Story: 7
I will readily admit the story is somewhat a boiler-plate one, with the focus being on a small group of fighters as they struggle to topple a corrupt government which is ruled over by a impressionable child who is manipulated by an adviser who uses the child to bend the empire to his own greedy will. Isn't that kind of the starting plot of the PSP's game Jeanne D'Arc? We've likely all seen this setup before, where a corrupt and power hungry regent or adviser manipulates a child or young ruler into doing their bidding to the point of becoming the power behind the throne. This is firmly where this series sits, story wise.
If you disregard the child emperor thing, you still have a band of scrappy rebels fighting to topple an evil empire. Where have I heard that story before? I think it was a long time ago, in a galaxy far away... but yeah, no big surprises really when it comes to the general gist and flow of the story. As I've said over and over, knowing the general layout doesn't always destroy the enjoyment one can derive from watching the story played out. Again, this anime falls into this category as well.
So let's get to the meat of the issue, the controversy surrounding this title and see if we can take in the broader strokes of what is going on. The first thing to note is this series is bloody. There are several deaths, lots of blood and it does not shy away from somewhat gruesome depictions of violence. Now I know there are many series far worse, but I'm a romance/idol/slice of life kind of guy, so perhaps it made a stronger impression on me than it might make on you. Now, one of the biggest complaints I've seen, and one that although I might disagree with, I can see where its coming from, is related to tone and comedic elements found throughout the series.
This is one series that can go from brutal battle and having a character die to making jokes within a minute or less. This sudden and rather hard swing from blood and death to jokes and pranks is why many claim the series has no tonal foundation, or a poor one at best. I mean no disrespect to anyone who holds such an opinion, but I honestly think this is the result of viewers assigning the show more value on the 'dark' and 'mature' scale than it deserves. Really, if you get down to it, there's not all that much difference between this series and a number of other battle shows, dare I say even shows like Fairy Tail, Naruto, and others. In those shows, there may be a lack of blood, and no one dies, but they are still all about huge fights and having characters blasted into next week. For example, Fairy Tail might show a situation where Erza gets her ass whooped so hard she can't stand, and have her come back and beat the ever loving shit out of the bad guy until he's just laying there twitching in his final appearance. Basically the 'kiddie' version of killing him. And immediately after we'll get jokes and antics happening all over the place. Hell Natsu and the others often crack the jokes and do the silliness *during* the fight, not just immediately after. As an aside, Fairy Tail did actually kill a character or two, yet still has a huge bull that makes 'moo' puns in nearly every sentence he speaks.
So by thinking that blood equals a higher level of darkness, maturity, or seriousness, one would be puzzled or put off by the antics. Akame ga Kill is a bloody version of a battle show. Come at it with that mindset, don't just credit it with being more than it is because characters die, and you'll see the tone is set the same as so many other action oriented comedies.
Another point that might be vaguely related is that we are indeed talking about characters whose next mission may well be their last one, if that is not the time for levity, between those missions, then when would it be? We are still talking about characters in a war. In the real world we often throughout history have seen soldiers carry on the mightiest pranks and jokes in between firefights and dangerous offensives. If you might die on any given mission, what better time is there to laugh than in your downtime? I've spoken to a number of WWII vets while I was in the nursing profession when I was a young man, and I heard lots of stories about pranks and jokes, along with stories of terror and bravery. I mean come on, WWII soldiers covered half of Europe with graffiti between gunfights (look up 'Kilroy was here'). Admittedly this stands quite weakly as a prop for an idea related to anime, but I offer it as a possible outlook the writers might have taken into consideration.
So when you come into this story, know it's not some dark, gritty, mature thing. They will throw humor at you, and at times when you might not be expecting it, if you are viewing in a serious mindset. And I do admit, the first little bit of the show, they seem to be going for that, but it is basically a fake-out, and they quickly settle into the groove of fights, jokes, set ups, fights, jokes, rinse repeat.
There are some poignant moments when certain characters die, and some truly intense battle scenes to be had. I will also offer a criticism on some of the logic of the show, particularly how the main character, and minor spoiler here, has a sword but when he activates his 'power', he suddenly is wielding a spear, with the sword nowhere in sight. That kind of bugged me. Another logic leap for me that was troublesome was the fact there is a character who controls an elemental force. Her power is awesome, to the point she can mow down what appears to be entire armies with her power, only to have it fail to be completely devastating anytime the plot called for it. Her power level seems to fluctuate a great deal whenever she's fighting a named character versus fighting 'extras'.
So the order of operation is gritty but not mature, bloody but funny (at least attempts at it) and badass fights because this is a show about badass fights and not much else. Still, within that frame work, the story isn't all that impressive, but doesn't fall all that flat either.
Art: 8
I thought the series looked pretty good. I liked the battles and I didn't notice too much wackiness in the animation itself. The fights were exciting, and the characters were distinct in their appearances. The actual, physical darkness of the art gives off a false air of 'dark' to the story, so perhaps there's some blame to be placed at the artists' feet as well as the writers.
Sound: 8
The weapons sounded cool, made the appropriate clanks and clangs, the VA artists were all pretty well done. I'm a fan of Chris Patton, but he, at times, sounds almost bored in his role in this series. Of course his character isn't all that great, so maybe he wasn't feeling it. Usually he delights me, but this time I was a little let down.
I really liked Akame's voice, and the evil General Esdeath as well. Some of the younger, less important characters, primarily the girls, some close to sounding like they are trying too hard at times, but that's not very often, and its not something that really leaps out, just a little bit of overacting here and there. Just a little.
The music is an easy call, it's likely almost harder to mess up music choice for a series with so many battle scenes than it is to get them right. Anything dramatic or edgy sounding works, and the background tracks here all rolled pretty well, no complaints from me. The themes are fitting, the two openers are rock-ish enough to pump the viewer up for the action to come, the closers are slow and sad, as the credits usually focus on a character that has died or is in dire straits. I liked the second opener enough that it makes my 'anime music' list of songs I listen to outside watching the show itself.
Character: 7
This show is like Game of Thrones or Shakespeare in one point, there are a number of cast members, and most of them meet their demise in the show's runtime. So we get a lot of different faces that flash by only to be destroyed by their foe quickly. This happens to both the 'good' guys and the 'bad' guys. Therefore a lot of characters are lacking in development simply because they do not exist on the show long enough to be given any real backstory or exploration. It's like 'hey that character looks neat...no wait, they're dead, damn'.
In fact only a few of the characters are given any real substance, and even then it's a little on the slim side, there's no denying that. But that again falls in line with the typical battle type show, often its more about the fights than about why they are fighting in the first place. The show also does a little bit of stereotypical 'twists' with their characters, such as having a very intimidating character turn out to be a big old softy and having a person that is supposed to be cold and emotionless turn out to care deeply for their cause. So standard fare there too.
They do give some characters enough hooks to make the show interesting to watch, and keeps the characters above the board. The weapons the characters wield in their time onscreen also is interesting. I mentioned my problem with the main character's setup, but there's some other neat weapons at play, such as a recorder (flute-type instrument) that is employed and one character literally carries a huge set of scissors into battle. I also found the character with the dog to be interesting not only weapon-wise, but in her mentality of what she thought she was doing. Basically the characters are on the thin side, save for the few that survive until the end. Not totally unforgivable, considering some of them are killed off early. I've seen shows *cough*FairyTail*cough* that have the same or less development in characters over the course of a *hundred* episodes as what is given some of the characters in this series that only last six or seven shows.
Enjoyment: 8
I wasn't aware of any of the controversy when I started watching this series. I hadn't even skimmed the review page until I finished. I saw several wallpapers of Akame, and since she looked bitchy as hell and had a badass sword (my nearly perfect woman!) I just had to check it out. Once I saw that they were going to go with a more campy approach with extra blood on the side instead of dark and gritty and mature as the initial appearance suggested, I just shrugged and rolled with it. I'm glad I did. The experience did not seem to spark in me the boiling rage it did in apparently many people.
Best Girl: I know I just said Akame was nearly perfect, but she loses out to Esdeath. I'm sorry Esdeath is meaner, and throw in the evil too and damned if that aint one awesome chick. You don't have to tell me I'm weird, I already know guys!
I really did like this series a lot. With it adding death to the mix of beat em up type things out there to watch, it seemed to add a little something to me. I've not watched many battle type shows, but I've seen enough to know the tired sequence of fight, lose, power up, fight, win, repeat is rampant in these anime. Having a character permanently removed added just a bit of tension to the proceedings for me to enjoy myself. I know (and appreciate!) that some of you have expressed that you enjoy my reviews, and this is probably the one that kills all admiration for me, but I have to call it as I see it. And from my seat, a 24-episode series that is a slight bit thin is acceptable, especially when there are 300+ episode series that can be just as flimsy.
Give it a go, just do so knowing that you're going to get the comedy bits and antics same as most other shows like this. Don't let the blood and death fool you into thinking this is something grander than what it is, a basic beat em up. As for the RTLR wall, Esdeath clearly gets an entry. I give it one massive pair of scissors and two thumbs up.
