But the darkness of it (which is seen in the first few episodes) was taken out completely by the anime company due to the fact that the anime was meant for younger audience which made it rather bland and took out the uniqueness of this anime. Since it had so much gore, it didn't do well in Japan and they had to come up with some other alternate ending which I found terrible. Those who have watched the anime without the manga, you are lucky yet unlucky. People who've watched the anime without reading would not understand how bad the ending actually is and will only see the anime as "the anime with a few good plot twists and amazing character development" those who read would only see how tragic this anime with such a well crafted plot which had potential to be a masterpiece, had turned to shit. Overall, in the perspective of the non readers, it's something worth killing your time on, and if you're curious to how the story should have went or want to see the potential it had to be a masterpiece, read the manga.

Overview:

Akame ga Kill has always been a divisive series online. People tend to either love it or hate it. Unfortunately, I found myself firmly in the latter category. I know people offline who actually like this series, including one guy who is way smarter than I am. He thinks it's fucking hilarious. My point in writing this is not to insult people who enjoyed this series, but rather to vent my personal frustrations with it.


Forget "What is Art?" Let's ask ourselves "What is Edgy?"

I personally hate the term "edgy". I think the term is overused and lacks any kind of concrete definition. It just gets ... thrown around for any series that wants to establish a dark atmosphere while being a tad brooding or melodramatic. Akame ga Kill generally gets thrown into the edgy category, but it's a tad different than most of its edgy peers. Most so called "edgy" series fail to establish a consistent tone. Series like Higurashi, Elfen Lied, and Fate/Zero like to transfer between heavy handed tragedy ad goofy comedy at a whiplash inducing rate. However, none of them even hold a candle to Akame ga Kill. AGK is the fucking CHAMPION of mood whiplash. It tries SO hard to make the audience take it seriously by killing off every character and giving them epic, "tragic" deaths. Then it undermines itself by inserting cringe inducing humor and fanservice literally seconds later. I gave a lot of shit to Bokurano for killing off all its characters without giving them proper development, which makes the deaths feel meaningless. AGK does that, and then further shits on the deaths with bad comedy!

All edgy series contain murder and its usually the protagonists doing the murders. However, most series don't portray murder the way AGK does. In Genocyber, the main character kills millions, but it's an amoral series that never claims or insinuates that the main character is correct for doing so. In Elfen Lied, the main character commits horrible murders, but then feels extreme remorse and it becomes a journey of redemption and eventual rebirth. It's rather explicit that murder is NOT ok. Even fucking Future Diary for as terrible as it is, doesn't frame Yuno's murders as justice. In Akame ga Kill, all the heroes are merciless killers and its framed as 100% morally correct. Every wealthy character in AGK is a pure evil scumbag and deserves to die. AGK is like if Marvel's The Punisher met the Soviet propaganda film "Earth" from 1930. You know, the movie that Stalin made to demonize the Ukrainian Kulak farmers. The difference between "Earth" and AGK is that Earth is actually well made and has good cinematography.

AGK stands high on the edgy mountain alongside only "Master of Martial Hearts", "King's Game", and "Magical Girl Site". Now that I've prepared you for what you're getting into, let's continue.


Plot and characters

There exists a cartoonishly evil empire where 99% of the population lives in squalor and dire poverty, while the tiny rich portion live decadent lives of luxery. Our hero is Tatsumi, who for some reason is a master swordsman with supernatural abilities. Despite the fact that he comes from an impoverished village of farmers and it makes little sense where he learned his skills, how he had so much time to practice, and why his family had a sword in the first place. Fuck it! Moving on! Tatsumi and his 2 childhood friends travel to the evil capital to make some money and send it back home. The second they arrive, Tatsumi is robbed by one of our other "heroes", who is furry cat girl. Tatsumi is offered food and shelter by a wealthy girl, but of course it turns out that the wealthy girl tortures and kills poor people for fun and has already butchered Tatsumi's friends. Tatsumi is saved by the Night Raid assassins, who also let him gain revenge by killing the rich bitch. Tatsumi joins Night Raid and is immediately one of their best members. It turns out being an assassin is really easy!

We are then introduced to a plethora of one note characters including: clumsy girl with glasses, perverted puppet guy, furry girl, and comic gay harassment man. These characters exist only to die. That's what people love about Game of Thrones and Berserk right? All you have to do is kill off random characters and you've created a dramatic masterpiece! The other main character is Akame, who was trained to be an assassin since childhood and knows only how to kill. She's also a boring Kuudere who loves to eat GIANT hunks of meat like she's in the Flintstones. Brilliant! The main antagonists are bootleg King Joffrey, shitty Cardinal Richelieu, and Ilsa She Wolf SS. I'm dead serious. Many characters die and I didn't give a rats ass about a single one of them. At least I had fun laughing at the English dub. It's Sentai Film Works, which is the succesor of ADV. That means bad voice acting galore and a script that doesn't follow the original. I watched a few episodes subbed and I vastly prefer the dub because at least its seemingly more self aware of how garbage this series is. The series ends with all but 1 of our heroes dying and all the evil nobility dying. Once those guys are dead, everything is fixed and society is a paradise! I guess this writer didn't read what happened next in the French Revolution, The Bolshevik Rebellion, the Haiti Rebellion, the Cultural Revolution, The Year Zero plan, etc.


Art and sound

It's Studio White Fox. That means we aren't exactly getting the highest quality, but at least it doesn't have the egregious CGI of Goblin Slayer. The soundtrack is a disappointing considering it was composed by Taku Iwasaki. This is the guy who did the Samurai X soundtrack! Then again, if I had write music for AGK, I wouldn't try my hardest either. It's always a little sad when a horrible anime gets an awesome OST. I'm looking at you Kageyama! Why did you give fucking MD Geist of all things a kicking soundtrack!?


Overall:

AGK is a horribly written, childish, vindictive revenge fantasy that undermines its forced tragedy with some of the worst comedy I've seen in anime. Besides the entertainment I gained by watching ADV butcher it, I have nothing positive to say about AGK. I know that sounds overly harsh, but I thought this series was just trash through and through. There are a few moments of unintentional comedy, but nothing warranting a 24 episode dumpster fire. I give AGK a rating of "M" for extreme masochists only!

I'm gonna be pretty biased about this since I absolutely hated this show.
That doesn't mean that it can't be entertaining for others.
Also this is my first review, and I won't be writing several drafts so this review might not be the most informational.

Story - 2/10
Akame Ga Kill! is pretty generic. A stupid and naive main character is recruited into a group and gradually learns lessons and becomes stronger. Meh. I felt like the writer tried too hard to make the world seem dark and unforgiving. Countless people die for absolutely no reason, including characters that you may or may not get attached to. Which ... leads me to the next category.

Character - 1/10
How can something so unoriginal be so popular? Tatsumi - the stupid and useless main character that gradually becomes more powerful. Akame - the seemingly coldhearted overpowered assassin that turns out to have an innocent side. Mine - the TSUNDERE. Lucca? or was it Lubba? - the pervert. I don't even remember the rest of the characters because they were so one dimensional and shallow. All of the characters were there to serve only one purpose, with the exception of Mine.

Art - 7
Standard. Nothing else to say. Some battle scenes were lazily animated though.

Sound - 9
The soundtrack was probably the most noticeable part of this show. I don't have a musical major or anything but I can tell you that the music set the mood exceptionally well.

Overall -
I hated this show.
But if you're into mindless slaughter, blood, boobs, and horribly timed comedy, this is for you.

*spoilers for Akame ga Kill*

Akame ga Kill is an endearing case of stupidity and an inability to take itself seriously when it needs to while taking itself seriously when it shouldn't. It's far too edgy for its own good, and it's a riot to indulge in, thanks in no small part to its incompetence, blatant spelling out of already black and white matters, and it's tonal incoherence...or at least it starts that way. It then grows into a more generic and edgy anime that tries and largely fails to wring intended emotions out of us with mostly generic and bad characters, equally badly inserted humor, ... and improper backstory dumps that are either too early and never reinforced or too late and never reinforced. Alright so, just how bad can it really be with all of that said? Is it some part of Akame ga Kill's plan to kill our brain cells until all we can say is "ga"? Well, with that little conspiracy theory out of the way, let's find out, shall we?

There is something to be said when your first episode is so rushed, edgy, and tonally incomprehensible, that it automatically informs you that this show is not gonna be pleasant. I mean, the first episode is schlock at its finest, hence my accusations at the preamble. I mean, it doesn't even name a single location, and in fact, not a single location in this series has a proper name, which really sells how horrific the world-building for this show really is. After Tatsumi is roped into joining Night Raid, episodes 2-8 are, for most part, asshole of the week type episodes, at least until two of its members die: Sheele in episode 6, and Bulat in episode 8. It is here that we encounter a few more problems (one of which sorta surfaced in episode 1 but could've been rectified).

First, the Danger Beasts. We know not of much of the species present here, and there are no real defined danger tiers. They're just there for people to kill while being acknowledged as powerful beings. Second, and thankfully this goes away, but this section of the series is so blatant about being black and white that when a terrible person is having a villain monologue, the anime decides to visualize them as literal monsters, because the audience of gore and boob-loving 14-year-olds apparently needs to be blatantly told that these awful people are monsters. Subtlety; it's what this series rarely has. Thirdly, the goddamn tone-shift comedy moments. Episode 1 is a major example of this, with the show constantly cutting its serious or even sad mood short in order for a quick, unfunny gag, and then it cuts back. It's really jarring and tonally incomprehensible at times. Finally, and this is the most pervasive and problem-encompassing of the issues, the Imperial arms.

There are 48 of them (yet we never see even half of them), and for some reason, none of these can be recreated with modern day AGK technology and magic (because of course a magic gun can't be manufactured; that would make sense) and they each have hidden abilities that are often conveniently pulled out of a character's ass (especially Akame's from episode 24 (which somehow doesn't poison her like it does for anyone else who gets cut), Esdeath's from episode 21 which freezes time for an unknown amount of time for the will of the writers to screw her or someone else over, and Tatsumi's golden Incursio form from episode 23). Don't get me started on Mine's "Pumpkin Pinch" which almost always occurs when she decides that she's in a pinch without actually being in one (because outnumbered automatically equals pinch). Also, the Imperial Arms are only compatible with a user if said user has a great first impression of it, which is insanely dumb since that means the only way for it to choose you is for you to geek out over it, and nothing else. And, if you allow me to jump ahead for a bit, episode 23 introduces an asspull in which there were this secret Divine Imperial Arms all along, jacking up the count from 48 to 49, and being strong enough to fuck over the unnamed city (you heard me). We'll return to this travesty moment in a bit since we gotta move on with the actual plot of the series, which is also a travesty.

Episodes 9-19 are effectively part 2 of the show, with part 1 being what i described earlier and part 3 being...we'll get there. This new part brings out a new organization by this evil empire that Night Raid has fought against, called the Jaegers, comprising of 7 powerful members of the Capital, most notably, the brutal ice wielder, Esdeath. Tatsumi gets his ass captured, escapes, and then Dr. Stylish (like an Idiot), leads an assault on Night Raid with his bio army, not even informing or bringing along the other Jaegers like a smart member would do, and of course, after Susanoo is introduced to fight alongside Night Raid, Stylish gets his ass killed by Akame. Then, after Chelsea comes in and both she and Susanoo are indoctrinated into the group, and Tatsumi and Esdeath are teleported to and back from an island, we get Kurome's ability to revive fallen members and danger beasts (and she could've brought Chelsea and Bulat back to really hamstring our heroes but she isn't that smart), and both Bols and Chelsea die. Then, the 4 Kouken Temple Rakshasa demons, 3 of which are killed by Lubbock in the exact same episode they're introduced, which is just plain pathetic. I mean, the Garou Knights from Fairy Tail were a more credible threat than these guys; at least the Garou Knights lasted for more than one episode. The final demon member gets killed by Tatsumi really easily in the next episode (in the anime, not in the manga), and Seryuu is killed.

Now, for the final 5 episodes: the anime original episodes. Here, both groups are brought down to 2 living members, with the deaths of everyone except: Akame, Najenda, Wave, and Run. Even main character Tatsumi dies, which is rare. That guy who teleported Tatsumi and Esdeath (his name is Shura) and Lubbock kill each other after a Night Raid Plan goes wrong and Tatsumi is captured by Budou (who kills and is killed by Mine), and Susanoo sacrifices himself against Esdeath to get everyone (including Tatsumi) out of a wrecked colosseum. Akame and Kurome duke it out (Kurome apparently is slowly dying from the drugs she was injected in when she was a kid, and she still didn't try to summon anyone from Night Raid to really torment Akame in battle like a smart wielder of her weapon would do in her situation), and then that new Imperial Arms appears with the young boy emperor using it to wreck everything in episode 23, where the story takes one final plunge from awful to rock bottom. Then, Akame and Esdeath duke it out with asspulls aplenty, and then we actually...get a satisfying finale.

I mean it when I say that the finale to this series is genuinely good, at least the second half of it, after the whole Akame vs Esdeath fiasco. The horrible prime minister who made the empire toxic ended up getting his head smashed by Leone (who get shot a bunch of times by him), Leone says goodbye, goes back to her now happy city (or something, we don't know the name or even if it's a city, town, or village) and the dies there while knowing the difference her and her group's efforts made, and the empire gets a new mode of government, with both main groups (Jaegers and Night Raid, or what's left of them) dissolve and join together (except Akame) and Najenda says one last goodbye to the already dead Lubbock, carrying his headband. Despite the idiotic final fight and the edgy and even more idiotic nature of the series, the finale is genuinely satisfying and sweet, which is far more than I can say for any anime of or near Akame ga Kill's admittedly low caliber.

A majority of the characters in Akame ga Kill barely do anything to avoid being totally one-dimensional, especially our protagonists, and a lot of them do incredibly stupid things, including my Dr.Stylish and Kurome examples from earlier. Another problem with these characters is that backstories are handled horrendously. They are often used as death flags like with Bulat and Bols (in which they die either the same episode or the next episode afterwards) almost never actually animated (since we either see them explain it with no flashback footage or they're so short that they only last up to 25 with little animation) with the only exceptions being Sheele's, Akame's, Kurome's, Najenda's and Esdeath's backstories, 2 of which are mainly done in the episode Kurome dies where the backstories of both her and Akame are fully shown instead of partially shown, and the rest, barring Najenda's, never really being reinforced except at one key moment, with no better example than MIne's generic "raised and bullied in the slums" backstory that has no remote elaboration on anything like why she joined Night Raid. It's bad enough that one of these backstories are used for "episode I die in" scenarios in which we never really got to connect with a character and see many facets of him/her, and it's bad enough that some of them (like Wave and Lubbock) don't even have backstories, but some are down with literally no provocation or narrative reason, like Leone's and Mine's (until MIne's gets reinforced in episode 19 so that she can kill Seryuu). In fact, I can't even remember Leone's backstory, just the fact that she has one.

The protagonists of the series (Night Raid) are pretty terrible and largely generic, and it's pretty sad when most of the notable villains are better written and more likable than them. Let's start with Tatsumi. In the beginning, he an unlikeable and pompous idiot, and through development, he becomes a very, very generic protagonist. Bulat, his "bro", has 2 traits: manly, and gay; that's all there is to him aside from his death flag backstory. The two have this Simon and Kamina dynamic, and it lasts an eerily similar amount of time as Simon's and Kamina's, with eerily similar impacts to the surviving protagonists, except Simon and Kamina are legendary characters while these two just suck. Akame is one of the better protagonist, though all she amounts to is an edgier, discount Saber with a twisted poison weapon. Lubbock is a generic badass pervert who manages to get the most amount of important kills next to Akame now that I think about it. Sheele is a typical hot, clumsy who is more interesting due to her also being a savant in killing people, and Leone is the energetic, fan-service tease. Now, Mine...where do we begin with this bitch...

Mine is the my most hated character in this show by a gigantic margin, one of the worst Tsunderes in history, and one of my most hated characters in fiction, up there with the likes of Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass and Shin Asuka from Gundam SEED Destiny; I am not kidding here. Her levels of hypocrisy are unmatched in this show, her bitchy and even lethal attitude and actions towards Tatsumi is infuriating to the point where I nearly dropped the show because of her on multiple occasions, and by the end, she just becomes a by the numbers tsundere in all aspects. There is literally nothing good I can say about this character except that I'm glad the show killed her off. Fuck Mine and everything about her!

Chelsea, conversely, is my favorite character, in large part due to how she manages to aggravate Mine, and the fact that she has lollipops. She's a bit harder for me to define in a singular characteristic, but she's very playful, cold, and somber all at once, thanks in no small part due to her backstory (that is unseen) of her previous team dying in front of her. Susanoo is very picky about details and is simply the stoic cool guy that has literally every single convenient housekeeping trait a woman wants in a man: the perfect husbando, if you will, which is the antithesis of Sheele's character. Najenda is simply a military leader who kicks the ass of anyone who offends her. That wraps up the Night Raid members; now for the Jaegers...and everyone else...shit.

Esdeath is a hot, powerful yandere sadist who has this "survival of the fittest" mentality. Refreshingly, she also feels great pity for any comrade who dies, and often leaves a few people alive in hopes that they'll get stronger in order to provide a greater challenge for her since she's a blood knight. Unfortunately, the filler episodes betray her character big time by making her only the bare bones version of what I described with none of the added remorse and ill-intended mercy I mentioned prior. Wave is basically Tatsumi, but better in every way imaginable, including fashion sense, hair, and Imperial Arms, so we don't really need to go over him and his lack of backstory. Kurome is a more crazed likelier than Akame is, and she also really, really wants to be the one to kill her. SHe's also dying from the drugs injected into her in her backstory that made her a better assassin, which wasn't brought up or remotely hinted at until episode 20. Run was a teacher until his students died in which he decided to take the Suzaku Kururugi route of trying to change the government without actually doing anything other than becoming a soldier in their ranks, and he's a very suspicious and uninteresting character. I can't really remember much about him other than his backstory, methods, and angel wing Imperial Arms. Skipping Dr.Stylish because all he is, is a crazed and stupid mad scientist who really likes when things are "stylish". Bols is probably the best of the bunch. His intimidating mask is to cover up how he is insanely shy to the point of not wanting to show his face until Esdeath takes the mask off and makes him eat with the very welcoming Jaegers in probably the most heartwarming scene of the show. He even has a wife and kid whom he communicates within an adorable and actually real manner. He basically carries the more human and successfully emotional side of Akame ga Kill, and while the show tries to hard to be emotions, it rarely works and I'll explain why later. Still, while Chelsea is my favorite character here, Bols is easily the best written, even if that doesn't really mean much here.

I'm sure I'm in a minority when I say that I don't hate Seryuu Ubiquitous. That doesn't mean that she's a good character, but she easily could've been. Plus, I have a bias for anyone who manages to hurt or aggravate Mine consistently, except Tatsumi 'cuz he's lame. They try to make us emotional for Seryuu and put her in a more sympathetic light despite her hypocritical, knight templar tendencies, but they fail miserably. They either do it too early or too late, and no better example than with the death of Dr.Stylish. She didn't interact much with him but then we see her cry over his grave and have a backstory moment about how he was her patron and that he gave her multiple gun implants. If this series was written better, we would've seen them have a really strong, established connection like with Tatsumi & Bulat. Her violent side is also cartoonish as hell to the point where I can't hate her; reason being, I can never take her seriously with those facial expressions that make Code Geass wince. I mean, shark teeth? This is supposed to be taken seriously yet her face becomes the kind of expressive that feels like she belongs in a Saturday morning cartoon. But enough about her and why I can't take her seriously; let's discuss the other people!

Prime Minister Honest (why?) is a manipulative, fat, gluttonous, greedy monster, as if he was the poster-boy for his archetype. Though his dinner interactions with the child emperor (who doesn't even have a name despite being important, especially in episode 23) are genuine-feeling and nice. Shura is a typical complete monster, treating people's lives like toys and Budou is a general who randomly shows up in episode 20 while also being talked about in some of the middle episodes, and he's just an OP general dude, nothing more than that. Plus, he, a being who is supposedly stronger than even Esdeath, is killed by Mine...wow. I already mentioned the 4 demon guys, and I'm literally not even gonna mention any of the minor characters from episode 1-8 or any of the guys summoned by Kurome; they're not worth mentioning whatsoever and have dreadfully dull characterization at the best of times.

While this is not as well animated as say, Steins;Gate, Studio White Fox still did a pretty good job with a lot of the animation and set-pieces of Akame ga Kill, even if their trademark White Fox eyes are unfortunately missing. There are some great looking set-pieces, like the destroyed Imperial Arms used in the background of the Akame vs Esdeath fight. There is also insanely minimal CGI which is a rarity in anime nowadays. The fights are often well animated and the different fighting styles of the weapons are all in full display, from swords to gunplay to strings and what have you. Even the danger beasts look interesting to a decent extent. This isn't Fate/Zero or Unlimited Blade Works or anything, but it still looks pretty good, especially the Akame vs Kurome fight, even if a lot of the earlier fights use the bad DBZ spam thing of characters pulling off an insanely unrealistic amount of hits with things.

The OST is pretty decent, with some really standout tracks like the amazing catchy Hindi track "Sakaba", the rustic-feeling "Kinpaku", or the amazing and most notable track of all: "Le chant de Roma". Also, the emotional "Sheele OST" and "Yume Monogatari" are just beautiful, even if the show doesn't do as well in making the emotional moments work as well narratively. OP1 "Skyreach" by Sora Amamiya, is a mostly generic OP but I always like the part right before the chorus, and the final 13 or so seconds. OP2, "LIAR MASK" by Rika Mayama, is bloody amazing and if used for a better anime that was long enough for it to feel like a journey, would honestly be really gratifying and tear-jerking; it is that amazing, even if this show is unworthy of it. Both EDs are mainly generic and not noteworthy despite trying to be emotional.

The dub is pretty bad. I cannot recognize a single person in the cast list, so I guess this was to be expected. Some voices work well and make certain insignificant moments better, but the voices of Akame and Esdeath in particular are really not working for the characters, and Akame's often sounds flat as sin, and some emotional moments are even ruined by the dub script and voices. Stick to sub for this one.

Inevitably I was going to be really harsh on Akame ga Kill, since it's a pretty terrible show in and of itself. It manages to cycle through almost every single kind of bad you can think of, but I could never bring myself to hate or, or even truly dislike it. You'd think that I would since it has given me almost every reason to, but I simply can't. The first two episodes were hilarious in how bad they were while 3 and 4 were infuriating (and guess which character made them that way and nearly made me drop the show because of it). Then, with aggravating and hilarious exceptions, this show put me in this serene trance of mild boredom. I was never all that angry but never all that entertained, just, at peace in my mind while watching this show. I could've never predicted that from a show like this, and it's because of that, that I'm not angry at it or showing no mercy, even if the way I tackled the plot and characters may make you think otherwise.

Akame ga Kill is an edgy, silly show that tries way too hard to be cool and shocking while simultaneously trying way too hard to be emotional, despite the script failing to make it work. It fails to establish a strong enough and compelling enough connection between a lot of its characters for their deaths to wring out the emotions they should, like with the death of Sheele, even if the music is just begging you to cry. It beseeches you to feel for these generic shounen characters in this fake seinen world but it just doesn't know how to build anything up properly, nor does it even use its shounen elements properly. It's an absolute mess that was simply blessed with a good animation studio and some good music. It tries and fails at almost every opportunity, rarely earning anything, even if there are subtleties and sweet moments worth defending. Well, with all that said, this has easily been the hardest review I've ever had to do by a gigantic margin, so, thank you for reading, and I bid you adieu.

I don't know where to begin with Akame ga Kill. I just watched it very recently over the course of two days, and honestly it's probably one of the worst series that I've watched in recent years.

The premise sounds like the typical, dime a dozen, Fantasy series where the Empire is corrupt and people are suffering, and there's going to be a revolution. The special weapons they use in the series, Imperial Arms, are kind of neat in concept. However there are a lot of them which are majorly overpowered to the point where it's really stupid to watch. Such as a sword that can ... literally kill anyone with so much as a scratch, or using ice powers to practically go unopposed throughout the entire series and able to take on hundreds of thousands of people with no effort at all.

As for the art style, I acknowledge that the series does have really good quality, however I think Sword Art Online is a good example that a pretty picture doesn't equal a good show.

Sound is meh, nothing that stands out or is memorable.

The characters is where I find things go down hill even further. It's the typical thing where the main character is a complete naive airhead that doesn't know what he's doing, and about all of the female cast wants his D. Then there's the title character Akame who's a cliche Kuudere, where she acts all cool and unemotional, however acts super sweet at random. The rest of the cast also consists of overused cliches, such as the pervert character, walking sex goddess characters whom wear practically nothing, as well as the gay guy who acts really weird. The thing that really annoys me about the characters and their personalities is the series isn't original at all. If you see a character personality in the series, most of them will repeat about 2-3 times for other characters, which really takes away at the originality of the series. Also the bad guys are so painfully bad to watch in this series. Practically all of them are the same as in going ape shit crazy, or mercilessly killing innocent people just to try to get shock value out of the audience to justify their death, a big problem with this is they repeat this with almost every bad guy. Not to mention the big bad guy of the series, the Minister, is an extremely cliche villain, him being completely greedy and overly fat, showing him eating like a fat pig all the time, as a lazy attempt to make the audience hate the guy, instead of making people hate him naturally.

I am not kidding when I say this is one of the worst anime series that I've watched in recent years. There is so much more I could, and would like to say however that would go into spoilers. Only thing I can say is as of episode 23, the second to last episode, my rating was two points higher; the last episode was so bad in my opinion that my ranking of it dropped two whole points.

I don't recommend this show to anyone, or at the very least I don't recommend watching it more than once cause there is nothing of value here.

Going back to before Akame ga Kill premiered, where I was looking at the synopsis and trailer, my thoughts were: fun, crazy fights, action, ultra violence bordering on grindhouse and a wide, diverse cast in a simple and timeless story to bridge everything together. It was the classic band of rebels against an evil empire scenario, which despite being so played out, offers so many possibilities.

Having just finished Akame ga Kill, I'm in a rare mood to review it because of how I felt after watching all 24 episodes. This is not a good thing, by the way, as my feelings of emptiness and apathy ... regarding the series were replaced by annoyance when I saw how totally hollow and unmoving the finale ended up being. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I was hoping they'd go out with a bang and salvage something for a climax. After all, most mindless action shows usually hit their peak by taking us on a fun roller-coaster of destruction, while spawning mayhem and violence in these sort of anime to paper over the cracks. Unfortunately, this anime went out with a whimper.

What went wrong? How could a show that looked so appealing in the lead-up leave me that flat?

It can be argued from so many points, but everything always tracks back to one thing: death had no gravitas. I'm trying my best to avoid spoilers but it is a key problem. Normally I praise fictional pieces that employ a 'nobody is safe' rule because it can add unpredictability and, when executed right, it establishes the stakes and the 'war is hell' feeling. This show gave us death by the bucketloads, but there was no consequence because, in the end, the death was made to feel inconsequential. After brief references, they just devoted so much time to the dumb humour, goofy moments and fanservice that we never really processed the feels the deaths should've caused. Characters dying should leave you feeling like you've just been punched in the gut and not laughing wondering 'who's next?'. Death became a sideshow to the series, showing just how bad the writers failed with giving us characters we can invest in.

So how can I sum up the characters in one way? Akame ga Kill didn't make characters at all. They made caricatures with as much depth as a cardboard cutout. This is just an endless cycle until the end. We'll get a moment where a character has to feel and take something away from it, but it's like the writer’s room put down a rule and said "No character progression" to keep them as stagnant as possible. This is made painfully worse by a prominent antagonist called Seryuu. Seryuu cries for justice so much that you'll be having night terrors listening to her talk about it as she talks about it nonstop every scene she's in, even when there's no point in it. The other characters are thankfully nowhere near as cringingly bad, but I believe I am being very generous if I describe them as window dressing.

The biggest problem with the main protagonists is two-fold. Firstly, despite being the title character, Akame constantly felt like a side character in her own series. Focus is almost never on her and she's just around. This leads us to the shows’s main character: Tatsumi. First of all, the character design just irks me and I'm convinced Tatsumi stole his clothes from Carlton Banks, except he has none of the swag to pull off that sweater. Tatsumi just never clicks as he's always a naive, small town, wide eyed kid who never learns anything throughout the series. He remains dumb as a doornail as he was from the start and never takes anything from his mistakes. For a character that was supposed to be our entry point into the world of Night Raid, the rebel group that's fighting the empire, I think by the end of it we'll have learned more about everything that Tatsumi never did. He is that dumb and not in a good way. Most shounen series seem to have this moment where a protagonist has an epiphany where everything clicks for them and they fulfil some sort of potential, but to Tatsumi those moments are contained in his hands as if they're water and they slip by him so easily, which is a shame and the series as a whole suffers greatly for it.

Now that my gripes with the characters are out of the way, where did these horrible characterisations leave the story? Quite frankly, it was a mess. Every episode was a detour saddled with the excessive abovementioned dumb humour, goofy moments, and fanservice. However once again, if you're not invested with the story's main players, it's hard to accept it as banter by comrades to divert from the horrors of war. Not even the excessive gore and violence gave the story a semblance of gravitas. It felt more gratuitous and shoved down our throats without a context rather than to add weight or darkness to the story setting.

That in turn went hand in hand with how the story unfolded. Halfway in, as the exposition and world building was done, it became so frantic that it felt like the writers were just throwing idea's at the wall, seeing what they could get to stick. It became a mess with too many moving pieces and not enough attention on these pieces leading to some terrible jarring story shifts that lead me to feel, at the time, that I'd missed half an episode or so. The twists seemed to be there just to add even more shock value at every chance. Eventually it creates the same sense of fatigue and apathy that the death caused for me. I just didn't care and the way everything progressed slowly eroded the quality that much more, as it went from an underperforming show with a decent concept to a show that was constantly missing the mark by a large margin week in and week out.

Overall, how does one sum up Akame ga Kill? The animation and action were good, the designs were fairly generic but serviceable (save for Tatsumi's horrible sweater), and the fanservice seemed like it was catered to 15yr old boys who obsess over boobs more than Beavis and Butthead used to, we were reminded of it every possible moment. There was a story, but the writers clearly had no intention of sticking to it and chose the prior mentioned fanservice, T&A and pervy humor over actually progressing the story and characters in a logical way. Oh wait, they did try balancing both light and funny and serious, it just didn't work and gave the illusion that they neglected it because their concept of storytelling was so bad.

In retrospect, I guess it could've been good, but now we'll never know. Going through the entire series and dissecting it to this extent shows how bad it truly was and it could be a thesis in its own regard, but I'm sure there's enough hard working, dedicated bloggers that will save me the stress of watching it again.

While it may seem excessively harsh, 4 is a fair score to me. It was a lot worse, but I can't fault the animation team despite the uninspired designs. The backdrops and settings used were also top notch, which actually bumped my score up (sometimes you can just pause and take in and appreciate the effort and detail they put in building this world). What a waste of animation talent it was, being focused on 24 episodes of this anime.

I remember a time in anime where death was anything but concrete, specifically in battle shounen. One could die, but just as easily be brought back to life through, say, magic or star-plated spheres. However, in recent memory, anime fans have shifted that notion in the opposite direction. They had hungered for a more serious, more damning approach to the shounen genre. One where the characters' status within the anime meant nothing for their security in battle. Most of all, when and if they were to fall, they would stay fallen. Luckily, anime fans got what they had hoped for... with Shingeki no Kyojin.

The anime ... industry took note of Shingeki no Kyojin's wild success and started scouting for successors. They took one look at Akame ga Kill and were sold immediately. Look at all the dead people! Haley Joel Osment is going to have trouble keeping calm with all of these dead people! This is Akame ga Kill's key point: people die, and stay dead, forever. That's all that's necessary to keep the hungry viewers satisfied, right?

While Akame ga Kill can keep its promise of gruesome deaths, deranged characters, and a constant stream of the aforementioned subjects, that's only the one shounen cliche they decided not to add. What's important to pay attention to is the amount of sacrifice with this anime. No, not the sacrifice of any certain character for the good of the plot, as this anime wants the viewer to believe, but the sacrifice of essential concepts put forth to creating a well thought out story. What this title lacks in revivals is made up of many, many other shounen cliches. These characters can die, yes, but are they difficult to kill? It depends on the situation.

Characters are placed into this series to die. Every character is at risk, so the viewer expects this throughout the entirety of the anime. This could cause as a sort of distraction to some, such as seeing evidence of character development as a means to get the viewer's sympathy. It also leaves out a lot of that character development for characters that may fall prey to the anime's selling point too quickly. To make up for this, they put out an episode entirely dedicated to exploring said character's past. But as stated above, this seems rushed and a means to wring out sympathy from the viewers.

Speaking of rushed, there are segments to this anime that seem all too rushed. Arcs within the anime that feel like filler only constrict the amount of time this anime has to work with to actually advance the plot to the point where it feels as if it all happened within an hour. And this anime doesn't seem convinced that viewers will continue to watch the series without more murder, so they spend time trying to build up the characters only to kill them off by episode's end. This, once again, only limits the amount of time the anime has to actually smoothly advance the plot, even with twenty-four episodes.

Taking a hard look at the characters in this series, one has to wonder whether they really feel like characters. With the emphasis on death and sacrifice, are the characters meant to be cared for, or seen as a plot device? It feels almost like a game of Survivior, where the viewer only roots for one or two particular characters to root and care for, hoping they can win the competition based on likability and/or skill. And with a surplus of characters, specifically when the Jaegers (Shingeki no Kyojin tribute?) are introduced later on, how many are really going to leave a mark on the viewer?

Regardless of all the different perspectives, I felt as though the characters only added to the overall cliche feel of Akame ga Kill. Characters, if not for their typical dark, depressing backstories, only had a key characteristic that the anime played with, while instilling comedy through means of having them act the opposite of what one would expect from their appearance. The main hero personality, the quiet caretaker, the manly homosexual (that's new), the tsundere, the flirt, the pervert, the one no audience member remembers, and the leader. Each of these range among the chart of cliche personalities, but most of them are unbearable to those familiar with the genre. To the extent of their likability depends on the viewer, but is more likely to smell like that of a rotting horse to most.

Like that of most shounen heavyweights, Akame ga Kill's artstyle is dark and has edges that could cut steel. Not to say their bodies are merely made of trapezoids, but the amount of almost frightening imagery is enough to make many horror fans giggle in delight. This is part of what this anime stands for, of course. To make this anime as enthralling as possible, a lot of key details needed to be put into battles and weapons, and they certainly delivered. Fights were flashy and fast, almost to the point of headaches, but ibuprofen exists, so it doesn't matter; just watch the pretty colors. Characters were distinct and noticeable, no matter how unimportant they seemed. Well, other than background characters, but again, who cares? Just watch the pretty colors. The overall dark nature of the show at least helps its case as a mature battle shounen. If Akame ga Kill were graded on art style alone, it would be rated with high votes.

Viewing Akame ga Kill could be a worthwhile experience for many, granted the viewer has the right mindset. Akame ga Kill had scenes where it genuinely felt like everything within it had a purpose, but it drowns out its supply of time with too much filler and a giant second half influx of characters. The one biggest problem I had with this anime was its emphasis on death and the sacrifices one makes to make the world a better place. I can see the emphasis of death, but there needs to be more emphasis on why the viewer should care about the world they're trying to save. Everything on the surface is bad because it can be. What else is there to the world other than being black and white?

Akame ga Kill!

Review Text
AKAME, PLEASE KILL THIS REVIEW?:

MINDSET:
Boobs and bloodshed galore.

SYNOPISIS:
Generic guy in this super generic Shounen fantasy like for the millionth time, finds himself in the capital city of whatever the heck the country is called, (probably beef) and soon finding some rich nobles to sleep in their mansion. Soon enough in their beds, he finds a small league of assassins who is killing the poor nobles mercilessly, and the power of PLOT CONVINENCE says the real reason why they kept him, was to sadistically torture him, just like what they've done to he's BFF's. The league of Assassins “Night Raid” told him the ... truth of the capital, and that again by the power of PLOT CONVINENCE the rich people are all a bunch of psycho's for no or completely bull shaft reason. Being sooo traumatised by that fact, he decided to join night raid, to assist the assassination of the Prime Minister with he's new found buddies.

REVIEW:
The show is like the child's little brother of deadman wonderland, unlike its brother Tokyo Ghoul who is just completely idiotic, at least Akame Ga Kill was a bit more on the self-aware side.

Ignore the fact that Night Raid Assasins are astheticaly defined by there prime colours, like this is Green, Pink, Purple, Turquoise, Red, Black, like its the more idiotic version of Power Rangers of all things, and state that all of the characters are all defined by the laws of two dimensional Archetypes, we have the Tsundere, Kudere, the cool one, the big brother, the quiet one, the big boobies and the dip sticks etc.

So there’s really nothing special there, and the directing feels like the excact same style of what Shounen writers use, but downgraded.

The villains in this show have absolutly no reason, or depth in personality for killing, or abusing the people. Its like, hey kids! Look at this horrible psycho who is killing all of these people we a know next to nothing about! Now all everyone will think its “Mature” but in fact its jnust being pretentious.

Tetsuyas apparently a total BAMF I hear from the masses of casuals, and I state wrong, because having the balls to simply kill people right off the bat is the only exact option on handling Your enemies, heck! The villains in this show are some of the lousier pieces of writing I've seen for a shounen because there really just a bunch of one dimensional psychos who are really just there to make everything all gory and jazz and the masses will all of a sudden think its “Very Mature Content”

At least in something like Naruto, or Bleach, there are actually two options, either talk, or fight. But in Akame, its just Kill! There were other casuals completely missing the point and stating that they are getting rather bored with there Naruto's, Fairy Tails, One Piece, and now there saying that Akame is more mature because the violence was awesome and uncensored?! Look, I know You may have a way with Your opinion, but there is a difference between being Mature, and being pretentious. Being mature means that the fiction respects its audience, and takes its themes in a serious and realistic manner, being Pretentious is an act of trying to respect its audience, but failing because it does not take its themes in a more unrealistic manner!

As for a serious and ambitious setting of a small league of Assassins being the only hope on overthrowing a corrupted capital with its King and Prime Minister, it sure is damn well pretentious at that. Because when the show is not fighting, but to try to flesh out its characters and (IDK) develop them, we instead get some Whore, or any female distract us with these silly boob jokes as a horrible excuse for being this comedic sex rom-com and a dark fantasy. There is a damn good difference by being sexually aroused, and taking in mature context seriously. Like how in the second episode Tetsy is mourning over he's recently killed friends from the psycho-chick, then some blonde whore comes in and puts her boobs in he's face as a surprise! Saying, hey if the writing is dull and shallow we might as well sell sex as an excuse to fill out actual good writing into it.

And this is the biggest issue of the story, it tries to be dark and edgy, yet it also tries to milk a little bit more of that paper by an attempt of sex appeal.

Consequently, it does have one redeeming factor. If You really ignore how much of an absolute flashy train wreck this show is, then what its worth can be viewed as this nice parody of shounen, that is indulged in self awareness on how bad yet corny it is.

Though the show completely lacks any sort of depth (as mentioned above) and it takes a really strong mindset to actually enjoy it for what its worth. Buuut I'm an Anime Critic, and critics are never afraid to actually criticise on what is bad, and the show is just being pretentious, which makes me really annoyed if a show attempts such a sin. However, it is definitly more tolerable than Tokyo Ghoul, since that show fails in every sense of making an intensely mature thriller, and becomes a f**king battle shounen with even worse plot conveniences!

White fox is still doing a decent job, though I do feel like straying away from there style, since (like mad house) such backgrounds are being a little too dependant on CGI, though it is definitely above average, I only feel as if it was just another upgrade to Your regular animation. The characters each have a flashy design for You to easily tell who is which, though they really do look like some power rangers rip off if I just keep thinking about it... And the action scenes look pretty good, but nothing special.

Unfortunatly, I was not able to find the OST to listen to when making this review, and the only thing available was the OP (which is decent at best and does the job for You to get hyped for action) but the music does have a nice variety of instruments to portray different situations, and will even stray away from your typical violins, pianos, trumpets etc. (skip the ED btw)

LEGACY:
Just like SAO, everyone thinks its amazing, when it finishes, everyone is now talking how an absolute flop it was. Then they noticed the haters were right all along. Akame Ga Kill will be no different, just sit down, and wait until the entire Anime community will say how bad it was! And for those remaining casuals who think its good, then all the Critics will continue there hate, and wait until until there tastes harden awaaaaaaaay.

SCORES:
3/10- A repeated formula of characters all over again, though You do get back story, the villains are just horrible.
3.5/10- Just like Tokyo Ghoul being a pretentious prick, but a but more self-aware.
6.5/10- Action scenes seem OK for the most part, and backgrounds are just above average.
6.5/10- It does the job with good variety, but nothing particularly great.
3.5/10- Lacklustre entertainment for being pretentious that is only half decent with the right mindset.

FINALE: 4/10 For being more self-aware than Tokyo Ghoul.

Boy am I disappointed. ( Short, spoiler free, honest review )

First off let me begin by saying; I cannot fathom how an anime of such high expectations could have possibly fallen so low below the margin of a worthwhile anime.

With a rather explosive start, Akame_ga_Kill reveals it's main casts of characters, it's dark plot, and it's appealing art style. I had high hopes for this anime. Sadly, as weeks passed, and more episodes were released, the lower my expectations became, and by the end the only thing received was utter disappointment.

All in all Akame_ga_Kill is an anime that falls ... short of anything noteworthy. With characters of very little development throughout the anime, an overall rushed story, unsatisfying ending, and "plot twists" that were so predictable I nearly cringed, Akame_ga_Kill is a bad anime that I wouldnt recommend to anyone.

WARNING: CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS

Akame ga Kill was a huge disappointment for me. I haven't read the manga but after watching episode 1 I had extremely high hopes for it, but all of it was dashed. Don't get me wrong there are some good bits to it, for example the character designs would pass as decent and ED 2 was just amazing and I like how they blended different timelines (e.g. Mine's Pumpkin and an Imperial empire). However, all in all it was pretty dreadful.

First of all the story. I really liked the concept of an assassin group who functions to destroy the corrupt. However, as ... for the story as a whole, it can be summed up by these words: So predictable it was unpredictable. Seriously I cannot think of a simpler plot. There wasn't a single major plot twist (Esdeath falling for Tatsumi doesn't count because that did not impact the story as a whole), and everyone would have guessed the outcome. Plus there are so many unanswered questions: how would they build a kingdom without bloodshed? What happened to the rest of the Jaegers? Who would be the new king? etc. which the team have completely ignored.

The animation style I have to admit was decent. The character designs were really good and a huge step up from the manga, especially Akame. Her tatoos were also well designed and I praise the team for this. The array of colours and effects such as that of Mine's Pumpkin or Kurome's rise from Chealsea's sting were very enjoyable. However, the fight scenes were the most childish, tedious and downright stupid ones I have encountered. They seem to follow a formula:
1. Give up your element of surprise.
2. Declare your name.
3. Declare whether you are from Night Raid or the Jaegers.
4. Spend 5 minutes talking about what your Teigu does, its strengths and other details.
5. Spend another 5 minutes talking about why you think you will win this fight.
6. Engage for 10 seconds.
7. Be surprised at something of your opponent's.
8. Listen to your opponent repeat steps 2-5.
9. Repeat step 6.
10. Repeat steps 4-9 as many times as possible.
11. Finish them with a "trump card" you have saved for the last minute which you could have used in the beginning.

The music was quite impressive actually. Iwasaki Taku did a good job with the BGM's which conveyed the mood of that moment extremely well. Skyreach was a fitting OP and Tsukiakari is one of my favourite OP/ED.

The character development in the story is one of the worst I have seen. Even though most of them had a backstory, almost all could might as well have been killing robots instead of characters. They showed no compassion at all, they have no mercy and more than half the time walk away with nothing more than a shrug. Yes they are assassins but they just killed people in cold blood, and even though the victims aren't innocent, the characters should at least show some form of sorrow.

Therefore all in all I believe akame ga Kill was a rather mediocre anime. It has a terrible story and dreadful character development. I personally would not recommend this to any people out there.

Intro:

While surfing through the anime community, I noticed that for one anime in particular, there seemed to be a lot of confusion from its fanbase about why it was that many of the more critical reviewers hated one of their favorite shows from this year. As you could probably tell already, the show in question is Akame ga Kill, a Fantasy Action/Adventure anime that aired during the Summer and Fall seasons of 2014.

Well, I decided that today I would attempt to answer that question. Why do the critics hate Akame ga Kill so much?

Story Undercuts ... its own Drama:

On premise alone, Akame ga Kill sounds like it could be a pretty good show. I mean, who doesn’t like hot assassins, a rebellion against an Evil Empire, and knights with magic weapons? The inclusion of these must-have’s for any Fantasy story is helped out by the fact that the first episode pulls an excellent bait and switch in an attempt to completely sell viewers on this show. Tatsumi, our naive hero, comes to the big city looking to earn money to help his poor village. Upon arriving though, he is treated like crap by the soldier enlistment office, taken advantage of by a thief (thus losing all of his money), and forced to spend the night on the street. But as the story progresses, he is spotted by a kind, noble girl and taken into her loving home.

The twist is that she and her family are all sadistic murderers. And on top of that, they have previously captured his two friends in the same way, with one already tortured to death and the second eventually dying in Tatsumi’s arms. This unexpected turn does a good job of playing upon our expectations, which up until this point had been a generic beginning, and then twisting them into something legitimately surprising. It was a great way to catch the audience off-guard and intrigue them with promises of being a show that constantly is subverting your expectations. But more importantly than that, it is an extremely emotional moment for Tatsumi, where not only is his very worldview shaken but his best friends are dead. This should be the moment in the show where we form our emotional connection with the main character and really sympathize with him over this tragic turn of events.

Instead, the series proceeds to completely ruin this dramatic moment by immediately having the other characters crack jokes as they kidnap Tatsumi in a very slap-stick manner; and he acts more like the straight man in an anime rom-com than a person in shock. This jarring and massive tonal shift completely dispelled any sense of tension or drama in the previous scene we had just witnessed. It’s at this point I believe many critics jumped ship in this series, since it just shows how amateur the writing in this show can be.

You see, using Mood Whiplash in a situation like this is about as big a no-no in storytelling as there is. Since when you’re crying, you don’t feel like laughing; and when you’re laughing, you don’t feel like crying. So, if you’re objective with a certain scene is to, oh I don’t know, show a character experiencing the most tragic moment of their life so far and thus create sympathy for this character from the viewer, you shouldn’t immediately go into a goofy scene filled with silliness and slap-shtick humor, since you’ll end up undercutting your own drama by not giving the audience enough time to process what’s happened and feel any sort of connection to the character who is undergoing this emotional moment. Not to mention, now your comedic scene is ruined so all the jokes seem in poor taste since, you know, this guy just had a childhood friend die in his arms. This is a textbook example of an Immersion Breaking experience and it sucks the viewer right out of the story.

It’s not like this was a one-time deal either. The failure to smoothly and logically transition out of dramatic moments is quite common in this anime. This makes it the show’s biggest flaw, since these colossal shifts in tone completely undermines every single one of the series’ emotionally powerful moments. When drama is constantly interrupted and replaced by comedy, it makes me think “if the characters don’t take what is happening seriously, why should I?”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s completely possible to have comedy and serious drama in the same show. Series like Cowboy Bebop and Hunter x Hunter are some of the best anime out there, partly because of how well they are able to balance comedy and drama in the same show. However, the difference between a show like Bebop or HxH and Akame ga Kill is that they make sure to keep the emotional scenes and comedic scenes far apart from each other, so the audience isn’t left confused about whether they should be taking the dramatic moments seriously or not. Instead of you know, having them literally 30 seconds apart from each other, which leaves a bitter taste in your mouth every time the show attempts to take itself seriously.

Fails as an Action Anime:

Now, before all you Akame ga Kill fans that are miraculously still here stop reading and jam your fingers from pressing the Dis-like button, allow me to explain what I mean here. One of the most common rebuttals I’ve seen from this show’s fanbase is that sure, it’s not the best written story in the world, but it’s still a fun, enjoyable show because of its’ cool action scenes. Or, to put it another way, it’s got the same appeal as something like Sword Art Online, only Akame ga Kill is more “mature” because of all the blood and gore.

Here’s the difference though, in SAO, they actually have REALLY great action scenes that are well-animated and beautifully choreographed. Some of it’s even so good that even us hard-asses forget all the flaws Sword Art has and are lost in the kick-ass fights in the show. Akame ga Kill doesn’t even have this going for it because during the production of the show it seems like the animators forgot what they’re primary job is when adapting a manga is to…you know…bring the story to life by ANIMATING IT!!

And this is what I mean when I say that Akame ga Kill fails as an action show. Whenever there’s a fight in the show, they hardly ever animate anything! You just get a bunch of still-image frame shots of the after-effects of a blow, or of a character preparing to strike, but you never actually get to see the blow itself.

You see, basically what happens in Akame ga Kill is that the animators just color in the panels from the manga and then turn them into a PowerPoint presentation while animating as little as they possibly can.

To illustrate my point in greater detail, let’s take an in-depth look at the Tatsumi vs. Zank the Executioner fight. This, according to the wonderful Youtube community, is the best fight in the entire show, and even here you can see the flaws in this show’s animation.

When you watch the video, you’ll notice during the first attack sequence by Tatsumi, his sword swings are never actually animated. All we see is him constantly about to swing his sword and then in the next frame it transitions to after his blow has already been delivered and dodged by Zank, which also isn’t actually animated, and the closest we get to seeing the actual attack itself is a blue afterimage which is literally just a thick line that the artist put into the shot. We never get to see an actual blow go from start to finish in one fluid motion.

Oh no! The animation budget ran out! Don’t worry, we’ll just take a picture, shade it differently than how the rest of the anime looks, then do a slow pan up on the image (an effect even I can do on Windows Movie Maker) and everyone will call it “epic”!

Now they’re splurging here by having Zank in an animation loop of dodging these dangerous blue flashes of light! Oh, here comes Zank’s attack! Oooooh, look at that! Instead of seeing him actually attacking our hero, we get to see some pretty sparks and lights instead! Fancy.

Let’s contrast this with a fight that actually has some effort put into its presentation shall we? The Lancer vs. Archer fight in Episode 0 of the new Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works anime. Notice how in these clips, how you can clearly see each and every move that the combatants make from start to finish. Every strike is extremely fluid, detailed, and flows beautifully from action to action so that you can’t help but get pumped up as the two fighters exchange blows. This is because you’re just completely and totally captivated by the amazing animation since each and every move made by either character is presented to us in full during this breath-taking action scene.

In Akame ga Kill, it just feels like every action scene was put together by the animation crew lazily. Like they were putting it together using as little effort (and by extension time and money) as possible in order to say they’ve put an action scene into the show. Honestly, it seems like the majority of the time, the animators were more interested in drawing the blood and making the anime “edgy” and gory as possible than they were in delivering us passable fight scenes. Because of this, the animation in the show is nothing more than mediocre and no different than you could find in any other Action or Battle Shonen out there. It also begs the question: “If it wasn’t worth the animators time to give proper attention to the show’s action scenes, why is it worth my time?”

Conclusion:

And that leads us to the real reason why many critics, myself included, don’t like Akame ga Kill. We just don’t believe that it’s worth your precious time. Because here’s the thing, if you like and enjoy Akame ga Kill, that’s awesome. We aren’t here to tell you what you can and can’t enjoy, no critic should, but it is our job to tell you if something is worth your time.

The problem with Akame ga Kill in this regard though is that pretty much everything that could be viewed as a strength or a reason to watch this anime, has been executed better in other shows that are more worthy of your time. It’s not so much that we critics don’t think people can or should enjoy Akame ga Kill, it’s just that we believe that your time would be better spent on shows that-if you liked Akame ga Kill-you will enjoy even MORE.

For example, if one of the reasons why you watched and enjoyed Akame ga Kill was because of its Fantasy setting: one that we honestly don’t see that often in anime, then I would recommend that you watch Rage of Bahamut: Genesis. A super-fun, cool, adventure show that came out during the Fall Season which builds a very interesting Fantasy world in half the episodes of Akame ga Kill and is executed ten times better. Hardly anyone ended up watching this show though because it got ran over by the Akame ga Kill Hype Train, which is a shame because I would wager that every fan of Akame ga Kill would love Rage of Bahamut.

And this is the case for pretty much any merit that can be found in Akame ga Kill. If you want a Gory/Edgy Fantasy series, then you would be much better off watching something like Berserk. An anime that is very mature, has plenty of blood, characters dying in gruesome fashion, and is filled with much more complex and badass characters than Akame ga Kill could dream of.

Or, if you REALLY want something that’s exactly like Akame ga Kill but with much better action and animation, then you want: A Goofy Harem with Lots of Blood, Action, Tits and Ass, but unlike Akame ga Kill, doesn’t pretend to be anything more than that and ends up being much more enjoyable and fun ride because of that The Anime. AKA: Highschool of the Dead.

If you’re interested in more content from me, check out my Youtube channel: Café Anime! Until next time!