You are told a story in an original way (I mean, what can be better than having puppets as narrators) about the current state of the city in Akudama Drive and how a war turned it into what they show. Kansai and Kanto are the main cities here. Kanto is the one that won the war, and Kansai is where the story takes place. Kansai responds to Kanto and obeys it, and the difference between both of them is the level of life. For what they say, Kanto is a marvelous city where things are perfect and is clearly superior, while Kansai is the dependant city where regular people coexists with the criminals, better known as Akudamas, who are increasing in number. The dependance of Kansai to Kanto is well managed, showing off how everything is ordered by Kanto and how even the big associations responds to them. The regular people of Kansai live controled by technology, frightened of the violence that surrounds them and resigned to the life they got to take because of the war’s resaults, and they are persistenly brainwashed by the puppets that are presented in big screens all over the city, and that perform like a childlish sketch to make them (and us) understand in a few words why they have the lives they have and why you don’t mess with Kanto, making them see that city as their dreamland, even teaching them to praise the train that comunicates both places as a god itself, as a ticket to their wonderland. That was a nice detail. Although, of course, Kansai is not easy to handle, and since they live between regulars and criminals, and since the city is progressively more troubled because of the delincuency, people hate Akudamas, and when the things get crazy, so do the people and they get plunged into turmoil and starts a rebelion. In consequence, later on, as a vulgar display of power, the Akudama’s Executioners, who are the law in the city, decrete every rebel or disturber is an Akudama, which couldn’t be more accurate to our reality and, possibly, the future itself. So, Akudama Drive, more than a story about edgy criminals, embraces a concept that is wider: the rebelion of the marginates and the underdogs.
The story has a clear beginning, development and end. Even though at first the story is a little bit confusing since you don’t completely understand what’s going on, but then it grews in a master plan that only the highest Akudama-rank criminals could make, and it’s still intriguing as no one explains why nor who is commanding that extremely dangerous mission. However, once it gets on the road, you get involved and it gets really interesting as the mission advances.
All Akudamas are reunited by a message that offers them a great reward if they get to save Cutthroat, another Akudama-rank criminal, in the place of the execution itself. Because yes, that’s how the law prevents people from becoming a criminal, showing off the executions online, like some sort of deep web site, as a way of saying “that’s what awaits for you if you missbehave”. Anyway, people enjoys it as though they were watching a football game. When they get there, the main character appears there too because she’s chasing a cat in order to protect that damn animal, risking her life just for that. After that, the party begins and when they archieve the goal they’re paid and forced to complete another mission, that consists in retrieving a capsule that is going to be sent to Kanto by the Shinkansen (the beloved train I mentioned before). After a lot of trouble, blood, laughs and fights, they get to the capsule and when they open it they realize that their actual goal was to save two kids inside it. Of course, the main character becomes the big mamma and kinda adopts them. She couldn’t let a cat alone, why would she let two children by their own? However, as these kids are pretty important to Kanto city, the real explotion begins. The story is original, indeed, but it didn’t blow my mind.
I just wanna make a pause right here to say that every episode is named after a famous movie, and that’s GREAT. The first one is called Se7en, referencing to the movie about the seven deadly sins, and the Akudama gang is conformed for seven members lmAO. Another good detail.
My only BIG problem with Akudama relies on the characters. Something I appreciate in a show, regardless of the story, is the character development. I don’t need an evangelism, but at at least give me SOMETHING I can get attached to: a past, a reason. That’s where it has terrible lacks. Let’s start by the fact that they don’t even have a name. Not one of them. They are Cutthroat, Courier, Swindler, Doctor, and so on. Even the rest of the characters that don’t even form part of the main gang, they all are “executioner”, “Onii-san”. I’m not gonna lie, that really surprised me and it seemed an original concept to me, but as it progresses, you realize that that only marks a line of distance between the viewer and those characters. You don’t have a name, don’t have a background, don’t have the less idea about what they are doing there nor why. When one of them dies, it doesn’t matter if it’s a main or a secondary, you don’t feel moved at all, because you don’t connect with them since they are total strangers. Of course, they’re likeable though, I really had fun with Brawler, specially. He’s a personage that is the stereotype of a brainless strong fighter, but I emphatized with him even though he is shabby and plain. The rest of the group is similar, flat, edgy and generic (And as I always state, “generic” is not a bad perception to me, as long as I can connect with them or actually like them, or as long as they have a background or growing. This is not the case). Cutthroat is the typical sanguinary guy whose only ability is to kill, he doesn’t even know how to speak as a normal person. Doctor is really similar to him, just an egocentric and violent milf, whose only purpose is to accomplish a bunch of fetishes: doctor clothes, lencery, glasses, oppai and milf. Courier is a cold super-edgy guy that only cares about his job. Hacker, even though he is the most useful out of them, is just that, a nerdy hacker that doesn’t care for anything else. He is just a person who needs a huge challenge to make his life worth. And Hoodlum is the one I kinda connected. He’s the weakest of them all and is a weepy and fearful guy. At the beginning he is unbearable since all he does is to scream and hide, and is easily manipulable, but as it advances, I realize that he’s the only one realistic in that group and he even has a little development. Also, I really had fun with his relationship with Brawler, and actually felt them as bros. Is not a great character, but is the one that I can save in this mediocrity of personages.
Going on with this, the main character is the one I disliked the most. Swindler is the only one of the group that is not actually a criminal, she’s there just because she got caught up in that mess, and pretends to be an Akudama-rank criminal to survive, choosing the name of Swindler. I dare to say she is the most boring main character of the season. She is the stereotype of the good girl, and all you can say about her is that she is SO GOOD, and that’s really all you can say. She doesn’t have another atribute. You, unlike me, can really love her and empathize with her if you feel so, but one undeniable thing is that she’s a good unmarkable person and nothing else. She is kind to everyone, she’s caring, she meddles in the gang’s plans since she doesn’t want anybody to get killed or hurted, and that’s a pain in the ass to me. As I’m not going to get any character development or depth, I enjoyed Akudama Drive because of the action and the art, and if there’s a gang of bad guys, it’s annoying that this girl intervenes every time the sauce begins just because she doesn’t want people to die. I thought that the fact of her being the only Akudama that is a regular person was going to mean that she would be the only one with a backstory or something like that, or that she would be the bare representation of how hard it is to be a Kansai citizen, but I ended up with my hands empty. Although, she has some growing during the series, even though is really predictable, is, at least, something that actually made me like her better.
The only characters that got a background are the sibilings that appear later in the series, and they’re children. Is easy to feel pity for them, but still, none of them has a feature that will get to you; they’re like both robots (pretty close though, lol). And the worst character, beyond my tastes, is the real villain, the traitor of the Akudama group. Since the beginning this character doesn’t have no depth at all, no background, no anything, as the rest of the gang, but when the betrayal is devealed and this person starts to be an antagonist, is an awful one. This personage’s reason to become a traitor and a despicable human being, is that wants to be released of the “Akudama” name to adquire the title of a regular person, in order to kill freely without the consequences, and you know why? Just because this person desires to control life itself, enjoying the assassination because of the exciting feeling of killing people, deciding how long they live and how and when they die, like some sort of god complex. And that’s IT. That’s the only info they give you about the new enemy, and don’t expect another development or redention, because you won’t have any. Is an objectiveless antagonist with no personality as such. My only thought was “k, when are you going to die? Shut up”
Then, I didn’t want, but I have to. I have to talk about the Akudama’s Executioner association. My god, what a SHAMEFUL affiliation. This consist in, as its name indicates, a huge group that dedicates to exterminate the Akudamas. But they fail loudly, all the time. They function as the main enemies of the Akudama gang, of course, but they don’t accomplish anything. I had the impression that they were there just to make the main gang look cooler, since all they do is to loose battles against them and to say stupid things like “I will kill every Akudama!!!” when they can’t even harm them. Just one of them is kinda respectable, the first one, but also he ends up ashamed. His kouhai, a beginner, is even worse. Is the typical useless female character who is just a burden for her superior, and she is specially arrogant, constantly defying the gang as if she could fight with one of them without fainting in the process. Disgusting. They alll are pitiful and their boss is EVEN WORSE, a woman who obeys the highest commands and whose only line is “Why did it have to happen when I’m the boss?” or “I will kill every Akudama!!!”.
After ranting the characters, I continue. The animation surprised me entirely. I hate Studios Pierrot, so I was rather relunctant to watch this when I saw it was a work from that studio. Nevertheless, is surprised me in a good way. It was decent, fights seemed nice for me to watch, I positively enjoyed them. The art is very striking, with its nuances and bright presentation. Considering this is a Sci-Fi, they are at the correct standars, because is really futuristic and the edgy characters’ design is adequate too. To me, specially coming from the hideous Pierrot, it is memorable. The sound is pretty good too. Music gets you hyped and the seiyuus do a great job, specially with the first Executioner and Cutthroat, who was actually spooky.
In conclusion, Akudama Drive is a show that I don’t regret watched, actually, I enjoyed it a lot and it wasn’t boring to me in no moment, even though its big flaws. Even if I disliked the characters, that didn't restrain me from having a good time with it. If you’re looking for a sci-fi anime, audiovisually good, that is full of action and a lot of violence with interesting fights and revolution, this is definitely for you, and please enjoy. If you’re looking for an awesome writting or top-tier in depth-developed characters you can love and care, or personages that can blow your mind, this is not for you.
