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TL;DR: It's better than the anime, but not by too much. Whatever score you gave the anime, you'll likely find yourself scoring the manga 1 point higher.

This review is written from the perspective of someone who came into this manga after finishing the anime. If you're curious about weather or not to read this, then it depends on what you thought of the anime. If you thought the anime was decent but felt that it tried to be too edgy at times (especially starting from the 2/3rd mark) then you'll find the manga executes the story beats to a much better level than the anime. ... However, if you didn't enjoy the anime for reasons other than the story trying to be too edgy, then it might be best to give this a skip.

For those of you who are curious about if the anime differed from the manga, then yes it definitely did. however the story beats as a whole is basically the same with minor details being different. Some characters die, others don't, some make different decisions and some don't. That said, a lot of the major story beats are basically the same, the ending is similar (but not the same).

Now for the more in depth review:

The main thing I want to praise the manga is in it's execution. The character were better written, had more impact when things happens to them. This is the most true for the characters on the antagonist's side and is what I would say is the most important strength of the manga. That said, it's not prefect. At it's core, the story of Akame ga Kill is a Shounen series and operates almost entirely within the bounds and established tropes of the genre. That's not to say it doesn't try to differentiate itself from the other series in the genre, it does that plenty. However, for anyone who is familiar with the core tropes and stakes of the genre then there would be very little to be able to catch you by surprise. But even despite this, it manages to execute the tropes of it's genre to a decent level that even if you are fulling expecting everything that will happen, it still manages to leave an impact.

All of this is made possible because of the characters and the setting of the story. The heart of any story is it's characters and Akame ga Kill's manga does much better job of getting you invested in it's characters than the anime and this is why the manga is better executed than the anime as it gets you invested in not only the protagonists but also the antagonists. And this is why the story is able to make it's impact even though the sequence of events follow expectations.

Of course, because this review is written from the perspective of an anime watcher, it would be a crime not to comment on the art of the manga. In simple terms. it's amazing. Nothing short of breathtaking. But because of the inherit stillness of static images, many of the action sequences do feel like something's missing to me. But even despite the limitations of the medium, the art does everything in it's power to convey the motion, speed, ferocity, and power of each explosive fight though the use of it's powerful composition and detailed line work.

And now, we come to the elephant in the room: the edginess. Even if you know nothing about Akame ga Kill, it's likely that you can gather from the title alone that the story is more on the edgy side. And of course, if you've heard anything about the series, you've probably heard something about it's edginess. And if you have already seen the anime, then you know first hand of the series edginess. This is something I cannot deny. However the story uses it's edginess not just as shock value but also to further along it's themes and to tell the story it wants to tell. Are there times that the story is too edgy? yes. But there are also times where the edge is just what the story needed to drive it's emotional peg deep into you making you truly feel the feels. That's the main reason why I find the manga to be better executed than the anime. In the times where the anime gave the feeling of "edgy for edge's sake" the manga is able to make better use of it's characters and the situation to deliver the feels and the edge doesn't feel like it's there for just shock value but rather, it felt like it was there for a reason or as a natural consequence of the events leading up to it.

Finally, we get to the conclusion: should you read the manga and will you enjoy it? My answer to this question is "Probably". What do you look for in a manga? What do you look for in a story? In my opinion, Akame ga Kill executes most aspects of it's narrative to a passing degree. There's nothing about it that I would say is poorly done. That said, i cant say that it excelled in anything other than the art. There's nothing about Akame ga Kill that made made me feel "Wow" there were times where the story made me feel "Ouf". That said, it did have enough of an impact on me that the story is able to make me feel the same way the characters are feeling at times and to me, that's something that I have to give it credit on. At the end of the day, weather you'll enjoy this series or not will entirely depend on if you enjoy the battle shounen genre whole. If you enjoy shounen, you'll definitely find alot of enjoyment in Akame ga Kill. But if it's a genre that you typically avoid, then you probably wont find the series too appealing.

There are 2 sides to every story, The emotional side and the cognitive side. What I mean by this is what the story makes you feel and what is actually happening in a story. As far as Guilty Crown is concerned, it has been one of the most successful animes to make me "feel" something but it has been very lacking in telling a good and unique story. As many of the other reviewers have noticed already, this anime is full of cliches and to be blunt, nothing much in the anime comes as a surprise other than the ending or more like, the reason ... why things turned out the way they are.

Plot:
The plot value of the anime I have decided to devide into 2 parts, one part for feeling and one part for story.

Feeling: 30/30
As you watch Guilty Crown, every episode and every arc(?) will make you feel something. There isn't very many moment when you dont feel something and when you don't something big is going to happen and your gonna feel something big soon. all the way starting from the first episode to the last episode, anxious, despair, indecisive, frustration, love, hate, agony, jealousy. All sorts of feelings that you will experience. Even though we all know how its going to turn out, we cant help but feel the that way. Even if your a dense person and you don't feel much this anime will still make you feel something and even though more often than not, those feelings that you feel are quite negative and I can say that this feeling is probably why some people hate this anime so much but to be able to make people feel strong emotions with only a screen and some speakers (or head phones) is truly a difficult task.

Story: 18/30
There were some moments that you get surprised by what happened but the majority of the show feels very predictable and if you are not surprised at the turn of events at all. If you look at the show from a top down perspective and see what happens from start to finish and think about it, the plot actually doesn't feel too bad it was predictable at a bit too many times but you are just rewarded too often for guessing what's gonna happen next. But the major events, those were well thought out and how those shape the over all shape of the story. I believe that if the minor small details are to be overlooked, the overall plot alone deserves 18/30

Character: 18/20
For the first major half(?) of the anime the characters dont exactly develop at all. instead the idea of the first half is to get you to know the character and then the development all happens in the second half. I personally think that this approach is very effective because the aim is to show you at the end how far each characters has grown since the start of the show because you are introduced to alot of "static" characters in the start and these characters dont change much at all so when they do change, you can feel it and not only that, it makes the changes they undertake that much noticeable and dramatic. However I believe that this ties in very strongly with the feeling section of the plot because this is one of the ways Guilty Crown makes you feel something.

Art: 10/10
I normally dont look at artwork in animes too much but man the artwork is beautiful. As unpractical as some of the designs were (common who'd go into battle looking like a red flag), but they looked gorgeous. The fights were also very pretty to look at. It is however at too many times filled with too much fan service. Not only that, its very direct in delivering it to your face.

Sound: 10/10
This is probably a bit of my bias as I am a Supercell fan. Cant say much here but I loved the both the intro songs and both the ending songs and many of the insert songs that the anime's got.

total:
30
15
17
10
10
---
86 out of 100 (round up to 9/10)

Over all: 86/100
Over all Guilty Crown is a very feeling centered anime with a bit much excessive use of fan services and the over use of cliches. If you strip the plot down to its bare bones then it actually doesn't feel too bad. Overall, it was really enjoyable to watch.

You should definately watch this if:
A) if you want to feel something
B) if you want some fan services
C) wants something pretty to look at
D) all or some of the the above

Sometimes a curler fate than death awaits us, and some times we have tools to change that. But will it all be worth it at then end if your the only one who knows the truth? In fact will it be worth it to go through the even curler task of changing it?

I normally avoid watching Time related animes because it is very very hard to find a way to display a non linear sequence of events, due to the nature of the idea of time traveling, into a linear sequence making it very very hard to accomplish. However Stines;Gate manages to do just that. ... I will still be using my own rating scale of 50/30/10/10 to rate this anime and here is a break down of my scale

50 points for plot/story
30 points for character
10 points for sound
10 points for art
totaling to 100

Plot story 49/50

The plot of this anime is very twisted and very "tripy" to some people. The main reason that some people may be discouraged to continue watching past episode 1 is because it uses a mechanism too hook the viewer's attention that is seldom used in story telling, it invokes confusion upon the viewer. Majority of stories uses either shock to hook the viewer in or attempting to invoke their curiosity. When a mix of both is used, confusion is one of the many different type of feelings that the viewer will get depending on how the opening is planned. This confusion is arguably the only down side to the plot.

However once you get past the initial confusion you will start to understand what is actually happening and the introduction phase of the anime then begins. This is where they establish who the characters are and what they are as well as small mini plots in here. What is most amazing about Stines;Gate is that it manages to not completely waist this part of the anime. Instead of only introducing small mini plots to go with each character it also manages to make these mini plots relevant later on. A lot of anime will waist this part where after introducing the characters, they will forget about the happenings of the introduction and move on.

Probably the biggest and most important part of Stines;Gate is the fact that the plot isn't strait forward but twisted. This, too, is likely due to the nature of the idea of time traveling. Because time travel doesn't exist in real life (yet), story writers are free to describe it however they want and use whatever method of making it appealing as possible allowing for the most twisted plot imaginable. Miraculously, Stines;Gate manages to do this all without confusing the viewers as most other Time Travel related Plots will end up confusing the viewer.

Character 26/30

My over all complaint with the characters is that they are not as static as they should be if they are to be held up to the standards of the way the plot worked. You may not understand this but you will find later that characters will show growth even though we are revisiting the past form of the character.

Another disappointment is the rapid changes in the Okabe's personality yet the stable progress mid way through. I can assume that the production have yet to firmly decide on a personality for him to take on in the beginning but has firmly confirmed that after. A good thing throughout though is that they have manage to keep the fundamental characteristics about his character consistent throughout the show making him a very lovable character to watch. Okabe's character returns to his original state near the end so its all good

The majority of the humor from this anime mainly comes from the differences between each character's personality and the way they interact. The most funny moments are when Okabe interacts with Kurisu as their characters are essentially polar opposite, but it is most heart wrenching when they manage to get along despite their differences. Lets just say the characters manage to pull off being extremely funny while playing an extremely dark plot.

Sound: 8/10

The sound is actually kind of disappointing compared to the rest of the anime. However it is still great. I guess if your so into the anime that you don't notice the sound then its isn't really a big deal. this actually isn't one of my strengths so I cant really talk much about it. However I will say that the third ending is my personal favorite song from the anime.

Art: 10/10

I'm going to start off by saying that this anime has found the perfect art style for each of its mini and main plots throughout while maintaining consistency throughout. Of the really dire situations the colors all seem to fit together and give you the hopeless feeling that the character is experiencing while the upbeat moments, the colors and visuals really express these feelings of happiness. The most memorable moments are probably when the mood is very depressing while the surrounding is suggesting a very happy mood which surprisingly doesn't conflict with the mood but strengthens the mood.

The character themselves are very nicely designed because you can easily identify them. even if you dont know their names you will know who they are. Each character has a unique color scheme and is strictly followed. even if they aren't wearing their default clothing, you will still be able to recognize them and that's a hint of good character design.

over all:
49/50
26/30
8/10
10/10
--------
93/100

roughly 9/10

If I can slap a 10 on this I would. The plot is just that good however the characters needed a bit of work to me and hence I cant give it a 10 (on a more personal level plot is 75% of the importance in an anime to me so we can pretend that this got a 10).

I will assume that the Visual Novel for this anime is better executed as that seems to be the case with most animes that are originally from another medium other than animation. However i haven't actually played the Visual Novel I am unable to say that for sure. If your ready to have your mind blown then I would highly recommend this anime. If not then I guess its better that you wait till your mind is ready to be blown before watching.

hi all this is my first review so be gentle with me

Let me just start by saying that this is one of the few sequels that manage to outshine the original although not many will agree with me. The reason is because there is the existence of clear thinking and planing involved with this anime that I did not find in the previous. majority of the viewers will commonly complain about the difference in artwork however you should watch this anime as a standalone from the original much like how similar Death Note and Code Geass is but you dont watch them as the same ... thing neither do you watch gunslinger girls and gunslinger girls II as the same thing. They do have the same cast however the original is more of a get to know our character kind of anime where as the second is less of get to know the characters and more of we're gonna throw them into a situation and see what happens kind of thing. The artwork will downgrade if your watching the first one then coming to watch the second however there will be more details later on. Let it be known that you do not need to watch gunslinger girls to understand what's happening although knowing the background is helpful.

First let me explain my rating system as it will be very different from the rating system that are often employed by others. it is out of a total of 100 points and plot and story is worth 50, character is worth 30, sound is worth 10 and art is also worth 10. The reason that plot and character are worth so much is because it is the defining difference between good stories and bad ones. anime, mangas, books, movies can only be successful if they have a successful story. The reason art and sound is worth so little is because it is possible to make a successful story without it and people have and they are often published as written books.

story: 45/50
The story is very good given that there are some parts were just mostly flashbacks they weren't completely worthless unlike some flashbacks found in other animes. The story revolves around the theme of revenge. As common a theme to center a plot around, this anime was successful in pulling off making a great anime centered around this theme. The story is the biggest factor that kept me watching as many times during my grind through the original, I find myself wanting to drop it since almost each episode is a story arc with minimal connection to the previous episode however Gunslinger Girls II is different as there is only 1 main story arc and will keep you watching waiting to find out what's next. I cannot really give much more without spoiling the anime so i'll just leave it at that. A good thing to do is watch the entire thing from start to finish without taking a break as it will be alot better that way.

character: 30/30
This is where this anime really shines. Every important character is given a chance to show their true nature and some of them even had their history and background showed. Unlike many anime of this length with such a huge cast, the creates really thought through who was important and who wasn't and decided to focus on the important characters instead of trying to focus on everyone. Though both approach works, i personally like the approach where the "main" characters are highly focused where the "supporting" characters are more or less ignored. However it is hard to feel this way about the characters without first seeing the original gunslinger girls.

Sound: 7/10
I really cant say much here. I'm not a music person. All I can say is if I like it or not and this time i'd say it feels right but not memorable.

Art: 6/10
This is actually an area that I am most knowledgeable with as I have produced animations in 2D and 3D before. The artwork is a real let down as the first episode has alot of still frames. Judging from looks, the producers started making the anime from somewhere farther back than from the first episode and probably ended on the first episode. I say this because when your nearing the ending of a project the work (at least in my experience) starts falling short of the mark. In doing this the over all feel of the artwork is greatly affected. However as you continue watching the anime, the artwork greatly improves and the fights are animated rather than still frames. My rule of thumb is if your watching and your not feeling like that your looking at a photograph then the animation passed. However on closer inspection there are many times where you truly are just looking at a still image being slid across the screen. This is where good sound engineering is able to make up for it. For the sake of comparison though, Gunslinger Girls II is much lower quality than the original Gunslinger Girls so if you watch anime because of the artwork then this is definitely not for you.

over all:
45/50
30/30
7/10
+6/10
--------
88/100

roughly 9/10

Overall I enjoyed Gunslinger Girls II better than the original Gunslinger Girls. You do not need to watch the original to understand what's happening here however it is very helpful to know the characters as there isn't a giant introduction to the characters in this anime.

Hopefully my review made sense as this is my first. Thank you for reading.