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| I give this show a 3/10. I wrote a review, but it's hard to do it justice without much spoilers. Let me summarize a few points. Akudama Drive is too ambitious and failed to carry through. Like Psycho-Pass, it uses a clueless and out-of-place woman as the oracle for the author to push an emotional appeal that's too basic to address a nuanced point. Like Ergo Proxy, the pacing is so bad that it has to use a gimmicky "propaganda" talk show to fill in the details. The characters are all edgy and one dimensional. It seems to take inspiration from many places, and combine their worst qualities. Let's start with the obvious: plot holes. We see Kanto, a bunch of garbage flying around with an enigmatic shape-shifting structure in the middle that looks like it's been lifted out of Gantz. We're told it's a quantum computer and that it's downloading data into the twins. That means the twins must be some kind of bio-computer and one of two things are true:
This is important, because every operating system has an entry point, and in order for Kanto to self-regulate, it needs to download not only the state (i.e. the data) but the OS to execute its functions. This execution either replaces the twins' mental capabilities or exists along side it. If it replaces it, then the twins would not be conscious when Hacker tries to hack Kanto. If it exists along side it, then the twins were not at risk of dying in the first place. Furthermore, it's an insult to the intelligence of anyone who knows the first thing about computers to suggest that Kanto would have a port open for an arbitrary attacker to wirelessly infiltrate the system -- a quantum system no less. This is especially given that Hacker has no experience with quantum systems, that the hardware Kanto runs on most likely would not conform to any existing specifications that Hacker knows of, such that any language Hacker uses would not execute in the first place. Additionally, we know that certain characters had memories of a physical Kanto, and that Courier's bike was built in Kanto, and that the twins' experimental facilities were designed in Kanto. How did these things all exist in the first place, if Kanto is just a bunch of flying garbage around a black shell? How did Kanto enforce administrative policies over Kansai? If the shell could transform itself to build a bike, then certainly it could have transformed itself to attack or defend itself from Courier and Swindler. We're told that the bullet train is the only method of transportation between Kansai and Kanto, due to the dark zone that nothing else could pass through. So how did Kansai plan on delivering the twins at the end after they blew the train up? Every computer has a physical power switch. How were the Executioners so clueless about what was broadcasted on every monitor across the city, and why couldn't they just shut it off? Why didn't they employ basic crowd control technology like tear gas, batons, smoke and pellet guns to break up the uprising in the first place? How come they could so mercilessly mow down hundreds of protesters in the initial uprising, but stood helplessly before the second? It was the lady, the head of the Executioners that called labeled the protesters as Akudama, yet she looked to the guy who shot himself for permission in the second. Missiles completely melted and destroyed the train besides some of its steel frame, yet Swindler and Courier survived a direct missile explosion. Courier even survived a direct plasma beam to his face unscathed. He was bleeding out on an hour long drive in the wilderness, and fully conscious. The spaceships only attacked him from the front, where his only defense was. The entire air force had trouble spotting two children running barefoot. There's an unexplained emergency shutdown sequence running on a 10 minute timer. Who implemented it? It makes no sense, whether it's Hacker or Kanto, to keep a fixed 10 minute timer. If it's Kanto, it could have shut it down in the beginning. If it's Hacker, he could have shut just the military units down. Did Kanto survive Hacker's hack? If not, then they literally killed millions of conscious people ("Fluctlights" in SAO-speak) to save 2 kids that didn't need saving. Why did Kanto need for their experimental material to be conscious in the first place? It seems counter-productive, and only for a cheap emotional appeal, like starving, tortured African children. Does Kanto simply reproduce the experiment and kill hundreds of children more, since it still needs a body that doesn't deteriorate? So how was Swindler and Hacker's actions moral? They literally mass murdered every single person in Kanto, robbed them of their futures, or caused a repeat of the experiment. Let's not forget that Doctor could un-decapitate herself in real time, and that the Executioners failed to finish her off multiple times despite knowing of her capabilities. Let's not forget that the Akudama got excited when they saw billions of dollars transferred into their locked digital wallet accounts that they couldn't even use. And that there was nothing preventing the brother from hopping onto the spaceship when he pushed the sister onto it. And Swindler's disgusting moralistic posturing when she prevented Doctor from asking what every reasonable person would've wanted to know -- what the twins wanted. Maybe they could have stopped the farcical exercise right then and there when they reveal they wanted to go to the moon, and suffer eternal pain from subzero temperatures and suffocation, since they seem capable of feeling temperature on Earth. But my biggest complaint happens on episode 1. When the Akudama broke in to save Cutthroat, the commissioners order one of the guards, Quick, execute him now! The guard replies, But, there's an explosion -- and points across the room, as if an explosion on the other side of the room has any effect on an execution by decapitation. Then the commissioner says, Yes, just do it. And the guard goes, Are you sure? And Doctor sneaks up behind and kills that guard. And that's when I knew this show was going to suck hard. If that guard wasn't completely dysfunctional autistic, the whole show would have ended right there. The plot armor was unforced. The writers could have had the explosion closer to the platform and kill the guards directly. But they chose the most retarded conversation possible. I can't believe people think this is the best show of 2020. |
| My subjective reviews: katsureview.wordpress.com THE CHAT CLUB. |
| This was better than I thought. The executioners got killed by their own actions which was a satisfying conclusion for them. Courier could have lived longer if he just used his sleeve or his shirt to stop his bleeding. I really didn't want him to die because he was hot and also very dedicated. When the lead executioner got hit with a brick, I laughed. It was so random. I have never seen a middle-aged looking woman get hit with a brick! The only thing I found dissatisfying was that we didn't get to see the conclusions for some of the executioners like the old woman, the boy who got shot, the boy's senpai, and the four responsible for Swindler's death. I liked the propaganda in the earlier episodes, I don't quite like that they used it throughout the anime. It felt like cheap exposition. |
FuMomo-kunDec 25, 2020 9:04 PM
Kimurah said: The show never showed Swindler acknowledging any plan, but let me add something that should be obvious to most people. There's a hardware limitation to your computers and phones in the speed that it could process and download data, and no amount of "hacking" could improve it beyond a point. To most people, it would be common sense that it's physically impossible to instantaneously download someone's "soul", probably ZBs worth of data, and issue an execution command on the phone OS. The program would take more memory than what the phone could process, regardless of what hardware it has.Z4K said: If Swindler actually read an alleged "plan" writen by hacker in her phone, that's something that should had been shown in the actual episode to explain the mutual acknowledgement. Heres one for you. You think Hacker hacking the broadcast is nonsense because he couldn't forsee her plans. Did you miss the part where he uploaded his data in Swindler's phone in the previous episode? Why would there be any need to foresee anything when Swindler could share her plans with him? Moreover, it's highly likely that the monitors in the entire city are not running off one single server, and even if they were, this server would not have an open port for an anonymous person to wirelessly connect to. If, suppose that there is such a server that the military uses to disseminate propaganda. Then it would not use openly accessibly internet protocol to allow anonymous people to connect to. Make no mistake that when I say "allow", I do not mean software permissions. I mean it would be physically impossible to connect to it from another computer outside of the network because the protocols run on different rules and different hardware. And even if Hacker could somehow get access to this network, they should be able to easily shut down the broadcast by pulling the plug. So this whole anime conception of hacking is just ridiculous to begin with. The fact that no police member saw the broadcast, over the entire city, and phoned it in, and the authorities didn't even acknowledge that there was a broadcast, is an affront to my intelligence. They could have arrested the girl and killed her off camera, since they knew she couldn't have put up a fight. |
| My subjective reviews: katsureview.wordpress.com THE CHAT CLUB. |
| oh my god i think im in shock i literally sat through this whole episode without making a single noise and then right at the end there when Courier is sitting on the ground and the piano music came in tears just started dropping from my eyes. wow. it's been a long time since an anime has made me feel like this it's amazing. i love that Swindler ended up Swindling people with her death, it was the perfect way to end her character arc imo |
| government=bad!!! pretty shit danganronpa anime but at least the fights were cool. 5/10 |
| After a pretty confusing ep 11, we got really great finale. I think I've slightly gasped with excitement when Courier and the airship did kamehame-like beam collision. The ending is very open. We don't know what happened to the city, and what awaited the siblings. Now just to wait for blu-ray version to watch it without that stupid censoring. |
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| Kodaka pulled another danganronpa ending. Very Tarantino-ish ending. I was waiting for this show for a while and after watching it i can say that TooKyo Games hasn't created a worthy project yet. I'm really questioning if Kodaka, Uchikoshi, Takada and Komatsuzaki departure from Spike Chunsoft was a great idea. |
| As a lot of people said the start was fun, until the kids started joining in more is when the show lost its way. Nonetheless still a good ending. 6/10. Swindler and Courier’s death stuck me the most tbh. |
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| 8/10 overall So it's one of those shows ala Basilisk in which everyone dies in the end. The real tragedy was the loss of Courier's overpowered bike. |
| Im going to roll back slightly on my eps 11 Christmas day rant, to in fact correct myself. This, this right here was the ending. I didn't think anything could top eps 11, but this was a true masterpiece. The shows concepts of a dystopian future, an increasingly digital age we live in, the barriers between right and wrong and who decides them. The sacrifices made and this story told. Im conflicted, as I like a few others, but best story of the year give or take one or two others. A tour de force as the French would say. But fuck the French I'm British. Closing down the cross channel links so you can harvest our already removed fishing stocks. Bunch of *****. Sorry peeps, boxing day rant over. This was a brilliant show and Im going to give it an overall 10 for the themes it explored, the characters, the story, the va's and everyone involved! |
 To have you, Id give a billion lives A-Chan best girl |
| The only thing Akudama Drive really needed was a actual good story and some more in depth characters. The action, sci-fi, animation, colors, soundtrack etc was all amazing and I really f#"@ing loved the action and atmosphere of the last episode, especially the scene where Swindler died and when Courier focused on shooting down the planes up until he also died. Last episode almost couldn't be any better when keeping in mind the lacking story which has been built up until last ep. Overall Im not disappointed but could've been even better with a different story. |
| RIP Courier & Swindler. Honestly I was actually expecting one of them to come out alive but alas. Also Courier probably killed dozens of people by nuking the tower lol real Akudama right there. After a disappointing episode 11 I'm happy that I liked this episode way more. Though I wonder where the twins are going, inb4 it's even worse than Kanto. Still sad that we didn't get to see the executioner boss lady fight, I wanted to see an old woman kick some ass. Overall I really enjoyed this anime. The characters were fun, the action scenes were pretty good and just the overall aesthetics were right up my alley. I do have to admit though that the first half was way stronger than the second. But nonetheless I enjoyed the ride. |
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| After episode 11, I was worried that this show could be another all-too-common case of a series that fizzles out at the very end. But my god. This was one of my favourite final episodes I have seen in a very long time. So many cathartic and kick-ass moments, even though you know things are going wrong. I absolutely loved this episode, and loved this series. |
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| It was alright, I guess I'm just not a huge fan of a style over substance sort of anime, especially when the gap is as big as it is in Akudama Drive. 7/10. |
| This show kind of varied alot. I had some issues with the show, some of which I can choose to ignore, others with I can't. At it's lows (middle section of the show) I thought it a 6/10, at it highs it was possibly an 8/10. I still like the show tho so I'd probably say it a 7-7.5/10 for me. Definitely one of the better shows 2020 had to offer atleast. |
| This was one of the best looking anime of the year. The only competition I can think of is great pretender but this looks better |
 _______I like rocks__  |
| Really liked this anime. I thought the ending capped things off pretty much perfectly, some of the allegories are a bit on the nose, but it didn't take away from the anime as a whole. The each character death felt meaningful and I loved the realisation from the executioners when they saw the riot and realised the effects of what they did. I think a lot of people are missing the main themes about having the freedom to choose your own path in life and following through with your decisions in favour of a cliched anti-establishment story. Not to to say it isn't anti-establishment but if that's your only take away I think you probably missed something. I had a lot of fun watching this so a solid 8/10 from me. |
AnimeScore-RE-ID said: Because it's against police is why it should be rated high. That's a fucking great theme. This anime is a straight 9/10. If that's all you need to have a good anime, well i dont know what to tell you. |
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| It was a decent show. The story was unique. But the history behind the whole Kanto/Kansai conflict is not well explained and I really hated that Bunny and Shark cartoon infomercials. Additionally, some didn't make sense like Kanto being a deteriorating super computer and needs immortal humans as offering. Or the doctor being able to sew herself back in any given condition. I liked the characters because they are different in their aspiration and dedication to do something regardless of it being good or bad. And their deaths were also meaningful. However, I couldn't really empathize with the brother/sister duo simply because their desire to be free started an indirect civil war. |
| R.I.P Hakobiya-San - I really liked him :( |
| Honestly, one of the good Original Animes to come out this season. R.I.P Courier and Swindler by far my favorite characters. Brother and Sister finally escaped with the help of the Akudamas. Really liked how Swindler handled that at the end. |
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| I can kinda see a sequel to this, ok so out if all the akudama courier could very much still be alive they just showed him next to his destroyed bike right and we have that executioner girl with the eye patch she could have come see if he's still alive probably see he is heavily injured decides to help him and maybe she herself from this experience might become a akudama cuz you could see she was kind of questioning what are akudama etc and I guess they could bring in some new characters who had connections to the characters who died, I can see a sequel but it's up to the author whether he wants to continue this or make it a one hit kinda thing but I'd enjoy a 2nd season |
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| Really good show, i'm amazed that pierrot actually did this, animation was very solid and the plot was interesting. 9/10 just because doesn't have an epilogue, dunno, showing how kansai changed after that mess. |
| Signature removed. Please follow the signature rules, as defined in the Site & Forum Guidelines. |
| It was a great ending, quite bittersweet for the death of all the akudama, the end of Kanto and how Kansai ended,at least sister and brother were able to escape, although the truth is that I didn't like them very much xD |
 a wise user of MAL said: Just to clarify, adaptations should absolutely stand on their own |
| I definitely didn't expect Swindler to die, was surprised there. I didn't really like episode 11 so I was worried about the finale but it turn out good thankfully. This anime definitely turn out to be a pleasant surprise. I think it needed two cour to live up to it's full potential but it was fun watch nonetheless. |
| All those destruction and action were top notch. I'm glad they didn't end it like somehow Swindler, Courier and those siblings escaped easily with quite the happy ending. This gloomy happy ending went with this anime well. In the end Courier proved why he cherishes his bike more than anything XD Courier calling almost all the women “Kuso onna” Courier you sure you ain't the long lost brother of Samatoki? ◐.̃◐ Loved Swindler's sacrifice scene the most, and the civilian protest following that, it was all really well executed. And those executioners deserved it, they portrayed how governments are really like behind the scenes. I agree it kinda felt rushed cause of their lack of further explanation of that place called Shikoku. Because of that it should have a special episode focusing on those sibling's life in Shikoku. I really wanna know if there are any living being there or if the siblings will do something to increase the population and start a civilization there. Pierrot really gave their all in this one. We rarely get this type of unique anime these days. This and Deca-Dence was the best original anime of 2020 for me. I would give it 8.5 if only there was an option of that on MAL so overall I give it 8/10. |
| One of the most fun shows I'v seen in a while. The story and writing could have been better, but I didn't come into the show expecting either of those to be amazing, and that's not why I kept watching either. The spectacle of it all was a real treat. |
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| eh don't give a damn to all main characters they all are lackluster due to little introductions on character backgrounds. more like they are an errand utilized to launch an incompletely written world. |
| Despite all my complaints on the plot of the previous episodes, the finale is actually quite good on its own. My favorite highlight is that Swindler finally became a real swindler by taking advantage of her death to provoke public outrage against the Execution Dept. with the help of Hacker's gift. That being said, I still don't understand why Swindler would like to sacrifice so much to save the 2 immortal kids who she barely knew and has no relationship with. And the studio doesn't bother to give any reasonable explanations so that I can relate to her. It feels to me that the studio came up with this cool idea that everyone could become Akudama under some circumstances & all the main characters would die at the end, but they struggled with the story line and how to make it smooth to lead to such an end thus the execution is quite off. Besides, the overall story feels very incomplete. How can they be sure that the destination the kids were heading to would be safe for them? Will the executioners still chase them or not? Lots of questions remained unanswered. It's really hard for me to rate this show. I think we can all agree that the art style & the animations are fantastic. Whereas, sufficient budget didn't bring us with great story. Instead, we only got plot holes everywhere & barely no characterization. Overall it's around 6-6.5 for me, but I may or may not round it up to 7 because of the finale & some early episodes that I enjoyed watching. |
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Hyperversum said: Orikasa_Momiji said: Despite all my complaints on the plot of the previous episodes, the finale is actually quite good on its own. My favorite highlight is that Swindler finally became a real swindler by taking advantage of her death to provoke public outrage against the Execution Dept. with the help of Hacker's gift. That being said, I still don't understand why Swindler would like to sacrifice so much to save the 2 immortal kids who she barely knew and has no relationship with. And the studio doesn't bother to give any reasonable explanations so that I can relate to her. It feels to me that the studio came up with this cool idea that everyone could become Akudama under some circumstances & all the main characters would die at the end, but they struggled with the story line and how to make it smooth to lead to such an end thus the execution is quite off. Besides, the overall story feels very incomplete. How can they be sure that the destination the kids were heading to would be safe for them? Will the executioners still chase them or not? Lots of questions remained unanswered. It's really hard for me to rate this show. I think we can all agree that the art style & the animations are fantastic. Whereas, sufficient budget didn't bring us with great story. Instead, we only got plot holes everywhere & barely no characterization. Overall it's around 6-6.5 for me, but I may or may not round it up to 7 because of the finale & some early episodes that I enjoyed watching. It's definitely up to interpretation, but my personal take is that Swindler chooses to do because she is already fucked by circumastances (I mean, bomb collar or not they would give her anyway) and she decides that "You can't make of these kids what you want" it's her personal hill to die on. I mean, all the Akudama we see are basically obsessed by something and go to any length, up to defy the status quo, to just get what they want. She is just a moral version of this, her obsession is refusing that someone may exist only to be used by others, just like Courier is keeping up the gig only because he is obsessed by that original Courier he worked for, whoever she was. Yeah Swindler is just a morally good character. I mean in the first episode we saw her put her life in danger twice just for a cat. That's why I think sacrificing her life for the kids doesn't seem out of question when you keep that in mind. |
| So everyone dies - type of ending. A lot of questions about the world remains unanswered. But the bro/sis will be the new "Akudama", so that's that. I wonder if this anime had plot though? It was all action and that's fun and all, but wtf did I just watch? Was the show's goal to save bro/sis, and that's it? Anything deep I'm missing? |
| When you see scores that are this divisive, you know something is going on. Either people ended up hating it or loving it which means the show will be something special. I'm happy to announce I'm falling into the latter category and I thought the show was really fucking amazing. It's blowing my mind we got such an original and idiosyncratic vision in the year of 2020 anime just being adaptations of other media. And to be the cherry on top, the story was incredibly ambitious and it stuck its landing. I'm really happy I didn't drop the show 3 episodes in when it was just really loud and obnoxious FLCL. Under all the initial chaos is a strong emotional throughline propelling the show forward. It's well directed, snappy pacing without being hamfisted, storyboards above and beyond, great character designs- it's all so different from initial first impressions. And we get to see arcs come and go on top of our female protagonist being *the best*. She finds that resolve, never curses fate, and how change can happen one person at a time. The finale was fucking pitch perfect and I'm still speechless. Also blatantly pulling the christ metaphor on Christmas Eve. It suits how flashy the rest of the show was and it's too good. And I can go on forever talking about what makes it tick but it's a show greater than the sum of its parts. Ideas you've seen before but collectively and conceptually presented as something new. Honestly anime of the year for rn (but I still need to watch Decca dence) |
SIOPAOBUNDec 29, 2020 12:44 PM
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