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.
