Story - 6/10
If you're here, you've probably heard this anime referred to as the "DanganRonpa with Yuri". As of finishing the series, I can assure you, that this was partially true. This, like DanganRonpa, had a lot of potential and a very interesting plot going in. This also shares DanganRonpa's somewhat bad traits by having everything culminate into next to nothing. However, in Dangan, it's next to nothing. Here, we get absolutely nothing. Nothing changes throughout the course of the series, and it leaves me with a very bland feeling that nothing was accomplished after 12 episodes.
Now, this would be minor spoilers, but the tags on MAL are wrong. If you are watching this purely for Yuri, you will be extremely disappointed. There is very little Yuri, if you could even call it that. Maybe if you have some pretty intense Yuri googles, you might enjoy this.
Art - 8/10
Let's be honest, the art is really good, and the animation is beautiful. I do recognize that it is 2014, but we still have shows like Kill La Kill that look terrible. Yes, I know that money is a factor, but it still doesn't excuse poor animation. Anyways, the animation in Akuma no Riddle is very fluid and looks amazing. Very few corners were cut here, and we don't have books covering peoples mouths so they didn't have to animate them talking...
Sound - 8/10
This is and Art are the only places Akuma no Riddle shines. This anime had some very enjoyable OST's that really fit the feel and mood of the show. But the thing that really stood out to me was that each ending of this show is unique, and each has a unique song. This is something that may have been done before, but I have never seen this before, and it shows that the creators at least put something into creating this show. I liked this most of all, but I'm not someone who's big on the OP/ED of shows. I much prefer the actual content, and a bad/good opening/ending doesn't really reflect the content within the show for me.
Characters - 4/10
The way the story develops the characters is in a really poor way. It goes the route of introducing them each individually. Then, it will give you the characters backstory. The problem with this is all the side characters shove out the mains and leave them with less development time. I'm not fan of this way of character development at all because now I feel like I know next to nothing about any of the characters, because the screen time was too evenly split. Therefore, it's more like things doing actions rather than an actual character you can grab on to.
Overall/Enjoyment - 4
Honestly, I was very disappointed by Akuma no Riddle. I thought it would be this new innovative anime that would really try to branch out and do its own thing and end up amazing. This was not the case as it reverted to the old tried and true methods that we've all seen before.
So, in conclusion, I would not recommend this anime to almost anyone, as it has my cliffhangers and boring design choices that left me yearning for what could have been, instead of what we got.
