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.
