Story - 6/10
The story was okay, given that Akuma no Riddle is classified as action, yuri and school. The progression and pacing is pretty good, despite some of the assassin characters having significantly less of a role to play in the story than others. Given that it's an action anime, I wasn't expecting too much exposition, but there's actually a decent amount between and sometimes intertwined with the action sequences. Why did I give a 6/10? Some of the story direction is pretty poor; mainly the ending, which I think would have been better left to the viewer's imagination, rather than the fairly cheap ending that Akuma no Riddle has.
Art - 9/10
One of the areas that Akuma no Riddle does really well, in my opinion. Not quite perfect, because of the occasional use of shark teeth, which I found a bit jarring, in relation to the generally serious and relatively dark feel of the anime. The colour palette works well for both light and dark scenes, but definitely seems geared toward darkness, which I thought complimented the generally tense atmosphere that a lot of the scenes are tinged with. The character designs are also really good, with a good level of detail being apportioned to each main character. The detailing also extended to the weapons (accurate depictions of modern firearms for example) and equipment that get used by the characters, which is always good to see. It's also worth noting that the interval artboards were a nice feature and were always interesting to read/ look at.
Sound - 10/10
The area that Akuma no Riddle excels in. In contention for one of my all-time favourite comprehensive anime sound sets. Each episode starts with Sousho Innocence, which (although I'm not a big fan of rock music) sets up each episode as being tinged with tension and danger. On a separate note, the track itself is (probably unsurprising from Maaya Uchida) really good, in terms of vocal performance and backing track composition.
The score/ scene BGM was not far behind, doing a great job at reinforcing the tension and danger associated with each action sequence and goes hand in hand with the art style. Oddly enough, there were a few tracks that also stood out and particularly caught my attention, which is never a bad thing, in terms of immersion or a metric of engagement. It's also worth noting that not many musical pieces get reused, which is good news for those who crave sound variety.
Each episode has its own ending theme, which was a bit hit-and-miss (personal preference really, as they use a variety of genres), but understandable, as they're each attributed to a character if I'm not mistaken. It's worth noting that some of these themes perfectly reflect the score in its creating an atmosphere of tension. In addition, all of the ending themes include vocal performances by the character VAs, which is always great to see, especially given how high quality they are as pieces of music, period :)
Character - 7/10
Somewhat unsurprising I guess, but each character is most definitely distinct and unique. Each having both a clearly-distinguishable appearance, but also signature weapon/ tool of the trade. VA performances weren't especially spectacular for the most part, but they do naturally fit the characters and are pretty good nonetheless. The combination of unique appearances, outfits and behaviour patterns (as well as the character themes) make for a pretty memorable character set, which is always a good thing. For an action-themed anime with so many different characters, I think they managed to fit in a good amount of character development (though more could probably have been done, I felt, with reference to time/ content being wasted on the ending). I think they could maybe have a bit more yuri involvement between the characters as well, though I will admit, there is a decent amount, given the context in which the characters interact with each other.
Enjoyment - 8/10
I came into Akuma no Riddle expecting it to be a run-of-the-mill action anime with little story content and not much underpinning motive to the action, but those preconceptions were destroyed fairly quickly. The anime progresses more like a thriller than anything, with most scenes being charged with tension, which kept me fully engaged at all times. Slower-paced scenes were interesting to watch, in that they helped explain out the background and gave context to the actions and events of the anime. Combat sequences were pretty good, thanks to the variety of weapons/ tools that are used throughout. The extensive use of handguns with only one hand was a bit weird though, along with the firing position of an SMG that appears at one point.
Overall - 7/10
Some areas were outstanding and others were just okay/ meh. In the end, I did really enjoy most aspects of the anime, but couldn't escape noticing some flaws with the anime, so 7/10 is a fair rating in my opinion :)
